View From the Top

(Originally written 22 Jan 2003 from Porring Hot Springs, re-written from memory 24 Jan 2003 from Sepilok)

On Friday, Dan (A Canadian I am forever running into) and I traveled to Kinabalu Park for 2 nights at Park HQ. The hostel there is at 1800 meters. Not spectacularly high but considering the whole trip so far has been spent near sea level, I thought a little extra time there would be useful.

Neither of us did much those two days. I took a few photos of the mountain in those rare moments when the fog lifted. Sunday afternoon, 4 new people arrived to share our room at the hostel. We decided to tackle the mountain together,

The climb from base camp to the top of Kinabablu is normally done over 2 days. On Monday, we left just before 8:00am to tackle the first 6 Kilometers of trail and 1400 meters of elevation. The weather was good so we didn't need to stay together. I arrived at Laban Rata 4 hours later, tired and eager for something more substantial than the peanuts I ate on the way up. Dan was about 30 minutes ahead of me. The remainder of our group wouldn't arrive until an hour later. That afternoon I took a few photos of the cloud tops. Dinner was an expensive buffet served early. Tomorrow's start was going to be ridiculous. We all took advantage of the wondrous hot showers and were out well before 8:00pm. (In Southeast Asia, *any* hot shower is a rare treat. A full pressure hot shower like Laban Rata is a joyous thing)

All 4 of us at the heated hostel rolled out of bed at 2:00am. We woofed down our expensive buffet breakfast. At 3:00am, we met up with our guide and the remaining two limbers who had spent the night at an unheated hut and started up.

We had 3 kilometers of mostly barren rock and 800 meters of elevation to cover. The weather was good, and the moon nearly full. Almost unnecessary flashlights in started up.

Dan and I took the lead. We passed many groups on the way up, most of which had left the rest house at 2:30am. About 5:00am, we passed a pair of Asians who were resting. A short while, we noticed something strange: silence. We could no longer hear the chatter of other groups. There did not appear to be any torchlight ahead either.

A 5:18, we approached a pile of rubble and a sign. I illuminated the sign with my flashlight: "Low's Peak 4095 meters". We were there. We were alone. It was cold and the sun wouldn't rise for another 40 minutes, at least. All those layers that were taken off on the way up went back on. We crouched in whatever protected crevices we could find to protect us from the wind and awaited the start of day.

The other groups slowly made their way to the summit. Two others from our group reached the top at 5:45. The last two wouldn't see the peak until almost 7:00am. By the time the sun peaked up from beneath the clouds, a substantial crowd has assembled on that small pile of rubble. After a seemingly endless series of poses at the sign, people started to descend.

Finally, we too went down. It wasn't physically demanding by my toes were not enjoying the punishment. We paused at the rest house to gather the remainder of our stuff from t he room and check out. At about 10:30, we left for the decent to base camp. This was the most physically stressful part. A couple in our group had knee problems. I ended up with one merely sore and one blacked toe.

After reaching park HQ, Dan and I shared a taxi with a couple of others to Poring Hot Springs for a little R&R.

I did little the first day, not even the tubs. The second day I took full advantage of the hot sulfur water, elaborate old pools and the small water slide. Unfortunately, while climbing out of one of the pools, I managed to whack the injured toe. The blister burst one corner of the nail was exposed. Concerned about infection, I staid out of the water after that