Conquering Low's Peak

Music: Watcha Say by Jason Derulo

Night shift.

I just got back from my Mt. Kinabalu climbing trip 2 days ago. My legs are sore like crazy omg, from the thighs all the way to the toes. I'm very much in the mood for some story telling right now, so I foresee a very long entry ahead. Have fun reading.

Getting the people and booking the dates
It all started late last year when I decided to organize the trip. Then I started asking a few people who might be interested. I was targeting between 6-10ppl, and lucky for me, the first few people that I asked thought about it for a few days and agreed. So it was me Jane Dy Zeti Baity Keef Ina Mydin. Then came the task of booking the climb date. I didn't expect it to be so difficult. First of all, getting a date yg semua org free is not that easy. When that is settled after much discussion (chatting semasa kerja mostly haha), turns out all the dates we decided upon was fully booked... March.. April.. May... Factoring the world cup in, mmg 4 weeks tu are blackout dates.. I didn't really care to miss any match of wc2010 myself but of course some others do, so we decided on dates in July.. and must be before puasa in Aug.. and bila nak book, Sutera Sanctuary Lodge (SSL), the company that monopolizes the business, said can't book that far in advance.. Feb baru boleh book for July onwards.. adoiii.. so waited for a month, called ssl on 2nd Feb and the dates that we decided were full! what the? so nak tak nak, we had to settle for a weekday climb.. weekend all fully booked...

Haggling for cheaper rates
I've heard of climbing rates going up to 700 bucks per person for the whole package, but according to J we can get cheaper rates.. when I booked the climb I didnt ask what was the price.. (ntah kenapa.. patutnya itu yg penting skali right lol).. so I had to call again and ssl quoted us rm800 per person.. what the hell right.. so expensive.. turns out it was mahal because of the lodging at Kinabalu Park the night before the climb. ssl said there are only 3d2n packages available, when we only wanted a 2d1n package, so J took over from there.. arguing with ssl managers, telling them we can't be forced to take a 3d2n package bla bla bla.. last2 dapat jugak the 2d1n package so last2 it cost us rm327/person which was really cheap, but it wasnt easy lah. J had to fax in a letter stating the reasons and all.. apparently, the way ssl does business is that... they fill in the 3d2n slots  for all the dates first.. and then bila quota for that package dah full, baru dia open the 2d1n packages pulak.. slick..

Fitness training and preparation
We didn't really have a set of scheduled fitness activities prior to the climb.. but we did climb batu caves once and Broga once.. hahaha, that's it la as a group. Individually, I did give or take 5 times run/walk at kiara hill and kiara park, 1 run around PJ, the usual rpm and step classes, and monday night futsals, and also the 10km std chartered kl run. Seriously sikit je. Nothing serious. I didn't like climbing bt caves.. aku naik turun 3 kali... coz the steps were small and it strained my legs in a weird way. Broga is a good training ground, but its too far lah.. i think i should've done more and been more serious about training.. i took it pretty lightly actually.

Accomodation and transport
Right after the booking with ssl is settled, we bought flight tickets terus, and got really a really good price using MAS' get the deal offer.. dalam rm230 return kl-kk... lebih kurang je with airasia but better coz its mas. Since we're not staying at kinabalu park, M booked us a TM resort bungalow at Kundasang which is 20 minutes away from the park, cost rm88/night... it was a nice and comfortable place for the price so i was quite satisfied. Arranged for van and driver to drive us from kk-kundasang and kinabalu park back to kk. Renting a car was an option but thinking of how tired we were gonna be, we didnt want to be the ones driving after the climb. Plus it was cheaper to hire a driver, cost rm80/person total.

First ascend (Timpohon to Laban Rata)
On the morning of thursday 15 july, we checked in at kinabalu park, we pre-registered at the ssl office in kk the day before so it was less of a hassle on the day of the climb. After getting our guides/porters and permits and what not, we were ready to climb (reallly???!!) I was a bit cuak actually sbb takut aku tak larat/tak sampai/no will power/too tired/worried about bad weather. Because masa tu tak cukup guides and porters, our guides were also our porters lol. Ginsos and Gambat. oh btw a certain Dr.K joined our trip last minute so there were 9 of us. We started climbing at 9.25am, which was late coz I thought we would start climbing around 8.30am to 9am. But oh well. The first ascend was a 6km hike from timpohon entrance to laban rata. I climbed the first 4km pretty much alone, as we went on our own pace.. well, if I had a husband/partner like B has K, I has M and D has Dr.K, we would probably be hiking together lah kan, looking at the trend of the 3 couples in the group heheheh. So I dont know about others, I timed my climb:

0km-2km: 9.25am-10.20am (55 minutes) ..alone mostly, first part with the group, last part with Zeti
2km-4km: 10.25am-11.25am (1 hr).. alone all the way
4km-5km:  11.45am-12.45pm (1 hr).. met J at the 4km rest area and hiked together from then onwards
5km-6km: 12.45pm-1.45pm (1 hr).. J reached laban rata 7 minutes earlier though

Total first ascend time including rest time: 4 hrs 20 minutes

Along the hike we saw porters carrying crazy amount of loads on their backs. One guy I met was carrying 58kg of load.. And I thought 30kg was crazy enough.. I only carried around 3.5kg on my back and it felt like a burden.

Laban Rata/Gunting Lagadan
Upon reaching laban rata, we checked in, siap dapat towel lagi... didnt expect that.. I also did not expect to find out that the gen set was down so there will be no electricity and water heater to mandi.. ehhhhh???!! terima je la... sejuk okkk... so anyway, we initally wanted to check in terus masuk dorm and mandi siap2 but our guides/porters were with the others so all our baju etc takde so how to mandi la? So me and J hung out at laban rata until the rest of the group came.  so we waited lah. Zeti came first, she had tea bags and biscuit jacobs with her so kitorang pun makan lah biskut cicah teh panas tawar (coz we didnt have sugar).. itu pun sedap gila.. tgh2 penat and lapar right... we could've ordered from the cafe but i wouldnt want to pay rm12 for a cup of tea or coffee. Our dorm was at gunting lagadan so we had to climb a further 200meters up... to quote K "ingat dah settle dahhhhhhh!!" hahahahahh.. luckily there were gas stoves and kettles so we boiled water, mix with cold water and dapat lah mandi air panas/suam.. after dah wangi, went back down to laban rata for dinner at 6pm+, the buffet was realllllyy good, either that or we were hungry wolves. I ate banyak gila, we hung out and took some pics, and since there was no electricity, we ate in the dark, bawak la jugak torch light right. Went back up to our dorm (sakit kaki dah weyy), and slept around 8.30am. Actually, around 8pm suddenly there was electricity so we didn't have to grope in the dark with torchlights anymore. but still, no central heating.

Second ascend (Laban Rata to Low's Peak)
Woke up at 1.30am on Friday morning to a very noisy group of ppl, by the time we got ready and went back to laban rata to eat our early breakfast, it was 2.25am (Gambat geleng2 kepala je coz he wanted us to bertolak to the summit at 2.30am). Temperature at laban rata upon leaving was at 9 degrees celcius. We ate really quickly and started our second ascend at 2.45am. The second ascend was 2.7km hike. A mix of stairs, rocks, holding on to ropes at steep areas and walking uphill. We were separated into 2 groups in the end so Ginsos was with mine. We reached the area lapang just at the foot of Low's Peak around 5.30am and then solat jap. By then there were so many people climbing up Low's Peak and also climbing down, so i opted to wait until it cleared abit and just sat at a strategic spot for about 20 minutes and enjoyed the sunrise. Then I started climbing the final 200meters around 5.50am and reached the peak at 6.20am, with Ginsos guiding me all the way, telling me where to step and which path to take and all. Still there were many climbers coming down so it was a bit of a traffic lah. By the time everybody in our group was at the peak, it was almost 7am, so we cam whored like crazy up there, and we were the last group to descend hahaha. lambat gak lah. i didnt take that many pictures sbb malas and just tumpang camera org lain, i also don't have a solo pic at the peak signboard.. something amazing also happened at the peak during the descend but its not my story to tell here hehehehhhh

Total second ascend time including rest time: 3 hrs 35 minutes

First descend (Low's Peak to Gunting Lagadan)
Actually, during the final 200meter climb, my left knee was starting to hurt like crazy. No it wasnt cramps or the normal sakit kaki hiking (as I felt on my right knee). So I knew it was something different, probably a ligamen tear or sth. So during the descend, the pain became more and more acute and it was so painful that I had to control my leg movements and bending, and had to walk reallly slowly. J was already jauh kat depan, the others were still at the back, I decided to start early coz I knew I was gonna be slow. Ginsos was kind enough to stay with me all the way. At places where it was quite steep, he held my hand the whole way. If he wasnt, he would be walking about 10-20 meters in front of me and look back to check on me every 30 seconds or so. So nice lahhh our guide!! I owe him so much for all his help. There was this one very steep place that I was shocked to find out I actually climbed it earlier, only doable in the dark. If it was daylight, I wouldn't have done it man. Freakin scary cuak punya curam. After reaching our dorm at 9.15am, we packed our bags and headed to Laban Rata to eat breakfast.

Total first descend time: 2 hrs 15 minutes

Second desecnd (Laban Rata to Timpohon)
This time round I had to use 2 sticks to help me climb down, thanks to K and M who donated theirs to me, I didnt use a walking stick during my ascend. It was one of the most hardest things I had to experience in my life. Dr.K diagnosed my knee earlier, so I took extra care of my left knee, which was painful anyway, so my descend was super slow. We started at 11am. Ginsos and Gambat stayed behind me the whole way. But they usually let me get a head start and later on they will catch up with me. Many porters along going up/down along the way offered to carry me down, but I declined all sbb cam segan gila kot nak suruh org angkat aku ahhaha. Despite the pain, everyone that I passed or along the way was very pleasant and good natured and polite so I didn't feel too bad. I just felt bad that my group had to wait for me for quite a long time at Timpohon and missed the lunch provided. After taking the bus from timpohon gate to kinabalu park headquarters, it started to rain very heavily. Thank god it only rained after I reached timpohon. We were also lucky coz it didnt rain at all during our whole climb. Ada la about 10 minutes around midnight before that but it was like nothing. Ginsos shook hands with me after my arduous climb down. We got our colored certs, gave our lunch coupons away to our guides to convert it to dinner so that they can make use of it. We had other plans for dinner.

Total second descend time: 6 hrs (so longggg omg, I expected to do it in 3-4hrs if I wasn't injured)

Kota Kinabalu
The drive from Kinabalu Park to kk took 2 hrs, most of us slept the whole way. After checking in at Promenade, we simply left our bags at the lobby for the bell boy to bring it to our rooms, and headed to Kampung Air dengan busuk/tak mandi for some seafood. It was a victory dinner sort of la kot? hahaha.. we ate ketam, siput, ikan, ayam, sayur etc. Total damage = rm480. But it was worth it. Balik promenade je, terus mandi wangi2, urut2 kaki jap and went to sleep. Next day we ate breakfast at some mamak and held a mini certificate presentation ceremony heheheheh. macam poyo gila la kan but whatever. My left knee was not as painful anymore. Shopping sikit2 and took our flight back home at 3.30pm.

Conclusion
I still feel surreal that I've climbed until the summit of Mt. Kinabalu.. my brain has yet to register that I actually did it... I remember having very little energy left especially during the 2am climb to the summit. I had difficulty breathing at about 7.5km-8km part, due to thin air. After that it became much better as my body adapted to the conditions. I think almost anybody can climb Mt. K.. even with no training, tapi of course suffer sikit lah..
Now that I'm back here in the office, it still feels like it was all a dream, the only reality is that my legs are sore all over, my mom said I walk like org yg baru lepas pantang. haha. no way man. whatever. My knee feels all ok now, im walking almost normally, but I think I'll go to the doctor for a checkup just to be sure. Makin tua ni makin paranoid jadinya. The trip was all the more fun because of the company. It was such a laid back group of people, even during testy times, and everyone was super tired and in pain<--which usually leads to crankiness, everyone was anything but that. Spirits stayed high, we weren't too excited or noisy, but we were fun and always joking around. Everyone was helpful and always reminding each other of this and that.. mmg pleasant lahh trip nih despite the nature of our activity!! a very determined bunch we were. To be at the peak was an amazing feeling. To be there with a great group of friends made it all the more special and sweet. My cousins and sister are already asking if I want to climb again sbb they want to follow jugak the next time round... hahahahhahaha... really?!! again??? i don't think so...

Will follow up with pictures soon if/when im rajin.