All systems are go . . . dammit (Mount Kinabalu Part VI)

We got up at 1:30am the next day, we had planned to leave early despite the fact that we now knew that early to rise did not necessarily mean early to bed. Our climb up to Laban Rata started of early enough but due to our slow pace everyone, and I mean everyone must have overtaken us. Korean kids, Malaysians, American hard core climbers and even the British couple who were our room mates in the hostel back in Kota Kinabalu overtook us despite being dressed as if they were taking a walk in Hyde Park. I think this proved that Mount Kinabalu was not really as hard to climb as I make it out to be, it was just a testament to the sad physical state our group was in. What we lacked in physical stamina though, we made up for in sheer guts and a blind ambition to get to the top but even that may not have been enough.

After waiting for our guide in the main resthouse we started the trek up to the peak. Almost instantly, the aches and doubts that we thought had been taken care of by the cup noodles crept back. What made it worse was our climb would now take place in the black of the night. Although we had no idea how far Laban Rata was during our previous trek to that stop, we could at least see right in front of us and down the trail and kind of mark our a target to reach as we started tiring. You couldn’t do that in the pitch dark, even with our head torches going full blast. What’s worse is that you could see the trail of lights heading off into the distance but you had no real depth perception and couldn’t make out how far those lights were.

At one point I looked up again to see were the trail of lights was going and I couldn’t believe it. The lights were heading up a steep diagonal incline, a very steep incline. We got to a clearing, the beginning of the steep incline and saw the reason. From here on in we would be holding on to a safety rope to guide us across what would be the granite rock face of the top part of Mount Kinabalu. The trees and vegetation fell away and we had to scramble up a rock face, initially close to 35-45% degree up with nothing more than our grip to keep us on the safety rope. As one climbed, one could look to their right, down the rockface and see nothing but black. Once past the steep incline, the rest of the terrain was more gradual but the ever present safety rope there reminded us that one could still get seriously hurt if they were dumb enough.

We passed through a ranger station where they checked the IDs we were issued at the bottom. Without these IDs we would not be allowed past the station to get to the peak beyond. It was still pitch dark and one of our group members was having a real hard time. When asked if she could make it the answers started getting gradually worse. It started with “Yes, I can still go on” to “I’m having a hard time” and finally “I don’t know”. At some point we got the rest of the group together to discuss our options. Getting to the peak was after all just the half way mark, we still had to get everyone back down. And so with a heavy heart the group member decided to go down. I nearly jumped at the idea joining her just to make sure she got back down safely, you know, but the ever gracious boyfriend beat me to it. I turned to Suiee to ask, if he was going on and he said he would. I turned to him and said “The peak is for you” and with that I was going to join the other two on the way down. Note, saying those words and realizing what I had just done took a split second of the brain power I still had. I knew I would never hear the end of it if he made it to the top and I didn’t, as it was the damage had already been done with what now seemed weak sissy words of defeat and regretted it almost immediately. I turned around and said “I’m going with you” but in the back of my mind I couldn’t help but thing that William Shatner was right, would all of this end in tragedy?

And so we saw Chot and Ivy off and waited for them to disappear into the darkness below us. And then we waited some more since we were still tired, but we started moving soon after that. It took just a few steps for the exhaustion to move back in and soon we were playing a strange game of hopscotch. Suiee would overtake me and then stop to rest. I'd then overtake him before running out of breath and so we made some progress. Before long though, we just couldn't go on and we stopped. After a while, we looked at each other and decided to call it a day, there was no way we would continue to head up towards some unseen peak which could be around the next corner or over the next hill. We decide to unpack our camera gear and took solace in taking great pictures as the sun rose. We were rewarded with one of the most beautiful sunrises we had ever seen.

This was not quite the end however. . . . .

Cup Noodle Joy (Mount Kinabalu Part V)

“Waras Hut is unheated, is that okay” asked the travel agent back in Kota Kinabalu as I was making the reservations. Hmmm, up a mountain, cool air, even with a slight breeze it would even be enjoyable I thought to myself. And in any case, I would bring my trusty multi purpose malong to keep me warm. “No problem, book it”.

Jose gave us the keys, we opened the doors and entered the room, quick to close the door behind us to keep the heat in. We shouldn’t have bothered, it was as cold inside as it was outside. We stripped off our wet clothes to get warm, got into the bunk beds covered ourselves with the blanket. It still wasn’t enough. In the end we put on our change of clothes, the ones we would use for the next day an in our full gear got into bunk beds, this time a little bit warmer. We cooked our food which consisted of dried meat and the ever present cup noodles (those were the most delicious cup noodle I ever had) and got a little heat and joy back into our cold bodies.

The hut itself has two separate bed rooms with two bunk beds in each, a cooking area and a separate toilet. Luxury compared to the climbs I did back home which always had a separate toilet too but you had to make it with a shovel.

It’s strange how a little food got our spirits up. Before we knew it we were setting up our camera gear and taking pictures of the beautiful views Waras Hut provided.

Even the weather was now cooperating, probably because it knew we could now hide in our hut if it continued to rain, and now the clouds thinned out and provided us with some of the nicer views of what we had just climbed. By this time we could actually talked about our climb, the struggle and what we saw and heard, we even joked about the possibility of the climb being cancelled due to the excessive rain, like the previous days climb was cancelled. Jokes were half meant but I think I was seriously hoping that the park rangers would cancel the ascent to the peak and laying in bed later that evening I was trying not to think about it. Thanks to the snores of Suiee, my room mate, I couldn’t lose these thoughts in sleep and ended up panicking knowing I needed to get some rest in before the assault on the peak the next day unless the climb was cancelled . . . . . .

The Climb (Mount Kinabalu Part IV)

“The last two kilometers before you reach Laban Rata” answered one of the climbers when we asked them what the hardest part was. By this time we had taken off our goretex jackets, preferring to be drenched by the rain rather than our own sweat and the climb was taking its toll. We had hoped the worst was behind us or at the very least that the climber would lie to us and say ‘It’s all downhill from here” but that was not to be the case. The higher we reached, the quieter our group got. No more funny jokes, no more pointing at the colorful plants, no more stopping to share the great views and taking pictures. Rather we were now individual climbers trying to draw strength from our inner selves, taking mental pictures of the great stuff we saw so we can share these at Laban Rata when we were dry and warm. And after a while even that was starting to shut down.

“Just put one foot in front of the other, take three steps and rest. Then do it over again”. By this time Ivy was having a real hard time. I was probably suffering as much but was really good at hiding the fact. By now the rain had drenched everything we were wearing and for once I realized what all those survival stories on the Discovery channel were talking about when they said the cold was sapping the strength of the lost climbers. Jose, by then my ex-friend who had the smart idea of telling me about the Air Asia Promo, was in shorts and a thin shirt. He hadn’t even bothered with the jacket early on knowing that it would be useless in the rain anyway. I’m not sure what state he was in but he was still smiling and climbing. He was after all an active adventure racer and triathelete and probably the only one in the group who was not having a hard time. Apart from him, Chot, Ivy’s girlfriend was also having a hard time and Suiee was still pretty up beat and had the presence of mind to help Ivy (and secretly me) along. “Take three steps and rest”.

By now the voice of William Shatner was entering my head. With the theme music of “Rescue 911” in the background I could hear him say “Little did Joey know that his mid life crisis dream of climbing a foreign mountain would end in tragedy”. I had had it. My mind was shutting down. The three steps and rest routine was losing its meaning and beyond breathing my body wanted to do little more. I was ready to shut down and sit by the side of the trail with no other plan than just sitting there. And as if by cue someone shouted “we’re here”. I stood there and didn’t know how to process that, I’ve climbed long enough to know “we’re here” can mean anything from a minute down the trail to another 30 minute ascend up some steep incline. Nonetheless those words gave each of us that last push to climb (luckily) that extra minute of trail. Jose, the first to reach Waras Hut, the first hut in Laban Rata, had the lucky job of climbing a 50 meters further to the main resthouse when he realized that our hut was still locked. The rest of us crawled, clambered and otherwise made our way to the front door and collapsed. Waras Hut was going to be our accommodations for the night.

It's always happy at the beginning (Mount Kinabalu Part III)

On the day of our climb we had decided to start early. Early to rise, early to bed later on was what I thought and so we set off rather up beat. The guide had offered portaging services which made this experience even more Everest like in my mind but we begged off not wanting to seem like the bungling tourists we were. It had been raining for the past few days which would be good during climbing. Nothing like a cool breeze to keep you going and we much preferred this to the hot humid air that sapped our strength whenever we climbed back home.

The trails up Kinabalu were immaculate. Steep inclines had wooden planks strategically placed in order to minimize the erosion that the constant rain would have brought and for the more sketchy parts of the trail, wooden hand rails were available to guide the climber safely past that point. Every now and then we’d run into a rest stop with a gazebo and strangely enough a portalet in the back. There were even tanks of water which strangely enough had the words “NOT FOR DRINKING” emblazoned on it. The rest stops also had informative placards on it indicating how far along the trail we were and how far the next rest stop would be. This was both a source of hope and despair as the trail started becoming harder and harder. Not evenly spaced, some rest stops were further away than others and resting along the trail seemed ridiculous, that’s what rest stops were there for.

The first few climbers we met on the way up were rushing to get down so there were hardly any exchanges beyond the customary “Hello” and “Good Morning”. Towards the second rest stop however, the second wave of climbers were more cordial and probably less in shape than the first wave and they stopped to chat. It turned out the climbers before us were not allowed to go beyond Laban Rata. The constant rain had turned run-off water on the slick granite face into raging rivers and so the authorities had shut off the peak. Given the limited space in Laban Rata, the climbers had no other choice but to go down, no waiting for the next day to make the peak. At first this had filled us with dread. We had not come all the way here and had not spent all our money on our budget airfare and $2 a night accommodations only to be turned away now. And so with the same confidence I had that it would not rain on my wedding day, I continued to climb knowing the rain would stop while it continued to drench my clothes my pack and everything else around me.

The Signs (Mount Kinabalu Part II)

The City of Kota Kinabalu is quite quaint. You could walk around the major parts of the city, the main bus station, the pier, the shopping malls with no problem. I’m not even sure why they had taxis in that place. The airport was about a 5 minute car ride away but what was more amazing was that our lodgings for the night, a $2 a night hostel actually had a free airport pick-up service. The food was good, on our first night we unfortunately found ourselves in the more expensive waterfront eateries before we found the local market which was still a buzz at 11:00pm at night selling bbq, curries, home made donuts and other local fare at market prices.

The next night we had found an Indian eatery/canteen where patrons were expected to serve themselves, just pile the food on your plate and at the end of the meal a guy would go around and ask what you had and judiciously tell you how much you owed. No priced menu, no elaborate colored plates to keep tab of what you ate, just a guy who you trusted to give you a fair price as much as he trusted you to tell him what you actually ate. What a great system. On our way out to dinner that night we had run into a group of Koreans that had just come back from climbing Mount Kinabalu. All were wet, none were smiling and more than one person had a real hard time climbing up the four flight of stairs to the hostel which we had been running up and down on. This was not a good sign.

Maybe I should have been paying closer attention to those signs. The first one was the small print on the Kota Kinabalu websites that mentions that a “relatively good level of fitness” is required to reach the top of Kinabalu. The next one was the look I got from our guide when we told him that we had wanted to go up the normal route but go down the relatively harder Mesilao route and the final sign were the climbers we met at the base of the mountain as we had just started climbing. All were wet, none were smiling . . . . . you get the drift.

Climbing Kinabalu requires one to get a permit and a guide from the base station within Kinabalu National Park. We had planned to spend the night before and the night after the climb at the park which I highly recommend. You don’t want to start or end your climb of Mount Kinabalu taking a 3 hour ride from the city to the jump off point. The park itself has lots of different type of accommodations within the park itself so that should not be a problem. The climb however requires one to spend a night in Laban Rata before the assault early the next day and there the accommodations (camping is not allowed) are limited so it’s important to book a room in one of the heated or unheated huts or even in the Laban Rata resthouse itself in advanced. As a matter of fact, climbing permits will not be issued to anyone who does not have a booking in Laban Rata so sort this detail out early on. Luckily, we had allotted more than a week in Kota Kinabalu which was a blessing. On our arrival we found out that our preferred date to climb had all the huts and accommodations in Laba Rata fully booked already and so we had to move our climb itinerary one day back. This was going to be blessing in disguise.

Jumping off the deep end (Mount Kinabalu Part 1)

“Just put one foot in front of the other, take three steps and rest. Then do it over again”. My friend wasn’t talking to me but he might as well have been, I was a zombie, walking dead. My higher functions such as thinking, talking, making funny jokes had long since ceased and now all my body was telling me to do was do whatever it takes ot get through this. Suiee, the guy with the smart advice was talking to Ivy at the front of our group. We were somewhere near Laban Rata, the rest stop 2/3rds up Mount Kinabalu and our stop for the night. I’m not sure what happened to me, I used to run, I used to bike. I used to rock climb and do stupid stuff like join a 100k bike ride with no preparation at all and still come out alive. The truth is I used to do a lot of things but the operative word being “used”. No I was stuck more than halfway up the mountain and running out of steam fast.

Just a few month before I had quit my work with just a sketchy plan of how to live the rest of my life. It would consist of traveling, writing and taking amazing pictures along the way. Just how I was going to fund this lifestyle was a small detail that I hadn’t quite worked out yet but it wasn’t about to derail my grand plan.

And so while I was making my mind up of how to kick off this amazingly smart plan of mine I got a call from a former climber buddy. He saw an ad for a budget airline promo which had a route Kota Kinabalu and wanted to know I was interested. Was I interested? Was I interested? Of course I was, even way back when I was still climbing I had always wanted to climb a foreign mountain. The mountains in the Philippines had always been more of long treks rather than climbs and even though I wasn’t planning on taking on anything technical like the North Face of Everest I still wanted to get a foreign mountain under my belt and the third highest mountain in South East Asia didn’t sounds like such a bad idea. So before I knew it I was on a flight to Kota Kinabalu.