Our Climb Up & Down Mount Kinabalu

The day has arrived for our journey to the base of the mountain.

We waited a couple of hrs for the bus (normally they're pretty on time in this country). We took it to what turned out to be the most rank hotel we've stayed in so far, The Cottage Hotel. I think I shall be submitting a scathing review to TripAdvisor shortly. By the time we reached this mountain town the temperature had dropped quite a bit as we were at such a high elevation. As soon as I got to our disgusting room I went to the toilet to throw up. I think it was the effect of the rather sudden change in altitude.

A massive torrential downpour occurred trapping us in one of the local cafes for a while. We were a bit worried that it'd mean we wouldn't be able to scale the mountain which loomed over the dirty town

However, the next morning the sun shone & we were off to get our climbing permits & meet our guide. 

Our "guide" turned out to be just a boy on his first climb who had not a drop of English, just lovely smiles. We learned that the use of a guide on the way up is merely a formality & it was only to be on the way down that we'd actually need help.

Mount Kinabalu

We learned that there were going to be about 100 people climbing up that day but only a handful of people had opted to take the long way down by way of the Via Ferrata. We realized that we were amongst the handful. When I chose this option on the web I hadn’t realized what a big deal it was going to be. I thought the pictures looked amazing but I didn’t realize that it would involve real live climbing with harnesses & rope & clipping onto hooks in the rocks & hanging by wires & ropes over sheer drops!

So we reached the Pendant hut after 4 hrs which was a good time, the pace set by a lovely guy named Kenny. He was a dear Danish boy of a mere 20 yrs old full of action man spirit & about to enter the army.
There were two huts below the peak. We were to stay here until 3am when we’d start the ascent to the peak.
That evening we practiced putting the rope techniques for the descent.
We loaded up on food & everyone was in their dorm beds by 8am.

Firstly I had to get up to cover a flashing light (someone had thoughtfully plugged in their phone which was flashing blue like a strobe in the darkness).
Then the snoring started. First on & then another. We were in a dorm with a teacher & some younger guys . I was getting more & more wound up until I had to say something. Basically the snoring was relentless. The guy would stop for a few seconds after I’d shout out & then he’d just start up again. I was getting increasingly worried as we only had a few hrs in which to catch some sleep. What should I do? I could do nothing but plug up my ears & wrap a hoodie around my head. Dave says I slept about 30mins that night. I think it was around 10!

 Finally we surfaced (Luckily we’d showered in the rudimentary cave bathroom the night before as there was no way I was gonna shower at this hour and at this temperature) 

As we were pretty fast, (due to Kenny’s fervent pace) we overtook pretty much everyone who’d started the ascent earlier. It actually became really bothersome trying to find an opening whereby we could pass without seeming like an ass on the mountain.
There were a ton of Malaysians climbing, old & young & all at varying speeds & conditions.
We got to the peak amongst hoards of rats & people. Yes rats! It was disgusting & we have no idea why they were there. There was no rubbish up there & it was absolutely freezing cold.
Little by little the small area got more & more dangerous as people politely shouldered their way to the absolute peak where they’d want a photo. I mean of course they did. They’d just got up at a godforsaken hour to climb up here, of course they needed a photo. We needed one to. Only we were so cold & we just wanted to get outta that place. Dave had succumbed to some altitude sickness & the rats were freaking us out in the darkness.

So cold...waiting for our mountain guide

We finally got to the point where we were going to meet our climbing guide who was going to take us down the long way round. As we’d ascended fast we had to wait some time before our guide appeared. We got really cold but Dave’s altitude sickness abated.
At last the guide appeared carrying all the harnesses, ropes & helmets. We got all kitted up & started our descent. Kenny led the way clipping the ropes onto the iron hooks in the rock first, then me, then Dave & then the guide. So it was a line of 4 people descending the mountain on ropes.

As the sun rose I couldn’t believe my eyes. We were on the face of this mountain literally secured by rope if we fell. I guess we were really mountain climbing. (or descending) It’s something I’ve always wondered about doing but never actually done.
It was so thrilling. Sometimes I found myself imagining if I had no rope could I do this? Well-No I couldn’t of course. But only once did I slip, so in effect I did the whole climb of 5 hrs as if I had no rope (apart from the one slip which I guess could have killed me). 

Just trying to get a foot hold y'know

Actionboy Kenny-just so happy to be on the wire

About to enter the magical forest

Half way through the descent we entered a magical rainforest with gnarled & twisted trees & exotic lush plants. We donned our silly ponchos & exited the rainforest into torrential rain & waterfalls lashing down the mountainside. How were we to traverse this? Our guide was ever confident & just told us to get our skates on as the water really was shooting down on all sides.
It all became very slippery & the clipping & un-clipping of the ropes became increasingly more difficult with our ringing wet gloves & poor visibility.
Finally we made it to the Pendant hut. We were wet to the bone & were given cold baked beans toast & hot tea to comfort us!!
We couldn’t hang around however as we still had to get down from here & that was possibly another 4 hrs!


We packed our bag & changed into dry socks over which we tied plastic bags. We then started the descent from here in the relentless cold rain. The rocks we’d climbed the day earlier now seemed treacherous as we tried to put a confident step forward. Basically we were now climbing down this last part of the mountain through small rivers. A lot of concentration had to be used so as not to put your foot in the wrong place as it was all so wet, slippery & steep to boot!
We finally reached the bottom after 3 hrs of persistence & made our weary way back to our nasty hotel where we ate some nasty food & crawled into a nasty bed. (Oh –I forgot to say there were cockroaches here to-though not visible in the bed thank god).