Sunrise at Low’s Peak

September 22nd, 2002 at 12:00am

7pm in Kota Kinabalu, getting ready to go to sleep VERY soon. It’s been a long day. I’ve been up since 2am!

So, I climbed Mount Kinabalu today – 4101 m, the highest point in Borneo. We had a 2:00am wake-up in the rest house (well actually I think everyone in our room had already been awake for 1 hour because one guy decided to start packing at 1am – the sound of plastic bags over and over and over again. Thanks man.)

Anyway, up at 2:00am, breakfast at 2:15am, start climbing at 2:30am.

From the rest house it’s 2.72 km and 900 m (2970 ft) in elevation gain to the summit at Low’s Peak. The purpose of starting at the very unnatural hour of 2:30am is to get to see the sunrise at the top.

There was a steady line of climbers leading up from the rest house when we left. It was a full moon, but cloudy, even so we were able to see enough without using flashlights. It took just over one hour to get to the checkpoint at Sayat-Sayat Hut, which, at 3668 m (12,105 ft), is only used for park staff and emergencies. Apparently last year a British woman got lost on her way to the summit and somehow died on the mountain. Since then the park initiated this check point station to make sure everyone heading up to the summit comes down.

The trail itself above the rest house is all rock with one big rope leading the path all the way to the top. At times it’s steep enough that you have to pull yourself up using the rope, but for the most part you just follow the path. Once the clouds rolled in and the visibility deteriorated, I was glad to have the rope to follow.

Masaki, Tumas (our guide), and I trudged along, making our way up with a slow but steady pace. At the check point it was 3:45am and we realized that at our pace we would get to the summit too early (before sunrise) so we decided to try to slow it down. No reason to freeze our asses off at 4000 m waiting for the sun to come up. You can only stay warm as long as you’re moving. So on we went, slowly across the rock.

I didn’t find the climb difficult at all, but still by 5am I was ready to be at the top. We made it there at 5:30am, took some summit shots, and once we realized there would be no sunrise with all the clouds packed in, we headed down.

Took 1.5 hours to get back to the rest house, much faster than going up.

Back at Laban Rata at 7:15am. We agreed to head down the rest of the way at 8:30am. Enough time to eat breakfast, pack up, and rest for a few minutes. The 6km from Laban Rata to the park gate took us 2.5 hours, arrived at the bottom at 11am. Hard to believe that we had all of that done before lunchtime!

Things done at the park headquarters (in order):

Got summit certificate, used toilet, ate ice cream, and packed bags.

I was trying to decide whether to go back to Kota Kinabalu or go to the Hot Springs to rest and soak, but it seemed to be a hassle to go to the Hot Springs with 2 buses and 1.5 hours so I said forget it, I’m off to KK. Turned out a couple who did the climb (but didn’t make it to the summit) had arranged transport back to KK to the Shangri-La Hotel and the driver was cool enough to let me in on their ride for $3. The couple was like, oh are you staying at the Shangri-La too? Hahahaha. That’s pretty funny. I said, no I am staying at the backpackers’ in town. They didn’t even know what a backpackers’ was. (It’s a hostel in case you didn’t know.)

Got back to KK at 2:30pm, checked in to Lucy’s'Shangri-La’ Backpacker’s Lodge, showered (ahhh), put my laundry in, took a nap, then ate. Now I am ready for a full night’s sleep. It was a GREAT day. I’ve done a lot with my time in Sabah.

Here we go…

Many hours later, on the summit! (digital camera not working well in the cold)

Heading down (check next day for 3 more photos)

Entry Filed under: Borneo,Hiking/Trekking,Malaysia