Climb every mountain...

Description

1) Morten and I at the peak at 5:45am. It was VERY cold at the top. Lots of wind....

2) Shots from the upper part of Mt Kinabalu

3) Ditto

4) Sunrise from the peak.

5) Mt Kinabalu

So I survived climbing Mt Kinabalu. It was SO intense. It is the one of the highest mountains in Asia at about 4000m. Everest in comparison is about 8000m I think. Its a very popular mountain to climb and I didn't know that it's booked for the next few months solid. But I showed up on MOnday morning at the resort agency and totally lucked out. They had 5 beds left (as a result of cancellations) if I was ready to leave in 20 mins. I didn't think I could do it - but boo yeah! Guess who was on his way to climbing Mt. K?!?

See, it's a 2 day climb. The first day you climb about for 6.5km with about an elevation gain close to over a 1000m. The terrain of it really reminded me of the Grouse Grind for those of you from Vancouver. It's fairly intense. You sleep overnight at the guesthouse at 3000m in really overprice dormitories. I guess they're really expensive b/c they have to carry EVERYTHING up the mountain. I saw a few locals lugging steel frames among other things up the side of the mountain. Craziness... Anyway, so you go to bed and then you get up at 2am (yes, I got up at 2am after about 3 hours of sleep) and then you climb the remaining 2.7km to the summit, with another 1000m gain. Staying overnight is to help you adjust to the altitude and also b/c doing the hike all in one day would probably kill you. We started hiking at about 3am in the darkness and reached the peak just before sunrise at 6am. It was so intense. You're hiking in the darkness with a flashlight for the first little bit. And then you have to hold onto a rope to pull yourself up the side of the granite rock. And then finally at the top - I was so tired, so cold, a bit dizzy too - I was on all four crawling up to the summit. Holy crap... I just wanted to lay down and go to sleep. It felt so good to close my eyes... But my new Danish friend who I met at the guesthouse and was my hiking partner, encouraged me to press on. The sunrise was amazing as you can see from the pic. But even then the pic doesnt justify the sight. We totally lucked out and had amazing weather for the last 2 days. I couldn't imagine doing it all in the rain. That and we practically had a full moon so for most of the hike at 3am - I was hiking my moonlight. Never done that before

Then there's the climb down... First the 2.7km down from the summit, we had brekkie and a quick nap, and then the 6.5km back down... omigosh...

The hike itself isn't too bad Like I said - very much like the Grouse Grind, but it takes a tremendous amount of mental and physical stamina. I'm so glad that I did it. It was amazing. Not sure if I'd do it again, and not sure how active Ill be over the next few days. I have a few more days left in Malaysian Borneo (Sabah) so Ill try to make the best of it. But I seriously could use a day just to veg out and watch DVDs. Well see

28 days until Vancouver....