Monday, November 14, 2011

Kinabalu Mountain Lodge and Kinabalu Peak!

The day before our climb, we changed location to a hostel near the park entrance of Mt. Kinabalu. Kinabalu Mountain Lodge was in the mountains at the end of a road, peacefully away from everything. The views were stunning, and in perfect Lauren fashion, she would say, "Guys. Guys! Look at where we are right now." She had a point, but we all laughed every time.




We went for some long walks to check out the plants, insects and whatever else we could find. The best thing was probably "Prayer Mountain." We decided that that's where people were sent for punishments - the prayer box. We snapped some photos and headed back to the lodge to make PB&B (peanut butter and banana) sandwiches for the hike. We all sat around on the patio watching the sunset, hanging in hammocks, writing blogs or reading Kindles as the cold night set in.




In the morning, Friday, October 28, we were picked up at 9:30am and headed to the mountain. We got a quick rundown of the schedule and the four of, us plus one English guy and two guides, headed up the mountain at 10:30am - long way to go. The weather was good, a little overcast, a light breeze and a bit cool - perfect for a hike. I was still panting and forming a sweat after about half a kilo (as Keeler would call a kilometer). We were set to trek for 6.2 kilometers on day 1 with something like 2400m altitude gain. We were warned about going slowly to avoid possible altitude sickness, and we all faired well. Since the four of us had all just finished PADI classes, we joked about making safety stops and stabilizing buoyancy on our way up - PADI knowledge in real-life situations.



We made it to the overnight stop a little after 2pm - good timing. I was consistently behind the group by about 10 minutes or so. I haven't exactly been super active while traveling. Our lodge was another 150m up, which doesn't sound like much, but it really was. We took some power-naps before 5 o'clock dinner. Most people went to bed right after eating, but none of us felt tired. We played cards in the food lodge until about 9pm and attempted to head back to our room. Luckily, I had a flashlight with me by chance because the whole way up to our room was pitch black!

Wake-up call was at 2am, but we hardly got a wink of sleep. It was freezing up there, and I insisted on spooning to keep warm. We had to go back down for food, an extra 300m round trip on the 2.5 kilometers to the peak. At 3am, we started day 2 of the trek to the top. We didn't want to make it too early because the top is super cold and windy. We stopped for 30 minutes at the 7km mark. The terrain changed several times throughout the trek. The first day was mostly steps, whether it be small rocks, big stones, wood planks, etc - and it was steep! The second day was harder. It was completely dark and all you could see was whatever your headlight shone upon. The stones were slippery, and at around 7km, you actually had to pull yourself up the side of the granite-like mountain with a rope. The next part, we pretty much were scaling the side of the mountain, again holding onto the rope without a clue as to what kind of fall was below.

The air was getting thinner and my breaths were getting shorter. Finally, the sun started rising, lighting up the mountain. We were well above the clouds so the sun hadn't risen to our level yet. I made it to the peak at about 5:45 as my friends were already freezing up there. At 6am, we got the sunrise photos that we wanted and headed down the freezing, windy peak immediately. Lauren and I made several stops coming down to get more photos since going up, we were too cold to pull out the cameras. We had another breakfast at the lodge at 7:30am and relaxed until 9. The whole way down was pretty hard on the calves and quads, but it was still easier than the way up. We made it to the park entrance at 11:32am, and then we were taken to a lunch buffet at noon. They fed us a LOT in the 26 hours. It was a strenuous hike, but it was amazing to make it to the top. The mountain is beautiful. It was worth the $275 (2 guides, 5 meals, accommodation on the mountain), but I'll never do it again!





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