Climbing Mount Kinabalu With My Eldest Son

This is third time I went to climb Mount Kinabalu. It was March 2017. This time round, I went with my eldest son Aidan Bakti and my good friend Patrick Ong.

25 March 2017

25 March

That morning before we left for the airport, there was drama at home. That period was the University application submission period. And of course, Aidan Bakti was submitting his applications too. Prior to our departure date, he had submitted his application to NUS and NTU. His submission to SMU was pending. His plan was to submit the night before we fly off. I was kinda nervous about this. Many things can go wrong. And true enough, the night before when he tried to submit, the system was down. He then told me that he would submit at 5am, an hour before we leave. When I woke up at 5am to prepare to leave at 6 (as our flight was at 9), he told me that he was still unable to submit his application. I woke Raihan up and asked Bakti to give brief her on how to do the submission. The first thing that she said was that she didn’t wanna do it. And she asked us to delay our flight. We got into an argument which was kinda loud at 5.30 am in the morning. I just then her to get it done and Bakti will call her on the steps to take. And we left. But not before I told her off for making it difficult when we were going off to climb a mountain.

We took a cab and made it to the airport just past 6am. There, we were met by Patrick. It was quite smooth sailing from then on. Raihan did call me before we dapart and we made peace over the phone. Well, we were going for an adventure trip and you’d never know whether you make it back home or not. So, best to make peace before we leave. A few hours later, we were in Mount Kinabalu Park. That day, we just chilled and walked around the hotel that we stayed in and did not venture far off from our lodging which was a very decent place too although I can’t remember the name.

The view of the peak of Mount Kinabalu in the background as seen from our lodging.

Another view of the peak of Mount Kinabalu shrouded with fog as seen from our lodging.

Catching the sunset from the restaurant at our lodging.

Another view of the sunset from our lodging. You can see the clouds below on the left hand side of the picture. It is a known fact that Mount Kinabalu does give excellent opportunities for sunrise and sunset pictures.

26 March 2017

The day started quite early in the morning around 6am with breakfast. It was uneventful except that I noticed Patrick eating quite a lot. I tolf him that he should not be eating too much as that might create stomach upset as we climb the mountain. However, he said that since it was buffet and we already paid for it, he will eat what he could. I let him be since he is an adult anc could make hiw own decisions. Around 7am, we took the transport to the main Park entrance and waited for our guide there. At 8am, our guide came along and we then drove over to Timpohon Gate to start our trek up to Latan Raba where we will rest for about 12 hours before we do our summit climb.

The trek is actually quite simple. Mount Kinabalu is a tourist mountain. So, the trek up was basically on well curated path. The difficulty came in the form of it being an ascend and the slowly thinning air as we climb. We took our time to trek up although our pace was quite fast and we were overtaking many groups as we move up. As we goy higher, Patrick slowed his pace. Well, he is in his late 50’s so it was quite understandable. Although, he is fit for someone his age, we did not want to push him. However, he seemed a bit out of sort. When we reached our lunch time spot at around 11am, we noticed that he was rather pale. And then suddenly he did a Merlion and started puking. His breakfast was coming out. That was probably the result of a combination of the over-eating during breakfast and some rapid acclimatisation of the mountain air. We decided to take a longer rest than usual so as to allow him to recover. We don’t want to fall sick and then we have to turn back. After a short nap of 30-40 minutes, he seemed fine and we were on our way again.

The trek after lunch was a bit more pleasant as we got higher and the air was cooler. Patrick was also moving better as he was no longer saddled with the queasy feeling of over-eating. Along the way up, we took many pictures as we enjoyed the scenery and the nice cool air. At about just after 3pm, we reached Latan Raba and we had a good 12 hours of time to rest before we summit the mountain. We had a round of drinks, then had our early dinner around 4.30pm and by 5.30pm we were up in our rooms resting. By 8.00 that night we were asleep and the next thing we know there was a lot of movement around the lodge around 2.30am.

Collage of snapshots as we trek up the mountain

27 March 2017

We started getting out of bed after 2.30am. We wanted to avoid the crowd. There were only 3 of us and we knew we were fast when we walked so there is no need to be amongst the first ones to depart for the summit. Me met up with our guide at just before 3.30am. We checked our equipement; warm clothes, rain coat, beanie, gloves, headlamp and a small bag each with a bottle of water. At about 3.30am, we set off the summit. It was a cool 6’C.

It was a clear early morning. We were fortunate, there was no rain that morning. This is unlike my previous trip to Kinabalu. We walked slowly up the summit. There was a quite a long line of climbers. As the trail was wide enough, we overtook many people who had set off earlier. Within an hour or so, we reached the rangers hut just before the summit. Beyond that hut would be the granite face which is an exposed area and we needed to be careful so as not to slip and fall. There have been cases of people falling on the granite face and plunged to their death. Some part of the granite face was slightly steeper than others so climbing ropes were provided for those who needed extra support. Every now and then, I would make use of those ropes too.

By about 5.30am as dawn was about to break, we reached the foot of Low’s Peak. As there were already many people on the peak, we waited at the foot of the peak to watch the sunrise. When the sun rose, it was indeed a magnificent sight. We soaked in the atmosphere and took several photographs. Slowly, people who were at the peak started to descend and we started going up the peak to take a picture with the signboard. This is the mandatory picture that must be taken at Kinabalu’s peak.

Waiting for sunrise at the foot of Low’s Peak.

Sun rising as seen from summit of Mount Kinabalu.

Taking the obligatory summit picture with the signboard in the background.

My son, Aidan Bakti, with the horizon in the background, after the summit push.

After about 15 minutes at the peak, we started our descent. As the weather was clear, the descent was rather uneventful. It was a nice stroll down with many more opportunities to take nice photographs.

Descending on the granite face. One of the ropes can be seen here.

One of the iconic spot to take a photograph on the mountain. You are practically standing less than 100m above the clouds. It was cool!

Thereafter, it was just an easy stroll down all the way to the lodge. We had book another night stay at lodge because we did not want to have to rush down after our summit. When we reached the lodge, most people were rushing to pack and go back back down but we had a shower, changed our clothes and went back to sleep.

I’m not sure the time that my son and Patrick woke up but I woke up sometime after 2pm feeling hungry and thirsty. I went down to the restaurant for lunch and stayed there for the next 6 hours, just soaking up the cool atmosphere. The place was buszzing with people who just arrived for the day and will summit early the following morning. The 3 of us just rested and relaxed and gave ourselves time to recuperate. And of course, we took more photographs.

28 March 2017

We woke up quite early as we had been resting for the past 20 hours or so. At around 7am we went down for breakfast. By 8.30 am we were ready to start our descent. We took a few more photographs and by 9.00, we started our journey down. It was nice going down. As we avoided the people who were just summitted earlier this morning and would be making their way down later and also for the first half day, we avoided people who were climbing up on their way to the summit the following day. Hence, the trails were rather empty for us. My son and I practically jogged down most of the time. Slightly after 11.00 am, we were already at the Ranger’s Hut at the exit of the park. An hour later, Patrick reached. We then went down to the main office of the Park; collected our cert and then had our lunch. By 2pm, our driver was already waiting for us at the main carpark. The climb was over and it was a great success for the 3 of us.

Just before we started our descent. In the background is the Lodge that we stayed for 2 nights. The guy in on the left is our guide.

Beautiful morning to walk down a mountain. Just look at the lovely clouds in the background.

At the Hut before the Exit.