Day 3 KK (24/03/06)

Time	Event
1.30am	Could not sleep anymore. Was woken up by Jurassic-Park-stomping outside my room. Decided to grab a quick bite and get ready for the summit climb. Ellen was still unwell but was still in half mind to complete the climb. Advised her to stay and rest as she still needed to find her way down from Laban Rata and didn’t want her fainting at 2am in the morning.
2.10am	My guide came to give a wake up call. It was then that the identity of this mystery man was revealed – his name’s Apson. Sure doesn’t sound like Nazri at all to me!
2.20am	Walked out to the gate. It was a dark and stormy night…….ermmm well dark but not stormy. My face felt somewhat numb even before I reached the peak. As we trudged along the moonlit path I decided not to be macho and used the head torchlight, since it was only half moon. But the guides were amazing..they didn’t use any torches at all. Probably can scale the mount blindfolded. Surprisingly I didn’t feel tired at all...I guess I was rather excited. After some steep flights of steps, we arrived at the rocky terrain where there was a white rope to guide us.This was the part that I was dreading most, as I had the impression that a lot of arm strength was required to pull ourselves up. I had imagined it was like rock climbing but it turned out a lot easier than expected. We were only required to use upper body strength at certain points, but most of the time the rope only served as a guide . Also I was told by another climber earlier that some parts are quite dangerous, and if you slip you could fall into the ravine. Of course it made me wonder which were the dangerous parts, but I guess if you don’t see it then you don’t fear…..Is that why they make people climb at an unearthly hour? After a certain altitude, we could look down and see the city below us. We could see Kota Kinabalu town in the distance, sparkling with yellow lights. At this stage we were also way above the clouds, and I had never seen the sky so full of stars. Words cannot describe how wonderful it was to be up there!
3.30am	Arrived at the Sayat-Sayat Hut(3,810m). This was the first and last checkpoint before we hit the summit. We rested here for a bit as we knew we were still too early for the sunrise. Met 3 other climbers from KL. Apparently there were 10 of them in the group and only 3 of them made it that far. 1 had altitude sickness as well and headed back to the base camp. The others could not wake up. It was quite cold by then. I wore 2 shirts and my orange fleece jacket. Still had my gym gloves on and had not changed to the woolly gloves.
3.40am	Resumed our journey. This was the most tiring part as it was very steep, and I could feel it on my Achilles. I thought I’d torn my Achilles tendon! We slowed down a lot because we knew we were still too early for the sunrise, and getting up there early would be pointless as we’d freeze to death. We were taking half steps from this point….better to go slow than to stop and rest, because it gets too cold once you’ve stopped too long. It was just amazing and breathtaking to see the moonlight against the rock formation. The temperature was gradually dropping and I began to feel my fingers numbing. Finally had to change to the wooly gloves. The climb wasn’t as difficult as I had expected. I guess I just went at my own pace and stopped whenever I needed to, just to catch my breath.
5.10am	Arrived at Low’s Peak (4,095m)!!Being such kiasu people, we started our climb early but arrived too early for the sunrise. We had to wait for 50 minutes before the sun came up! At this point I was wondering, how could Jenny say that I didn’t need a ski mask?? My face felt funny! Although I had already put on the windbreaker (courtesy of CMY) I was still frozen like a meat pattie. I think the temperature was probably about 5 degrees Celsius only but it was probably the windchill factor that killed. I don’t remember Finland to be that cold even when it was sub zero during winter. Contrary to what people say, “It’s lonely at the top”, it was crowded at the top. I only managed to capture an individual shot of myself when it was pitch black, because by the time the sun rose it got too crowded at the peak. Apart from braving the cold, I also had to endure some drama displayed by a Caucasian couple who further decreased the temperature up there. When they hit the peak, the lady said to her man “Oh dahhling, promise me you’ll never make me do this again!” He replied, “oh no, my love, this is the first and last time we’re ever doing this” And then MUAAAKKKKKKKKKK!! Their lips met. EWWWW, it was so crowded at the top, such public display of affection was hardly necessary. In Malay, you label this jijik.

At the peak!

5.50am

First signs of daybreak!

6.00am

SUN’S UP!! Beautiful! Definitely worth the wait! Continued snapping photos for about another 20 mins.

That's Mystery Man behind me.

Chilly!

St John's Peak

Which is the real me?

South Peak

St John's from another angle

Low's Peak in the background

Donkey Ears Peak

6.20am	Started our descend. It was getting quite hot by then, had to remove the windbreaker and gloves.Very glaring too, but I had my trusty Rudy Project with me.
7.30am	Arrived at Sayat-Sayat. At this point my watch conked out. Think it could not take the cold. Blimey, it was tougher descending than ascending! I didn’t like the pressure it created on my knees. At some points I walked backwards just to relieve the pressure on my knees. Finally saw the ravine which we passed through!
8.45am	Arrived at Laban Rata. The descend seemed to take forever! Went to check on Ellen. She was still dizzy and could not even sit up in bed. We had no choice but to resort to the last choice – which was to hire someone to carry her down. The charge was RM100 per km, and it was 6km down to the base camp. Quite an expensive affair, but she could not walk on her own. So she decided to let them piggy back her until halfway, then she would walk the rest, to save some cost.
9.40am	Grabbed something to eat, then checked out and headed for the base camp. Ellen had 3 guys who took turns to carry her down.They went ahead of me while I went at my own pace with Apson. Going down seemed to take forever. For one, I never realized the steps were so steep! I slowed down quite a bit as my legs were getting tired and wobbly. Yet I knew I had to make my way down as fast as I could, as I did not want Ellen to wait too long for me. Thank goodness for my walking stick, which I used on my way down to relieve the weight of my knees. In an effort to preserve my knees, I walked like a crab and went down sideways a lot, which used more adductors( inner thighs)and abductors (outer thigh), which I don’t train as regularly as my quads and hamstrings. I felt like an old woman hobbling down. Infact I felt like Moses coming down from Mt Sinai… The porters were really fast…when I was in KM5, they had already reached KM4.
11.20am	Refueled at Layang-layang. Legs were getting quite tired but had to push on.. By the time I reached the last 2km, the porter was already running back up the mount. Jijik.
1.50pm	Finally arrived at Timpohon Gate! Ellen was waiting for me there. She felt quite lousy walking the last 3 km. It was a fantastic climb, and it’s something that I would do again. Though I must admit that training for a marathon is much harder, and the mental push factor sets in much earlier for a marathon. I guess the most important lesson to learn from the climb is to go at your own pace, don’t try to be macho about it and more importantly, ENJOY the journey up there. I enjoyed every minute of my journey up and down from the mount, and I thank the Lord for granting me good health to be able to do so. Also for providing such wonderful weather during the climb, and for His protection. :)