So my legs are finally no longer sore from climbing up this mountain. On the 22nd and 23rd, I decided to climb up Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo. For those who don't know, it's SE Asia's tallest mountain at 4092 meters.

Basically, the mountain is a two day climb. I arrived at my hostel at the base of the mountain on the 21st (just came from Uncle Tan's), hoping to meet a couple people to climb up with. In order to climb the mountain, you need to hire a guide, so the more people you have the cheaper it gets. As luck had it, there happened to be a guy sitting down having dinner when I arrived in the restaurant. I introduced myself, and asked if I could sit with him. He was waiting for a friend, asked if I was climbing the mountain, and then asked if I wanted to join him and his friend. As things would turn out, he ended up being the only guy sharing my dorm room anyway.

The next morning, Henrik (no, I did not ask his last name), from Sweden and Patrick from Switzerland geared up for our climb. As we were getting ready to head out, another Swedish gentleman (I believe his name was Pedrolis, always have a little trouble with names that I haven't heard before), asked if he could join our group. He was married and was traveling for 4 weeks with his wife and their two and half year old son. He was gonna climb the mountain while his wife stayed with their son, and then he was gonna stay with their son and she was gonna climb the mountain. On top of that, this was apparently the THIRD time their son had been to SE Asia. Imagine that...for those of you who think that once you have kids you can't travel, this guy is living proof that you can. He just said that he had to make sure that they got a little nicer place (no windowless rooms with just a fan and cockroaches crawling on the floor), and carried a few more things.

Anyway, the mountain climb is separated into two stages, the first is about 6 km's and it takes you to about 3200 meters, where I was staying in a dorm called Laban Rada (heated with warm showers, oh how I do miss the warm showers). From there, you get up around 2am, and do the other 2.75 km's (800 or so meters vertically) to get to the peak just in time for sunrise. Now, Henrik is a bit of an avid mountain climber and he and Pedrolis made it up the first stage in 3 and a half hours (the average is about 5 or 6, and Pedrolis said he held Henrik up a bit, and that he could have made it up faster). Patrick and I did it a little more leasurely, in about 4 and a half hours, and on the way up I actually ran into an Irish girl (there all over the place I tell you) named Laura who I had met at Uncle Tan's and the three of us continued our way up to Laban Rada. On our way up though, we passed many a Malaysians carrying up to 80 kg's on their back, which were supplies for the mountain lodges. Man, with a 5 kg backpack I found it hard enough, I have no idea how these men and women managed to do it with such a large load on their backs, talk about great shape...

I pretty much just ate and slept (and showered) at Laban Rada. As soon as I got there, took a nap, came down and had dinner (most of the meal were all you can eat buffets), and then went to bed around 8:30.

Got up the next morning at 2:15, had breakfast and headed out around 3ish. The entire climb was done holding a flashlight and following ropes. This half was a little steeper than the first (only the last 2 km's of the first half were really that much difficulty), and there were some areas that you really did need to hand on to the ropes to get up. Patrick, Pedrolis and I made it to the top at about 5:20, Henrik, who left half an hour after us, made it to the top at the same time with a 15 minute break so he would not be there too early.

Anyway, just so those of you back in Canada don't feel so bad with you cold weather, the top was hella cold and I was freezing. It was probably around 5 degrees, and with wind chill, most likely below 0. Going from 30 degrees to 5 degrees in 48 hours is a bit of a shock. Luckily my coat does a good job of keeping me warm, as I sent me sweatshirt home, and just wore the jacket, a pair of gloves, 2 t-shirts, an undershirt and two pairs of pants. Even then, I was shivering. Kinda wished we had left a little later, we ended up having to wait about 45 minutes til sunrise (this is why I was so cold), which unfortunaly wasn't that spectacular as it was a little cloudy (I saw pics of someone who had done it on a clear day and they were amazing).

Oh well, it was still an amazing experience, it felt quite good to climb the mountain. We made it down in about 4 or so hours (with a break in the middle for 2nd breakfast). This is probably the part that ended up making my legs so sore. I was fine that day, but for the next couple days, going downstairs was a bit of a chore. Upstairs was ok, but I had to pretty much hobble to descend.

So yeah, that's my mountain adventure...I definately recommend Mt. Kinabalu to those who are coming to Borneo and are into (or even kind of into) that type of thing. When I get time, I will post something on the past couple days I've spent surfing in Bali.

Talk to you soon, home in less than a month...

Peace Out,
Drew