LimeTouch

When I woke up and saw the sun already shining upon Grace Hostel, I wasted no time in chasing everyone out of dreamland, we were supposed to get picked up by our driver at 0700 hrs. All that only to be told that it was only 0630 hrs. I seem to have forgotten that we are over a good 1500 metres above sea level. Nonetheless, we had to get ready real quick.

I was skipping a bath. After I was done washing up, I seem to have caught a chill, all thanks to the icy tap water. At 0715 hrs, there was no sign of the driver, and I started to get bored.

Don’t ask me why I took a picture of an ordinary tree log, I am still till today trying to get an answer myself. After a brief talk with our caretaker and as it turned out, the driver had asked another to pick us up. Apparently, we failed to notice his presence as his car was parked slightly less than a 100 metres away from Grace Hostel. Time needlessly wasted.

Though it was my first time eating pan cakes which are thick, the buffet style breakfast was arguably the best meal since landing in Kota Kinabalu. And after getting done with some administrative works, I came to know of my Sabah name ‘Panan’, turns out to be a typo and when I got my registration pass, it was still spelt wrongly. This time as ‘Darren’.

And I was going to be climbing all the way up there?

There are 2 routes to be taken to ascend Mount Kinabalu, Timpohon and Mesilau. The former is liken to an upwards climb of 6km, no different from climbing countless flights of huge steps, very direct. The latter on the other hand covers 8km in total and for most of it, you would be ascending upwards, then downwards and up again. And it isn’t exactly climbing friendly. It is not difficult to see why most stay away from Mesilau.

Our original plan was to ascend via Timpohon but upon a recommendation from our caretaker, we decided on Mesilau; taking it as a physical challenge to ourselves.

Notice that we are the only ones there and were late by almost 2 hours. We were supposed to get going at 0800 hrs but due to the needless delays, only did so at 0945 hrs. Just some last minute reliefs and off we go! Our ascend of Mount Kinabalu has finally begun.

If you are wondering, that is our mountain guide at the far end. The name is Downi.

There has to be a time where we would have our first rest break and that time was not now. We were simply having a short pit stop to do some adjustments. The weather was not as chilly as we would have thought and apparently, 3 layers of clothes were a little too much.

The backdrop of the picture was supposed to be of the many waterfalls, but apparently it was not captured. So let me change it to a group picture with the mountains as our backdrop.

We failed to capture a shot at 1km, it slipped off our heads and we were definitely not going to go back just to get a picture taken. We settled for the 2km mark instead.

Though there were toilets available, for most of us, we did not use them, instead we would just relieve ourselves along the more denser bushes, this reminds me as though we were going through a survival test. And I quite like the feeling.

Previously we only managed to get a glimpse of the waterfalls from afar, this time we were up close. Though it isn’t anything majestic, it was a beautiful sight and had the makings of the perfect picture.

At that point, we were running low on our water supply, we were pondering on drinking the water from the falls. But Downi pointed us to a tap further ahead.

When filled with the untreated water from the tap, it looked yellowish. But due to our thirst, almost all of us would gladly take it as an alternative. Wished I had taken a picture of it. The fatigue had to come at some point. It did now, we were no different from a dejected group after losing a football match. Our heads down.

This picture does not do any justice to the level of difficulty we had to go through to climb up the flight of stairs. My facial expression says it all. It was pretty challenging.

For the most part, we were the only ones ascending via Mesilau. Till now, we have not seen any fellow climbers. It was lonely on our part.

It was just another stop for us to replenish our energy with some snacks we had packed. When we tore open the box of Jacob’s crackers, this was the result. Look at it’s shape, not that it has suddenly become inedible. Just evidence to indicate how high up the mountain we were. It started to drizzle, but we didn’t make anything of it as it was only a very light one.

The view from here was majestic at the very least. You could basically see the mist being blown across right in front of you. That was how strong the wind was. It was only visible to the naked eye, and not to the camera’s lens. That explains why no video was taken to showcase it. Now that would be a sight I would love to share. Like the steepness of one’s standing ground, pictures or videos are not able to draw out the full beauty of nature, this was no exception.

We had reached the long awaited 6km. The next notable checkpoint would be known when climbers ascending via Mesilau and Timpohon meet each other for the remaining 2km to Laban Rata; our final stop. It is more tougher than what we have been going through since the start of our ascend. At least we will not be the only group going up now. By now the rain was getting heavier and soon it was a downpour.

We had to reach Laban Rata by 1900 hrs because that is the restaurant’s closing time and our dinner would go with it. We separated into 2 teams, Zhen Bang, Perry and I would attempt to get to our destination as soon as possible while Nicholas and Darrell would catch up. At the very least, we would have something to fill our stomaches with.

It was not too far now. But we were feeling the strain as a result of taking the Mesilau route but just as we were going to take another break, suddenly Perry would roar with a motivational shout:

C’mon! C’mon!

And it seemed to have worked, that shout rubbed off us and it gave us the extra push to get to Laban Rata. It would have taken 8 to 10 hours to get to Laban Rata through Mesilau but we did it in less than 8.5 hours. What an achievement! Surely we deserve a pat on our backs.

It was comfort to be able to get into the restaurant and it helps that it has a heater, it was freezing cold out there. Having drenched my clothes in the rain certainly didn’t help things.

Our X-Trekkers coordinator had mentioned beforehand that the food at Laban Rata was “edible” and that we should not have high expectations. Well she did tell us that. I wouldn’t say she did not. On the contrary, I thought that the food was pretty good. After dinner, it is time to get ourselves registered at our lodging for the night; Pendant Hut.

There was a device indicating the temperature at the entrance of Laban Rata. It was a stinging 8 degrees celcius when we went out in the open. The only way to get to Pendant Hut was to climb a slope up. I did not get it wrong, you are not going to walk, but climb up. It was pitch dark, extremely difficult to know where we were going. I was basically following the person in front of me; Zhen Bang. I didn’t know there was a rope we could hang onto, instead I literally “climbed” my way up.

Nearing the top, it seems that whatever warmth my clothes had provided me up till then went away, I was freezing right to my gut; an extremely terrible feeling, the wind was audaciously strong, I could barely see a thing except Pendant Hut and I couldn’t even hear any response from my friends.

The moment I reached Pendant Hut, I was clearly suffering from the coldness. Worried about my friends behind me, I alerted Perry and Zhen Bang about the situation and they went out searching. I was unable to lend a hand, as I would be murdered if I had went out there with a simple windbreaker.

Thankfully, they were alright and we quickly got into Pendant Hut. A cup of hot water was exactly what we needed. Even then, I was still shivering.

We were to share our room with some fellow climbers again, this time it was 3 Spanish guys based in Singapore, Euro 2008 immediately comes to mind, how convenient. After somehow managing to settle down and getting changed into a fresh pair of clothes, we were to attend a briefing on Via Ferrata.

Not much time for interaction with the other climbers, we were physically and mentally drained from our 8km climb. Again, I was skipping a bath, I am definitely not going to risk getting a chill prior to the last stretch. Lights out was at 2030 hrs, that sounded as though I was still in BMT (Basic Military Training). We need as much a rest as we can get for we attack the summit at 0230 hrs.