Summiting in South East Asia

This post is from Brian... Last weekend was our good friend Toby's final one in KL. Although he grew up in New Jersey, he's made Seattle home for the last 10 years where he's an avid hiker, skier and mountaineer. He also lives for good coffee and microbrewed beer, so he's a real Seattle guy now! For his last hurrah in Malaysia it made absolute sense to go to Borneo to hike Mount Kinabalu. Since it was also nearing the end of Zack's time in Malaysia we decided to make it our final group trip together. With Low's Peak topping out at 4095 meters (13,435 feet), Mount Kinabalu is the highest mountain in Malaysia and one of the highest in South East Asia. It is not a technically challenging climb (i.e., Zack and I were not too far out of their league to attempt it) but it is fairly steep with a total altitude change of almost 2200 meters (7,300 feet) in less than 24 hours. There is also a dramatic temperature change from the base to the peak (about 90 degrees dropping to about 35 degrees).

Before going further, we need to give a huge THANK YOU to Monique and Dave, Ethan and Robin, and Nicole for watching Vi and Ty while we traveled. Thank you for being our village in KL. Without you guys the events that follow could never have happened!

Getting to Mount Kinabalu is in theory fairly straight forward. You hop a direct flight across the South China Sea from KL to Kota Kinabalu, the largest city in Sabah, Borneo. You then take a 90 minute taxi or bus ride to a lodge at the base of the mountain. After enjoying the beautiful sunset and a hearty dinner, you get a good night's sleep and then your guide picks you up early in the morning to take you to the entrance to the climb. Embarking from KL on Friday afternoon, we never suspected that the events of the evening would unfold into the most dangerous part of our journey.

We briefly thought about hitching a ride but we were
pretty sure there was a horror movie that started like that...

When we got to the Kota Kinabalu airport, we paid the dispatcher for our taxi and then stood on the curb as multiple cabbies argued over who was going to take us (think Bart and Lisa Simpson arguing about their love for Homer - "No, you love him more..."). Rows of nice minivan taxis kept swerving around us until finally an old beat-up Proton was the only car left. Zack is a linguist by training and has learned a fair bit of Bahasa Malaya (BM) in his 2 years in Malaysia. As we pulled out of the airport, Zack struck up a conversation with our driver, shouting above the din of the Linda Ronstadt tunes blaring from the radio. After about 30 seconds, Zack turned to us and said, "1. Our driver does not speak BM nor English, 2. I'm fairly certain he has no idea where we are going, and 3. I think this might be Judy Collins, not Linda Ronstadt." The first 2 statements turned out to be true; we are still waiting on a final ruling for the last one. After getting stuck in Friday evening rush hour traffic and asking multiple people for directions (via crazy, screaming cell calls on the driver's phone), we finally settled into a long drive along a steep, dark, winding mountain road. Everyone relaxed a little as the sun set, but then the rain began to fall and a think fog rolled in. Unfortunately, our driver relaxed a little too much and began to fall asleep at the wheel every 5 or 6 minutes. We had to literally take turns prodding him awake, although to be honest Zack bared most of the burden since he was in the front seat. After about the 3rd or 4th nap, we discovered yet another use for the ubiquitous tiger balm. Apparently if you smear a huge gob of it under your nose, it acts as a potent stimulant. Based on how much he used, I wonder if our driver is still awake 10 days after our trip!

As night fell, the fog thickened and it was hard to see more than about 20 meters in front of the car, except for the lights of the oncoming freight trucks. As we struggled to see road signs to get a sense of how much farther we had to go, all of a sudden the road went completely dark. Our headlights were out! Our driver yelled something unintelligible and frantically began pushing buttons and turning knobs but to no avail. Mary started shouting every possible English word for hazard lights that we've picked up during our Southeast Asia travels (blinkers, hazards, flashers, flippers, dippers, rapid opening and closing of fingers, etc.) until finally he was able to get them on. Unfortunately we were in a stretch of blind curves with no shoulders and no way to pull over to the side - we had to keep moving until we could find a place to pull off the road. Stopping meant getting rear ended. Thankfully, a Jeep driver behind us figured out what had happened. He turned on his brights and followed us closely from behind to try to light the road ahead. Even with his help it was slow-going and dangerous. At one point we had to go around a fallen tree which required us to cross to the other side of the road. After what seemed like an hour (but was probably more like 10 minutes) we reached a fork with a small roadside shop, pulled over to safety and jumped out of the cab faster than the geckos scatter in our kitchen when we turn on the light at 3 am. We can skip over the details of the next few hours, but when you see us next, ask for us to tell the story. It includes numerous attempts to get the headlights working by good samaritans who stopped to help, including the best Fonzie imitation we've seen in Malaysia (the guy literally banged on the headlights for 2 minutes hoping they would turn back on). We finally managed to reach the owner of our hotel via cell phone who drove 40 minutes down the mountain to pick us up. Kudos to Mile 36 Lodge (http://www.mile36lodge.com/) for the lift, beautiful views, comfortable beds, and the late night cup of noodles (all the restaurants in the area were closed by the time we reached the hotel). Not exactly the carb loading we had planned for the hike, but totally hit the spot!

The next morning we were picked up by Amazing Borneo tours (http://www.amazing-borneo.com/) and drove to Mount Kinabalu Park to start the hike. Most people do the hike over 2 days, although it is possible to do it in one if you are crazy enough to try. We took the two day option. We started at Timpohon Gate (1866 meters elevation) with the goal of making it 6 kilometers to the Laban Rata lodge area (3272 meters) by mid-afternoon. The hike was steep but absolutely beautiful. It took us about 4.5 hours to get through the first day's work. Think of it as walking up very high stairs. Continuously. For 4 and a half hours. When we finally reached the Laban Rata lodge we had some time to relax before our orientation for the summit trek the following morning.

We were so tired by the end of the day 1 climb that we forgot to get the KM 6 pic!

In addition to the summit climb, Mount Kinabalu also boasts the highest Via Ferrata in Asia and the second highest one in the world. Via ferratas ("iron trails") were created in the Dolomite mountains in Italy during World War II as a way to get troops through the mountains. They usually consist of a series of steel cables, bars and ladders that have been bolted into the rock face to allow less-experienced climbers a safe passage either up or down the mountain. Toby heard about the one at Kinabalu and convinced us all to sign up (http://www.theadrenalist.com/adventure/the-craziest-via-ferrata-routes-in-the-world/)! In addition to our summit orientation we also had to get trained for the ferrata. This was no big deal for Mary and Toby who have a fair bit of climbing experience, but for Zack and I who have a hard enough time tying our shoes in the morning, the harness and carabiners warranted at least a few minutes practice.

At the peak!

After a surprisingly good buffet dinner, we settled down super early in our cozy bunk room shared with a couple Aussie dudes to get some rest before day 2. We got up at 1:45 am, had a quick breakfast at the lodge, and set out for the summit by headlamp at 2:40 am. We had to make it 2.7km and about 2000 meters in elevation before sunrise. While no one said it out loud, we weren't just racing the clock. We were also vying against all the other groups to get the best viewing spots for sunrise. On the hike to the summit, it is totally dark. We knew we were traversing barren granite rock faces, but we could only see the circle illuminated by our headlights. Occasionally we had to hold onto ropes to make sure we stayed safely away from the edge. We were blessed with perfect weather. Apart from the very top summit, there was little wind and no rain.

After we watched an incredible sunrise, we made our way down from the peak to the start of the ferrata. We took a short break to take off our thermal underwear (the peak was COLD!), and then we strapped on our harnesses, tied ourselves together in a line, and clipped into the ferrata safety cable. To be honest we did not know what to expect. From the pictures at the lodge it looked like we would be walking along steep ridge lines while using our carabiners as support. Nothing to it. After about 20 meters of doing exactly that, Toby (who we had unanimously elected as group captain and lead climber) said, "Holy sh_t!" and then dropped over the side of a ridge and began walking down the wall 1960s TV Batman style. For the next four hours we climbed down the granite rock face using ladders and metal hand holds, teetered across suspension bridges, jumped across small ravines and had an all-around exhilarating experience. Our guide, Ali, really helped me and Zack with the technically challenging parts of the course and made it an all around great time.

The via ferrata ended at the lodge with a much needed lunch of hard boiled eggs, Malaysian sausages (aka hot dogs) and mashed potatoes. We had an hour to pack up and used most of it trying not to move. The 6 km walk down to the base of the mountain was long and painful. Thank you Toby for forcing us to rent walking sticks which helped a lot on the descent. Once we reached the park entrance, Amazing Borneo tours had a small bus ready to bring us back to KK. This time we made the trip with no problems - at least we don't know of any problems since all 4 of us slept the entire way. On Toby's advice we booked a nice hotel for our last night in KK. I think the bellhops were a little surprised when we walked in carrying our dirty boots over our shoulders and looking as you might expect us to look after hiking for nearly 12 hours straight. Several hot showers (for each of us), a good night's sleep and a quick breakfast and we were back off to KL.

Thank you again to everyone who made this trip possible. The kids are asking us to please leave town again soon so that they can have another great weekend! Toby - we'd never have done this one on our own. Thank you for organizing the trip. Zack and Toby - you guys are great travel buds and amazing friends. We can't wait to meet up for our next trekking adventure somewhere in the Pacific Northwest!

Tyler joins J and his friends for laser tag...

... while Aunt Nicole takes Violet for her first Thai massage!