The Mount Kinabalu Climb - The Summit Climb

After dinner, prayer and as planned, all gotten ready to sleep. Me in my full attire. Come next morning, what I had to do would be just to wash face and brush teeth. I made myself a cup of maggi, had a yogurt and finished my packed buns. The rest didn't seem to eat as much. Hubs finished his burger too. I just don't understand how the others could go on without food. Pet just had a bar or snickers. They all have breakfast issue. Ooo, and I had my Acid Amino drink, which I shared with the rest, and they all liked it too. It really gave some energy boost. The downside of course, too high caffeine content.

Anxiously waiting for our porters to arrive. We wasted our sleep and an early journey for about 1 hour there.

After waited sometime, and after giving a call to our porters, they finally reached. We only started our journey about 2.45. In essence, more than 1 hour delay from the original plan. And luckily, hubs decided to proceed with the summit climb. He had originally doubt his ability to proceed to the summit. That's how bad he felt during the Laban Rata climb.

Of course, Harith led the way, and not long after that, he was gone. I was second, and without I knew it, the rest was no where to be seen as well. I couldn't hog the path, so it's either I stepped aside or continue on. So, with no one in sight, I continued with my journey alone again. Of course it was not that lonely that time, as there were a lot of other hikers as well, just that they are not my team. Not long after that, one of our porter caught up with me. the rocky climb was slippery due to the rain the day before. So I had to really exercise caution. It was good of him. He was almost like personal sherpa for me that time. I managed to be on the critical ropey climb with him as well. And of course, I couldn't capture it here as you need to concentrate on your climb. But here's how it looks, courtesey of google image.

Below there is a straight slope down. One should never let their hands off. But it was not that scary I would say. It seemed way scarier before I actually went there. But when I did go through it, it wasn't that difficult. At least it's not as if you need to pull yourself up and have to rely heavily on your arms and leg strength. The chance of falling off if only you let your hands go and push yourself to the back. But still it was not a walk in the park.

After that path was over, what a relief it was and once we reached the sayat-sayat hut, the porter asked me to take 5. But I said, it's ok, I only needed 1 minute. Then he asked me to proceed on my own. There I was, on my own again. But it wasn't as lonely as the way to Laban Rata. A lot of other hikers as well. I just had to ensure that I was around people. Was constantly around these 2 Mat Salleh couples. One thing I notice about these Mat Salleh, they are very competitive. The moment you overtook them, they will alway try to overtake you back. So I was playing catch up with these couples throughout the way up. I was constantly making sure that I was around these people to the point that someone came up to me and asked, what language was I speaking in. He thought that I was with the couple.

This is all that I managed to clearly capture in this, in this darkness. Constantly ensuring that I was around this distant apart with other people

Total darkness, only the lit area can be clearly seen

Breathing was heavy this time. I remember people were saying that you kind of need to walk 10 steps, then stop, in order to go on, if you find it's troubling to move on and breath. Oxygen was very less, that's what makes it more difficult. But for me, it was surprisingly felt better than the Laban Rata climb. Maybe cause due to the fact I was without my backpack this time. Maybe I always have good control with the breathing; i.e, know how to react with the breathing when the condition gets as such. Know when you need to stop, and when you need to go on. I used my heart rate monitor as a guide, but never a slave to it. whenever it reaches 150 plus, that's when breathing will be more troublesome. And this differs a lot with running, even at 22 weeks pregnant (yes, it's been 6 weeks post Mount K, and I haven't finished writing this). With running, 150 plus heart rate measure still an easy comfortable pace for me. So back to the climb, stop when you need to and not push yourself until you're totally drained and gasping for air. Oxygen was very minimal. When you pushed too hard to the point that your body is in extreme need of air, it will take a longer time to start delivering the depleted oxygen to the rest of your body. But don't stop long enough though. I didn't push myself too hard to the point that I really need to sit down whenever I took a break, and I didn't break long enough to even allow me to sit. Just keep the rest nice and optimum.

Long story short, KM 8 was reached, and not long after that, someone called me up in the dark. It was Harith. And it was very close to the peak. Apparently he had stopped and had a quick nap there until I reached. Rested a while, and I think I was the one who triggered to move on. As I said, I took it steady, to the point that it didn't break myself so much, also, to the point that I need a very long break to recover. And the peakk was reached just 7 minutes after 2.5 hours of journey, in the slippery path earlier on, alone in the dark.

With the body condition and darkness, it was hard to get a decent pic. So just bear with the lack of quality of these precious moments. After that, rays of light started to creep in, in the cold. The cold was made worse since we were just sitting there unmoved. 

1st hint of light

1st hint of the sun

The view from the top most. That is famous for its orang Utan face (St. John's at 4091m)

That is the famous duit seringgit (The South Peak). Standing at 3922m)

The famous Donkey Ears (far left) at 4054m

The Mount K shadow, view from Low's Peak

And my love has arrived, just about 1 hour after after I did. 

After a while, the hubs arrived. Boy, was I happy that he's arrived. Harith was the first to spot him. And Harith couldn't wait any longer for the rest and had to leave.

While we were taking photos, the rest arrived as well, and here we were, having our much awaited group pic. I think it was almost 8 when everyone arrived, hence the bright sunny look. Oo, but to our disappointment, not everyone arrived to the summit. Anuar and Yo couldn't make it. From what I was told, they had reached Sayat-Sayat even before 5 am, but the gatekeeper still didn't let them go through. And they were not allowed to go down as well. So they had to wait at the checkpoint, until someone started to actually climb down. So sad.

I think this is the classic. When I first saw this kind of pics, I keep imagining that I would be rolling over. But it wasn't at all

 Unlike the way up, we were together for almost all of our journey down. The hubs seemed to want me to wait and I didn't have much to rush for that time anymore. My time target was met.

Should give some idea on the steepness

After the above pic, not much fancy things happened. The cloud turned dark, rain started to pour. It was not heavy, but enough to make you slip or tumble. The legs felt much worse on the way down. For the last 3km, not much conversation was uttered. It was mostly complaints coming from the hubs. I felt the pain, so I'm sure he had much more. Even I felt quite tested that time, with the leg pain especially. And with someone who's not that incline with the climb to start with, it must be even more difficult. Having a constant knee pain like him made it even worse. 

We managed to reach in 1 piece. We stumbled upon very less people around on our way down. Harith was the first to reach of course. We were the second. The garmin was totally flat, and I didn't even bother to use the phone to time our descent. But it was around 5.5 hours. Come to think of it, it was quite an accomplishment, being 2nd to arrive. Next was kak Farrah. As usual, she's stronger than she looks. Next was Yo I think, despite the previous knee surgery and knee braces on both knee. Anuar was next and Pet and Adrin was last. Even then, it was because Adrin's knee was not that well as well and Pet had slipped earlier on. 

After that, the legs were so painful, we cannot move any more after that. I had to perform my solat at the entrance, by the corridor. I had to walk a little bit to the nearby toilet for wudhu', even that was quite a task. Then, we had to wait for other groups, as they were sending people back to KK in a bus. We had our overdue packed lunch and it tasted so heavenly. And we still had to wait for that last group. So the organiser asked us to hangout at the nearby restaurant. The rest had more dinner, while me just had some drinks. We had to wait around 1 hour more for the bus to reach. I couldn't really sleep while on the bus. Bear in mind that it could take around 2 hours for us to reach KK. It was possibly due to the caffeine overdose. Pity my baby in the tummy. 

Back in KL, my legs were sore for 3 days. Almost even worse than my Full Marathon after pain. My FM afterpain was worse with the hammies, but not so much on the overall legs. Going down the stairs were much more troublesome than going up. I didn't even go for any massages. Ice were my only friend. I gave 1 week to fully recover. My dailymile entry was completely zero, until the Wednesday after where I had a short 4 km run. 

Despite all the hardship, everyone was happy and had a big sense on accomplishment. To some, that must be the biggest fitness feat they have encountered and the toughest. It was even to mine as well, one of the biggest at least. I know ours wasn't as much actually compared to others. Some has accomplished even more. But this is just the little steps that we have towards more. Hopefully there will indeed be more. And may we be strong enough to carry on until our retirement. 

Kinabalu Summit Climb (Low's Peak)
Date: 5 Feb 2015
Pregnancy Progress: 16 week
Duration: 2.5 hours

P/s It is now April, and it has been 2 months after the conquer. So much work it took to just finish 1 entry. Sorry for the delay.