Climbing Kinabalu

Mount Kinabalu is an UNESCO World Heritage site, and the highest mountain in SouthEast Asia, reaching 4,095 meters or 13,435 feet at Low’s Peak. It’s located in the state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo about a two hour flight from KL. Grant and I had been interested in climbing it during our time in Malaysia, and when my friend Krista started planning her trip to visit us, we knew immediately that she’d be interested too!

In planning this, I’d gone my typical route in trying to book the pieces independently. This was a little tough to do, as there are a lot of components required: local guide, insurance and permits, and last but not least mid-peak lodging. Lodging was tough to come by, as most of it seems to be booked immediately by tour providers. Krista had the eminently logical (but entirely surprising to me) idea of trying to book through a tour company. Genius! We were limited to a weekend so Grant could go, and the only organization that had availability for our preferred dates was Mountain Torq.

Mountain Torq manages the world’s highest Via Ferrata. Grant was familiar with this concept, and I’d actually heard about it in relation to Kinabalu and written it off with my crippling fear of heights in mind: Via Ferrata means “iron road” and it’s a mountain route with fixed rungs, cables, and footholds. It’s superficially similar to rock climbing, but you don’t have to place any gear yourself or have any technical skills – in some places you’re actually just climbing down ladder rungs bolted into the side of the mountain while both roped on and clipped on to safety cables.

To book with Mountain Torq and to stay in their mid-mountain hut, you have to pay for a Via Ferrata segment (no obligation to actually do it, but you’re paying for it anyway). I wrapped my head around this, and decided that the shorter route sounded like something I could actually do: Walk the Torq, a 1-2 hour (430 meter) route starting at 3,521 meters and descending 109 meters towards the Laban Rata lodging area. The overall plan was to get to the area on Friday night, check in at the base of the mountain by 7:30 am on Saturday, April 21, hike for 6 km and get to our lodging by mid-afternoon in time for the safety briefing from Mountain Torq. Mandatory early bedtime that night for everyone with lights out by 8 pm, and a 1:45 am wake up call to get us up in time to summit for the sunrise, followed by a detour on the descent for the Via Ferrata routes, and then back down to the base of the mountain.

Everything actually went according to plan! We were so eager to get going that we were at the Mountain Torq office before they opened, and we quickly got all of the necessary paperwork completed and were assigned a guide, Gampat, who has summited more than a hundred times. A short drive took us to the trailhead of the Timpohon Gate trail, and we started off. We did the first three kilometers through a shady rainforest in an hour and a half, and we were surprised by the rest facilities present about every kilometer along the trail – roofed pavilions with flush toilets and a water supply! The next three kilometers were considerably steeper, and we certainly understood why they suggested training for this hike by doing lots of stairs. This part of the climb had scrubbier trees, and uneven stones that made for a tiring climb. We made it to Laban Rata at an elevation of 3273 meters and the Mountain Torq Pendant Hut at 1:15, after four hours and fifteen minutes of hiking. Perfect timing, since it started pouring rain shortly thereafter.

We were thrilled to have hot showers and we sat around drinking plenty of tea to warm up, because it actually had gotten pretty chilly at that elevation. I was glad to have brought my fleece jacket to Malaysia! There were several dorm rooms, and I think each room had about eight people in it. It was a pretty congenial group overall, and we got a thorough safety briefing later that afternoon to prepare for the Via Ferrata, including a demonstration of how to safely transfer the rope and carabiners along the route. Krista is an adventure hungry thrill seeking cliff hanger (seriously, it says that on the official certificate that proves she lives life on the edge!), and decided to opt for the world-record setting Low’s Peak Circuit. Grant stuck with me on the Walk the Torq route; I’m pretty sure it says somewhere in those marriage vows that he can’t abandon me on the side of a mountain.

The rain finally let up briefly, and we were surprised to find legitimate waterfalls gushing down the exposed faces of the mountain, but we made it to the main hut for an early dinner and we were all sound asleep around 7 pm, resting up for the next big day. 1:45 came quickly, and we geared up with our headtorches (in the local parlance) in place. We’d heard rain throughout the night, but were lucky in that it was dry for our trek to the summit. The first stretch was wooden staircases built over the mountain, which gave way to the bare rock face with a white rope secured to it to help you pull yourself up some of the steeper sections.

My fear of heights and adrenaline kicked in together, and I felt like my heart would leap out of my chest for a lot of this. Gampat was my savior at this point and while Krista led the way, he held my hand tightly and steadily walked me up the slope. This was my first nighttime summit, and it was bizarre to only see within the scope of my headlamp which left me imagining the worst: steep dropoffs and who knows what else in the dark. The landscape was eerily lunar in nature, and we somehow managed to outpace almost everyone else on our way, so it was also pitch black. Looking behind us, we could see a bobbing line of lights following the trail, looking like monks on a pilgrimage. Shockingly, because I kept crouching down to pat the rocks and reassure myself that I was on solid granite and to try and get my heart back out of my throat, we were among the first to the summit – top ten out of the 150 or so to attempt the summit that day. We got there around 4:45, and had a little over an hour to wait for dawn.

It was freezing up there, and we snugged down into the rocks for protection from the wind. Happily, the sunrise was inspiring, and the view above the clouds was worth every ounce of effort. The walk back down to our Via Ferrata meeting point was comparably a walk in the park, and we sauntered down the slope I had hesitatingly staggered up with Gampat. He really was my rock, and he still took my hand to help me through the tougher sections.

We left Krista at the higher Via Ferrata, and Grant and I continued down to the lower meeting point to suit up in our harnesses. As we looked back up the slope, we could make out her group above us and while I was excited for her to have such a thrilling experience, I was really happy to be walking further down the mountain! Grant was the leader for our group, and set a good pace – slow enough for me to follow without feeling rushed, and fast enough for me to stay focused on the repetitive movement of moving my safety equipment along the cable.

I actually liked the vertical descent better than the traverse, because the ladder rungs and footholds made it easy to relax into the mountain. The scariest part was a two wire bridge – one wire above your head to hold onto while you walked along the other like a tightrope. One deep breath, and I made it across, shaking and not looking down! Just as we finished our Via Ferrata it started to rain; Krista got hit with the rain while she was still on her route, and got soaked. Grant and I had plenty of time to dry out while we waited to meet her at the hut, and before long we packed up and set out to finish the descent.

It continued to rain lightly on us, but the bigger challenge was in navigating the rocky steps which were now wet and slippery, and in some places had turned into shallow waterfalls. It was a brutally slow climb down, and my knees were giving out before we reached the end. The last short stretch was actually uphill, and I’ve never been happier to change direction! We were all so achy and sore for the next few days that as Krista and I were sightseeing around Kota Kinabalu, we actually walked two blocks out of our way to avoid a particularly high curb. All in all, really tough climb, but extremely rewarding and we’re all happy we did it!