Mount Kinabalu: Peak Performance

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A SLOW BOAT THROUGH SARAWAK CONQUERING MOUNT KINABALU COOL RESPITE IN THE CAMERON HIGHLANDS

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peak

performance

By Roderick Eime

You don’t need to be at the top of your physical game to scale Mount Kinabalu, Borneo’s highest peak and the fourth-tallest mountain in Malaysia. But it certainly helps.

–52–

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–53–

I

strain against the rope, trying to haul my overweight bulk up the sheer granite face. It’s 3 a.m., which means that – thankfully – I can’t see how far it is to the bottom of the cliff, should I lose my grip. But I can just make out my objective: Low’s Peak, the mountain’s summit, marked by a trail of tiny lights ahead of me, bobbing in the thinning air. I pause frequently to let the faster climbers overtake and give my heart a chance to slow down. A soft grunt of acknowledgment is exchanged.

I’m on the final leg of my climb to the 4,095-metre high summit of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. I’m anything but the stereotypical climber – think mountaineer Tim Macartney-Snape standing in front of a circus mirror and you’ll begin to get the picture.

From the Timpohon Gate at 1,860 metres, it’s a trifling 8.5-kilometre hike to Low’s Peak. Factor in some drizzle, wind and fog, naked granite rock faces, thinning air and a two-kilometre vertical climb – seven Centrepoint Towers –54–

stacked one atop another – over what is mostly a soggy rock-strewn staircase of tree roots, and the level of difficulty becomes appreciable. But if you ever wanted to climb a real mountain without a team of Sherpas, thermal suit, crampons and bottled oxygen, Kinabalu is for you.

Sure, Mount Kinabalu is no Everest, but it’s no pushover either. The igneous granodiorite (a type of rock similar to granite) peak is considered in mountaineering circles to be one of the most climber-friendly around – which explains why up to 100 valiant souls make the ascent every day.

We set out yesterday morning after a hearty early breakfast with a plan to scale the summit and be back, soaking in a hot bath, by dinnertime the next day. To the amateur climber, that sounded like a sensible timeline. But in mountaineering circles, there is a whole group of people who are not satisfied with sensible: the ultra-elite band of so-called “skyrunners,” who set out clad in high-tech sneakers with hydration backpacks and fluoro shorts and return, checking their standing heart

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rates, in well under three hours.

The trek begins innocently enough, like a leisurely stroll in the woods. But it fast becomes a stairway to perdition.

One flight of damp, rocky steps is followed by another, then another. Calves and thighs groan in protest as I jab my walking pole into the mud for a vault upwards, while the lean and fit stroll past me effortlessly. Like branded antelopes, smug six-foot Euro-trekkers bound over rocks and logs with broad, spring-loaded strides while I wheeze and shuffle like Yoda with an arthritic hip. But there is no question, save for an avalanche or hungry predator, as to whether I will make the summit.

Dotted along the route is a series of pondoks (picnic shelters) with rudimentary washrooms and seats. Brazen little squirrels scamper about cleaning up any food scraps while you ponder the next bruising leg. Consumed with self-pity, it’s easy to forget the fact that you’re in the middle of a 753-square-kilometre UNESCO World Heritagelisted biodiversity zone that boasts one of the richest

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HIGH AND MIGHTY Above, clockwise from left: Enjoying the sunrise from the top of Mount Kinabalu; Mountain Torq’s via ferrata experience; climbers are often so set on scaling Mount Kinabalu that they forget to look up.

Opening spread: Low’s Peak, Mount Kinabalu’s highest point, juts through the clouds in the Malaysian state of Sabah.

–55–

TIED UP Descending Mount Kinabalu with Mountain Torq’s via ferrata experience.

Find the truest of beauty in untouched nature.

Simple timber abodes built around the forest, leaving trees as they were, are fitted sumptuously and luxuriously.

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“Smug six-foot Euro-trekkers bound over logs with broad, spring-loaded strides while I wheeze and shuffle like Yoda with an arthritic hip.”

concentrations of flora in the world, covering four distinct climate zones. From thick conifer forests, oak and colourful rhododendron to stubby little alpine bushes and medicinal flowers known only to the local Dusun community, the park is much more than just a masochistic ordeal. Around 80 percent of visitors to this part of the world don’t bother with the climb, instead contenting themselves with an outing to the two-hectare botanical garden, which concentrates most of the park’s flora into one easy location.

But I have my sights firmly set on Low’s Peak, jutting upwards before me like a giant meringue tart plopped atop a huge granite cake, covered with excited climbers making their final scramble to the tip in the warming rays of early morning light. The final effort is almost an anti-climax as jubilant conquerors jostle for photo space on a spot the size of a Volkswagen roof. I oblige a handsome Asian couple in matching blue mountain kits: “Smile!” They reciprocate.

Deep breath – it’s all downhill from here.

–56–

Some regular climbers figured Kinabalu was not tough enough and devised a series of permanent ropes, pegs and steps based on the European via ferrata (Italian for “iron way”).

This type of installation was contrived by the Italians during WWI to move troops, and even small artillery pieces, in the Alps to get one up on their enemy: the Austrians. Its wartime success can be debated, but here on the weathered granite surfaces near Low’s Peak, the experience adds a whole new dimension.

Suiting up for the descent means climbing into a fetishinspired harness with lots of metal hooks called carabiners.

Add a helmet, gloves and a scrunchy-like Scorpio safety strap designed to catch your plummeting body if it all goes pear-shaped.

There are two via ferrata options for the junior Hillarys and Tensings out there: one, the Low’s Peak Circuit, begins at 3,776 metres and is a nightmarish odyssey through jungle and across dizzying ravines; and the other, dubbed Walk the Torq, begins at 3,520 metres and shortcuts the rocky

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The sea holds many a heart captive.

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BUNGA RAYA ISLAND RESORT & SPA, POLISH BAY AND GAYANA ECO RESORT, MALOHOM BAY, GAYA ISLAND, SABAH, MALAYSIAN BORNEO Sales & Reservations Office Jesselton Point Ferry Terminal, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.

T: +6 088 380 390 F: +6 088 381 390 E: info@bungarayaresort.com | info@gayana-eco-resort.com www.bungarayaresort.com | www.gayana-eco-resort.com