Yes we can! Yes we did climb Mount Kinabalu!

Iwing's photo of us at the summit!

Sunrise on top of the world!

Our guide Iwing, aged 60 years old!

A porter resting his heavy load.

       I wasn't supposed to be climbing Mount Kinabalu until I had at least done some training but somehow I ended up setting off with Valerie and Christine to attempt the 4000 m. How did I end up being so foolish? Well circumstances seemed to take over - the government decided to give everyone a holiday at school on the Friday; it was a beautiful day when I brought Christine and Valerie up to the headquarters where they had booked their climb; they had one cancellation for that day and I thought Patrick didn't find it too hard, surely it can't be that difficult to do. I had put my shoes, jumper and a waterproof in the car just in case and before I knew it we had started the ascent. Looking back now I can say the 6 kilometre climb up to the hostel  at 3000 m was the most pleasant part of the experience although there were times when I thought we would never get there. There was a lot of interesting traffic on the path - porters carrying gas bottles, mattresses, rice and everything needed for the hostel and of course other climbers going up and coming down. We arrived at the hostel after about 6 hours of walking steadily upwards and the weather continued to be kind to us.

Fiona at 3000 metres

Sunset 

   We ate and then everyone went to their dorms at about 7.30 to be ready for the 2.30 am departure. It came far too quickly and even though there was rain during the night when we woke up the sky was clear and shining with stars. We got ready in our warm clothes and torches on our heads for the final ascent for sunrise. In the dark we started climbing up these huge steps that seemed to go on forever. At this stage I felt terrible - my heart was pounding and I felt dizzy but somehow kept going until we got to the rope climbing bit. After that it didn't seem quite so bad except like a mirage we never seemed to reach the summit. The final climb to the actual summit came into view just at sunrise and as I knew that Christine and Valerie were waiting for their slow friend, I made a great effort and got there. It was amazing to feel on top of the world and when the sun exposed the amazing unearth-like landscape of the mountain, I felt great satisfaction that I got to the summit of Mount Kinabalu. When the sun came up an enormous shadow was thrust out into the sea which is many miles away - it was unreal.

The decscent

So now we just had to get down which will be easy of course won't it? NO it wasn't! The first part of the descent was scary and I don't think I would have climbed up it if it I had seen it in the daylight. My legs were already like jelly when we reached the hostel at 8 ish. We had our breakfast and set off with our guide, Iwing at 9.30 am and estimated about 3 hours to get down. Five hours later I reached the bottom and there were times when I thought I wouldn't make it. My legs didn't belong to me and I could hardly get down a step! Christine and Valerie felt more or less the same and we staggered to the car and got home, had a shower and fell asleep! Today we are feeling very sore and are walking like old ladies. The moral of this tale is "Always do some training if you are thinking of climbing a mountain of 4080 metres!