We woke up at 12.30am, preparing ourselves for the climb to the summit. I was excited as well as afraid I couldn’t make it to the summit. Had a light breakfast, put on headlights, warm clothes and our guide gave a short explanation regarding the hike to the summit. It was cold and dark, when we started our hike at around 2am plus. The hike was quite steep that I have to bend down to feel the rocks and push myself up. I’m feeling nausea and cold, and I told my friends to go on first as I know I will slow them down. I do not know why I’m feeling nausea at that point of time. It gets worse when I reached the part where I have to hold on to the ropes to hike. Then I realize that it might be because I kept bending my body down, and I felt dizzy and nausea. So I tried to stand up straight, avoid bending down too many times. I felt better after a while, trying to stand up straight during the hike instead of bending down. At one point I decided not to use the rope as I have to bend down to hold on to the ropes.
After feeling a bit better, I tried to pace up and met Dan and Nic at sayat-sayat check point. From here, 3 of us hike up together. We climbed higher and higher, and when I looked down, I saw many lights from other hikers’ headlights, coming up in a line. It looks like little ants coming up a hill. It was a beautiful sight, but I have no energy to take out my camera to take a picture. My legs were really tired and I rested pretty often on my way up. At this point, I don’t really know if I can reach the summit before the sunrise. I dragged each step up the mountain, and the summit seems to be quite far away. I kept walking step by step and again, there are other hikers who passed by with a Hi and Bye.
Everytime I stopped for a rest, I look up to the front, to the back, and to the sky. There are a lot of stars in the sky. The feeling is just indescribable. Stars are all on top of me, they seem very near to me. So near and yet so far, just like the summit. It was a magical experience for me to see something like this on the sky. Readers may not understand how I feel at this moment, but I would say, you need to see it for yourself. When I look up, I knew all the hard work is so worth it, just to see the beautiful stars in the sky. I will never forget how the sky looks like at that moment. I was hoping it will never go away.
When I look to the front, there are people who tried to pace up so that they could reached the summit earlier, and when I look back, there are people struggling to hike up, panting heavily.
After some time, I finally can see the summit. I was so excited, and have a sudden boast of energy to reach the top. Despite being extremely tired, I wanted to be there at the summit, to see the sunrise. I think I reached the summit around 5.45am, and the sky is getting brighter by now. A bit disappointed that I couldn’t reach the summit before 5.30am, but oh well at least I made it up here.
It was freezing cold, despite me having my winter jacket, thermal wear and my winter caps on. I can’t really take any photos, as my hands are shaking as I try to press on the shutter and with the gloves on my hands, it’s even harder to shoot. The view is very beautiful. A gush of feeling just swept across me, as I felt everything is worth it now. Thinking back how painful each step is when I dragged my feet up at the first place
[insert pic here]
This is the ugly sister peak and donkey’s ear peak. I took these pics on my way down. Going down the mountain is more difficult than I expected, as at some parts I have to hold on to the ropes to get down. We have to turn our body backwards, hold on to the ropes, and step down slowly.
Anyway, the important point is the summit. We made it there, and I’m glad we did. I hope you will too.
We woke up at 12.30am, preparing ourselves for the climb to the summit. I was excited as well as afraid I couldn’t make it to the summit. Had a light breakfast, put on headlights, warm clothes and our guide gave a short explanation regarding the hike to the summit.
Mount Kinabalu Summit
