Post-Trip Entry - Part 1: (24-26th Dec 07) Mt Kinabalu

My first mountain trekking trip with a group of unfamiliar people with great chemistry, brings along great fun and excitement. How from total strangers, to becoming team mates and a bunch of lamesters and onesters. With trips, one also learn more about oneself, about how much one has grown and changed.

It's a test of limitation to fight against the altitude at the mountain. To carry on and push on, or give up? Tho' struggling very much up against the thurderstorm and slippery rock surfaces and gushing water, add on with giddyness, nausea-ness and breathlessness, reaching the 3km mark seems like an impossible thing to do..and the guide's "reaching soon" became unconvincing. You looked up...and you know, there is ONLY one way, UP. It does feels frustrating to suffer from altitude sickness when you know you could jolly well climb up with much lesser difficulty if not for all the syndromes....however sick we felt, we still managed to reach Laban rata just when it started turning dark...with freezing body at temp of ~9 deg. My head and hands were numbed. And the headache cramp was so intense i was in a constant stone stage.

To stay in a unheated dorm with unheated shower made things worse. Not to add on to the steep slab of rock to climb up in order to reach the hut in pitch dark. Change and rushed for dinner before attending the Via Ferrata Briefing...leaving us with just 2+ hours of sleep before summiting begins. And my head was still cramped with an intense headache...what an experience. Woke up and breakfast in a rush before trekking down to Laban Rata to meet our guide Lucy. Luckily my headache subsided...(think its adjusted to the altitude by then) and i can proceed on. But 1 of my teammate had to turn back as the altitude sickness became more serious for him...=\

Climbing the summit was the most tedious. Not coz of the steepness, but the altitude. You felt as though you could fall off the mountain anytime as you get more and more dizzy with each step..until the stage when you feel a dragging force backwards away from the rock. That aside, the scenary is really fantastic...looking down from so high above...cant help feeling high..literally.LoL. And the climber's head touch looked like stars all over the mountain in pitch dark...*blink blink* Feeling the rocks with my hands, cant help doing rock climbing up instead of trekking up using the rope...i think im the only one in all 4s. LoL. Quite shiok...brings my mind away from all the sickness...there are also big 'boulders' on way up...which is rather nice to climb in fact. Did alittle climbing while trying to catch my breath and adjust to the altitude...325am....400am...415am.... i kept looking at my watch while i tried very hard to breath...apparantly, the air gets thinner and thinner and you realised you had difficulty breathing...and as usual...i am dozing off while climbing...on summiting..luckily my nan4 xiong1 nan4 mei4 brudda was behind to hold me. You know, you just climbed...and climbed...and breathing harder and harder then zzZZzzz.....he gave me a choco to wake me up...and i covered my numbed face to unfreeze my head...pitch dark, dizzy and breathless, climbing nearer and nearer to moonlight...time nearer and nearer to sunrise, cant help feeling gan cheong. The summit seem so near yet SO far...

At 545am sharp, sunrises...and im still what seems like 200m away from the 'actual' summit...the feeling was really indescribable. It's like you can see the summit, yet you have such difficulty getting air thru' your air pipe you felt super frustrated. I practically ran up on and off since 5am knowing that im behind time, up what Lucy told me as reaching real soon. -_-!!! until 545+-, i just like..'splashed' on the rock (again) and try my very best to breathe. Haha...my greatest fear had always been being unable to breathe. There i was, pulling on my beanie, unzipping my windbreaker top and trying different ways to get air thru'. I thought im dying! Unwillingly but physically forced, i shook my head at Lucy and at same time, staring at the summit...trying my best to breathe amist the cheers from climbers still at the summit and those coming down, as well as from my teammates. That moment, is gonna be deeply etched in my memories. To be honest, i really quite freak out when i realised i couldnt bring in air no matter how hard i try to breathe...my air pipe was blocked and all i could do was keep coughing hard, real hard!!! And Lucy was tugging at me....she asked me to finish it..and she pulled me along for a short distance up before i stopped totally(again!) to try to breathe....the whole time, im struggling for air. I dont wanna give up...i can alrdy see the summit...it is so near...so near...yet my body is telling me to stop. Upsetting. I told Lucy, i couldnt carry on anymore....and my teammates were shouting...they are not coming down until i reached the top. I know i dont wanna stop...i can see the summit...its a struggle...but i decided to take a gamble (v silly to think of it...but at that moment, all i want is to get to the top...) Finally, i struggled my way all the way up the summit.....i went beyond my limit again...but i nv regret it. I did it.

Looking at just some of these pictures, dont you find it beautiful?The kind of scenery and experience definitely cant be captured here in words nor pictures. It's really beautiful..and the experience is great despite all the 'torture' i went thru'....

and then...RAN all the way to rush for our next program, the Via Ferrata...cut-off time of 730am....i felt my knees gg chuiiiii.....by now, 2 down. left 3 to go!

Via Ferrata leads us down the summit by the mountain rock face instead of walking down the slopes. Quite alright to start with, but being super shack out, we just wished for it to end soon.....we climbed down, traversed, go through cable bridges, jungle treks and more ascend, descend and traverse again....we were in near collapse state......and once again, caught in the rain due to our delayed schedule...once again, a more challenging route for us. LoL. Tried slamming onto the wall surface right in your face and body? I did...from slipping off the rock surface while doing descend in the wind and rain..

It will definitely be fun for people who seldom do heights or rock climbing...a nice scenary to enjoy if you've got extra cash. Else i would think the Mt K climb experience is sufficient enough to make your trip there worthwhile!

After all the HIGHs and dramatic experience, i slept the whole afternoon thru to the next morning, after coming down to Laban rata with fever and altitude sickness...a well-deserved rest!! Then the fun comes when we descend the next morning...spent 2+ hours at the first 2 km snapping away the plants and flowers. Discussing and admiring the different kinds of flowers, plants, logs, rocks, insects, birds and formation. There was a landslide when we descend near the 3.5km mark i tk...and the board was smashed into pieces!!! A great experience to sum up.....would love to go back again...=)

Fooling around with stick-fights and pretended starwars while the 2 heros already reaching park HQ....tsk tsk tsk...