The Pinnacle Phenomenon

Why on Earth has Sam not updated for a week?!

Because he has been challenging South East Asia's tallest mountain. Yes, I climbed Mount Kinabalu! Of course I had the trusty companionship of Jason and Christina.

Phrase of Day 1: See what I have to put up with?

We started the day by waking up at the last minute, packing into a taxi, and rushing to the airport to catch our flight. Breakfast turned out to be the annoyingly faithful yet ever present Mc Donalds. Caught our flight, landed, and took a bus to our lodgings for the night. Overall, uneventful. Though in East Malaysia, there is a disturbing lack of Mc Donalds. The dominating fast food there is KFC.

Phrase of Day 2: Are you okay?

We woke up at, uh, well I've in all honesty forgotten. Took a minibus to Kinabalu Park, stowed the extra stuff, then took another minibus to the entry of the Mesilau route. Not before buying a 5 Ringgit walking stick though. That thing saved my life. So it started off as rather hot, uneventful, and filled with what else but countless steps. We hiked upwards for about 1.5 kilometers, then wasted the effort by hiking down the next 1.5 kilometers. Overall the first 6km were relatively easy. There was a point where we climbed a really long flight of stairs, only to turn back and discover we were above the clouds!

Christina and her "Mee Hoon" tree

It was an exhilarating feeling to know that your own legs had something to do with the magnificent view. The awesome view however, gave way to an extremely hard 2km. It was like my legs had punctured and was running on minimal amounts of chocolate and energy bars. It wouldn't have been as bad as it was, had my head not decided that it was about time I suffered from altitude sickness. And so suffer I did, in the form of a headache. Well a headache implies a dull throbbing pain. It was actually more like a brain aneurysm that popped with every heart beat. And due to the lack of oxygen, it was pretty fast. I was soooo thankful when our guide offered to carry my bag! He was awesome. We then (thankfully) arrived at Laban Rata where we would stay the night. The food there was, uh, reasonably edible but was up to *insert random number* times more expensive. It was the first spaghetti I ever ate that cost 25 bucks. Well everything up there is hand carried so I partially forgive them. I would be more forgiving had they put less oil and made it taste more, uh, like spaghetti. But then again food is food and when your hungry, trust me, you eat. I didn't think I'd be able to make it up to the peak the next day. After all, a head*brainaneurysm*ache is really no joke. Not to mention the exhausted muscles. We knocked out (more like collapsed) at 8 and according to Jason and Christina, I sleep talked! Don't quite know what I said though. Creepily, somewhere in the middle of the night, someone stole my walking stick. Whoever it was stole something I had become emotionally attached to. *begins to break down*

Phrase of Day 3: Just keep going. Take small steps...

We woke up at 2 am. Crazy hours but if you want to see the sunrise, it is more than worth it. I was amazed that my head didn't hurt. Apparently I acclimatised while I slept. We washed up, layered up, and then headed down for breakfast. Being a quick learner, I opted for the one thing that couldn't go wrong wherever you were. The efficiently constant Maggi Mee! We then went outside and had a prayer. I was wearing one of my lovely nylon T-shirts, followed by a long sleeved, and a jumper my dad lent me. It was the same jumper he used in his Europe studying days. Talk about pressure! I fortunately kept it clean by adding a windbreaker on top of it. After that on came these baddass leather gloves, a beanie, and a scarf. We were warm, and ready. We set off at a steady pace and quickly cleared the foliage. We then took this thin steep ledge with nothing but a rope and your feet to keep you on. If you fell there, you fell alright. After clearing it, I was pretty exhausted again. It made the last 800m feel like an eternity of steps. The air up there was so thin, that I was panting as if I was a hyperactive dog, to the power of 10! Minus the energy though. Every 15-20 steps, I'd have to take a breather before pushing on. That is how bad it was. The 800 meters included a smooth rock face angled at about 40 degrees. It of course meant that the wind was crazy. So after much struggle, we finally reached the much anticipated summit. At Low's Peak was when I noticed that I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. In 2 degree temperatures, it was a cruel thing when some voodoo shaman decided to play a game of blow wind blow, with me. It was great though I almost sacrificed my fingers to take photos. The 3 seconds I needed to take my camera out made my hands feel about 100 times colder than they were. Exhaustion and oxygen deprivation produced the following video.

This is our guide Richard Aneh. I think he looks like Adam

My "grinning like an idiot" look, derived from chilled winds, lack of oxygen, and an overdose of successA candid shot of Jason which managed to appear quite poserish

My hurried descent


Why else was I rushing?

No, no. It wasn't just numb fingers, toes, hands, and whatever else. I honestly had to take a piss, bad.

On the way down though, I couldn't help but take some pictures of the South Peak.

Look closely at the note, then the picture Muahahahaha. Yes, it is THE mountain on our RM1 note!

Midway down, there were a pile of rocks and I couldn't resist but do something artistic. Now that, is a great balancing act at 4000m above sea level.
After awhile the rocks fell down when they became the new target of that aforementioned shaman. They were in a stray bunch and my scarf flew of my neck and got caught in them. Something about it looked even more artistic and I was about to take another picture, but then Jason caught up with me and told me it probably symbolized some offering to a mountain god. That was when I decided to remember that my bladder was bursting and hurried down. Needless to say it was incredibly tough but a bladder craving for release can really do wonders. Ironically I felt as joyful getting back to Laban Rata as when I reached the peak. Haha. We then rested for a while and ate brunch. After my legs recovered slightly from the crazy morning workout, we began our decent. I shot ahead and hooked up with a Filipino boy named Franco who was waiting for his parents to catch up. We ended up sticking together for the rest of the decent. Speaking of sticks, he lent me one of his cool ski pole like things!
Franco, what would I have done without you.

When we reached the bottom we split up. He had an hour of waiting to do, and I had Poring Hot Springs waiting for me. So me and Christina picked up our certs (Jason already had one from climbing before), then we went to eat lunch with our guide. After lunch? Hot Springs! Needless to say it was an awesomely relaxing experience. We then collapsed, and this time I really mean collapsed onto our respective beds and slept like logs for 12 hours.

Phrase of day 4: My legs feel like crap!

Woke up, and had trouble getting out of bed. Not like I was tired, it was more of that my legs could literally not support me. It was insane and funny. It was like a hilarious rebuttal the shaman decided to throw at me for escaping the wrath of his winds. After a torture session of stairs, we ate breakfast then went to see some rafflesias! Okay, rafflesia, singular. Only got to see one but it was still awesome.

After that we headed to town and checked into a beach side inn. It was great. We then headed to town where we got full body massages. Now that was the epitome of awesome. Hurt like crazy but I guess we all have a slightly masochistic streak in us, don't we?

Phrase of day 5: Never again. Ever. Or, maybe next year.

We caught the flight and came home. Nuf said.


It was an overall incredible experience I would not have given up for anything. And I've even learnt two things.

One is that determination extends so far beyond just telling yourself you can do it and doing it. Its committing to something and really sticking to it through thick and thin. There were many times where I thought I really couldn't carry on. But all it took was a little encouragement from Jason and then we'd be moving again. It wasn't easy. There were times that I felt crappier than the rotting log I was sitting on, but by pushing through that point of almost giving up, it was both amazing and rewarding. It taught me to persevere, and at the same time help sustain others around me who may be struggling with something.

I also learnt that when you can't feel your fingers and toes, and your bladder is bursting, the way you move is almost synonymous with efficiency.

I call it the pinnacle phenomenon