Came - Climbed - Conquered: Mount Kinabalu

I've always had a soft spot for Kota Kinabalu, probably because it's referred to as "KK" in this part of the world (my preferred nickname since as early as I can remember). Thanks to Buddha's birthday and the 3 day weekend celebration in HK, I put my traveler opportunist self into gear and planned an adventure weekend climbing Mt. Kinabalu - the highest mountain in SE Asia located in gorgeous Sabah, Malaysia. My friend Mason was up for the challenge too, so we set off for Borneo with high hopes of conquering the famous Low's Peak.

I of course convinced myself that I was in great shape from the residual effects of completing a half marathon 6 months ago (ha). And as I write this post find that I am still high on lactic acid, I guess the cubicle-induced muscle atrophy was worse than I thought. More on that later.

But I'm proud to say that we made great time, starting out early in the morning (accompanied by our local guide, Anthony) and reaching our halfway point lodge with plenty of time to lie frozen on the floor in post-stairmaster recovery mode, eat a carbo loaded dinner, and get a couple of hours of high quality, high altitude shuteye.

Then it was a 1:30am wake up call and back on trail, this time bundled up in layers, gloves, hats, and sporting headlamps to light the way. We beat the large pack of other hikers (although may have been passed by a couple of Japanese grannies on the way), and made it up to Low's Peak (4000 meters high) just in time to claim a prime spot on the top and watch the sunrise over Kinabalu. The view was so breathtaking that we almost didn't realize our teeth were chattering from the frigid air. Quite a spectacular sight, one that I will not be forgetting anytime soon.


After summiting the mountain, most sane climbers would then hike the 8.5km back down, finishing by early afternoon. But 24 hours on the mountain just wasn't enough for us, so we opted to do the "Via Ferrata" - an additional 5 hours of iron cable reverse rock climbing (NOT a Steve and Chris Hazy approved activity). I'll let the pictures do the talking.


After finishing the Via Ferrata (apparently the longest one in the world?), we were immediately back on the trail, taking on what seemed like a never-ending, rocky 6km downward staircase - quite a challenge on wobbly legs that hadn't had a break in 14+ hours. By the end, I think I was hunched over a walking stick and had handed over my backpack to our concerned guide. Embarrassing. But worth every minute of the debilitating leg pain and post-hike lactic acid coma. Thanks to my favorite job perk, I spent my final day in Kinabalu rehabilitating at the Shangri-La pool downing advil and mocktails. What a glorious weekend - I'm proud to share a name with you, KK!