Trip up Mt. Kinabalu Pt.2

This is a continuation of Trip up Mt. Kinabalu.

This post will be mostly photos as there is really nothing much to say about the climb. There were limited amount of climbers a day to help protect the ecosystem and there's a set time when everyone sets off, so there was quite a lot of people at the start. Once we started to reach the front of the pack it thinned out of course, making for a more pleasant climb. : )

I didn't really take a lot of photos of the greenery around us on the way up as it was all the same really, nothing much to see. Of course, the group was separated on the way up as everyone had different stamina. There wasn't really a need for a guide, but it was a requirement, it wasn't that expensive anyways, so it's all good. Another thing about the guide is that, ours wore a t shirt, shorts, and crocs to climb. : |

Half way up. Still feeling good.

The sky wasn't looking so good though.

At the start of the climb, there were nice stairs and they were all even and all that, but once we reached further up there were a variety of different terrain to walk through, it made things interesting, it made it hard. Slightly.

Some were like this, mud and granite.

Some were just plain mud.

Some were just granite.

It was misty.

Uh-oh.

When there was still slightly more 2KM to the rest stop, my shoes started to open up, these were my old running shoes and I didn't intend for them to 'survive' the climb but I was hoping it would last until I reached the bottom again. Ah well... marching onwards.

Some trees.

5KM

I forgot how far the rest stop was. Maybe around 7KM. It started raining heavily after this picture so no more pictures until the final ascend. I didn't even take a picture of the rest house, or whatever it is called.

Sadly, my 'rain-gear' wasn't really waterproof. I blame my dad for this, he said 'it'll do', they were wind breakers. FML

The whole bottom of my shoe fell of at the last KM from the rest house. I didn't notice it as my feet and everything else was numb from the cold, turned back a bit to get them, I hoped they would have something to stick it back on at the rest house. (there weren't) It was miserable, that last 500 meters, I was shivering, and the water was coming down the trail like a waterfall, it was like we were walking up a river really.

I reached the rest house, shivering uncontrollably, I quickly changed out of the wet clothes and just sat there with a dry towel around me for 2 hours, regaining my warmth and strength. Dinner was awesome, they did a buffet style thing, all you can eat, I ate a lot. The lodge we stayed in was kinda like a dorm really, small and 'cozy'. 4 people were in a tiny room with 2 bunk beds, I wasn't complaining, it was quite cold and the more the merrier at that point. 3 layers of blanket was also provided. I went to sleep and didn't feel a thing until the next day when we woke up for breakfast and the final ascend to the peak. One of my friend puked in the middle of the night due to the altitude, I slept through everything, didn't know a thing until the next day.

I'll continue this again in Pt. 3 in the future. This is getting a bit long. : ] Hope you enjoyed this, thinking back to this was really nostalgic to me although it was only a year ago. Fun times.