My friend Chris & I decided to climb Mt. Kinabalu. The summit is 4095 m (13,450 ft), the tallest between the Himalayas & New Guinea. For some perspective, Mt Rainer is just taller 4392 m (14,410 ft) – although, since you’re trucking through snow, Rainer is a tougher climb.
The climb up Mt Kinabalu starts at about 1866 m (6,122 ft). The first day, you hike up to Laban Rata at 3272 m (10,734 ft), where there is a lodge to spend the night. The next morning (around 3am) you start the final 823 m (2,700 ft) climb for sunrise at the summit. After hiking back to the lodge for breakfast, you make your way back down.
Some dibits…
- Full roundtrip:
- 2229 m (7,312 ft) elevation gain
- 8.72 km (8.41 mi) each way meant it was straight up/down…. no switchbacks.
- 28.5 hr trip with about 14 hr of hiking for us….
- 2 hrs 41 min is the roundtrip record (which is just ridiculous)
- Generally, altitude headaches start happening around usually takes 2400 m (8,000 feet).
- Heavy doses of advil helped this.
- Fortunately, neither of us got really sick.
- Hiking poles
- These are seriously the best invention ever. (okay, not really… but they certainly helped!)
mt kinabalu from a far
our tags for the hike up
my gear