To the Filipino hiker, Mt. Kinabalu isn’t as hard the way conventional Filipino mountains are hard. Where Filipino mountains rely on natural trails (a root becomes a step, a branch, your foothold), Mt. Kinabalu is 80% stairs. This means the best way to train for Kota is not exactly to run hills, or to climb mountains (although both will definitely add to the knowledge brought about by experience), but stairs training. Everywhere. Every time you can.
Secondly, altitude sickness can get the better of even the most seasoned Filipino hiker. A 2000 metre-elevation gain on the first day, and a thousand metre elevation gain on the second will leave one dizzy (with pounding ears, a declining sense of appetite, and an inability to sleep, among others, telltale signs of altitude sickness) and sometimes, unable to finish the hike. My advise? Take it easy. The stairs will make it appealing for someone to simply gallop up the mountain, but don’t. No one’s in a rush anyway, and the buffet table opens up at 4:30 PM (3 hours after we arrived at the lodge), so just be there before then.
Joy’s Essential Five
1. Paracetamol –– Whether or not you’re used to the altitude gain, it’s always a good idea to have with you Paracetamol (Malaysia’s Panadol is your best bet if you weren’t able to buy from where you came from). I popped 2 before Day 2, and it helped tremendously during the last assault.
2. Water, water, and water — Little sips every so often would help regulate your temperature. Pace yourself, though! There are no bathroom breaks during the second day assault (and no clearing!)
3. If you were contact lenses like me, your contact lens solution — I forgot my contact lens solution in the AirBNB in Kota, so I had to make do with the little left in my tray. Don’t do that. Altitude gain will lead to dry eyes, and dry eyes will have to be lubricated. And no, forcing yourself to cry (as I did) will only do so little.
4. Stairs. Stairs. Stairs. Like I said above, the biggest hurdle for the Filipino hiker will be the stairs. Train for them properly, and get a trekking pole if you can. This is the first time I climbed using a trekking pole (a walking stick, in Malaysian parlance), and my knees have it to thank.
5. Practise climb etiquette, particularly the LNT principles. On the way up, we saw squirrels (!!) loitering at the huts situated every kilometre which was created specifically for rest and/or bathroom breaks. Curious as to why they were so friendly around the hikers, I was surprised when two kids who were climbing with us gave the squirrels food after securing permission from their guide. I’m not sure about whether there’s a specific rule regarding feeding animals in other mountains, but that would have been a no-no in the Philippines.
Secondly, hiking etiquette means that the people ascending have to be prioritised on the trail over people descending. That, I think, is open to exceptions, such as locals carrying heavy loads. Every day, to make sure that the hordes of tourists are well-fed, locals carry on their backs meats and fruits and vegetables all the way to Laban Rata, and I think it’s necessary to make sure that these people are given priority, whether going down or going up, considering the things they have to lug behind them.
Third, trail formations require that no one unnecessarily overtake the person in front. Yes, even if the person in front is slow. And yes, especially when the trail is particularly treacherous or steep. During the ascent on the second day, it astounded me when the people would just randomly overtake other people. Normally, I wouldn’t have minded (it happens, even with established rules), but we were all told we had to use the rope, and so one mishandling might have led to a tumbling into the jagged rocks far below. The fact that it wasn’t even dawn yet when this happened should have meant more vigilance on everyone’s part. (I didn’t use the rope though, sorry! The overtaking made the rope swing from side to side, and I wasn’t about to trip over it.)
Fourth, as far as I know, porters in Mt. Kinabalu are told that they can only carry with them a maximum amount of luggage. Our group never had to use a porter, but I saw other groups who did, whose luggages were the wheeled-type. There having been no orientation prior to the climb, I think it’s best to remind everyone who want to climb Mt. Kinabalu that if one wants to hire a porter, one has to make sure that (1) the weight carried is not excessive, and (2) that the luggage can be carried in a pack.
Lastly, as a UNESCO heritage site, it gave me so much joy to see that the trail was well-preserved. I only had to fill my tiny Ziploc with random pieces of trash, usually cigarette butts, throughout the entire climb. Of course, one can always wish that there be no zero trash, especially in a place like Mt. Kinabalu, but while we hope for that to come into fruition, we should always make sure we don’t aggravate the situation.
Mt. Kinabalu is a hiker’s paradise — the weather welcoming, the flora and fauna astounding, the people warm. While Pat, Ian – the Tanzanian 10-year old who was eager to descend with anyone other than his mother, something about being with younger people – and I climbed down, a few metres ahead of everyone else, we heard a rustling in the trees to our right, and before any of us could comprehend what was going on, we saw Proboscis monkeys swinging on the trees (Pat could have sworn she saw three, Ian said he saw only one, I’m pretty sure I saw two. Considering our trail formation, we were all probably saying the truth). When we called the others about what we saw, the monkeys were long gone.
The magic of it all, however, stayed with us.
Mt. Kinabalu, on the outside, looks like an imposing, intimidating mountain, each jagged edge a promise of suffering.
On the inside, however, it is homely and serene, beautiful and otherworldy and welcoming. You will no longer wonder then, once you get back to the jumpoff, why the gods chose Mt. Kinabalu as their home.
Of perpetual finds 