Thursday, 13 December 2012

Mount Kinabalu

Into the last week of expedition and to celebrate 10 years of permanent Raleigh presence in Sabah we all got to climb a mountain, which was a massive bonus as it saved me trying to organise it for later & I got to climb it with a huge number of friends as we more or less took over the whole mountain.
4,095m makes Mount Kinabalu number 20 on the list of highest peaks check out this link if you want to know how you measure the highest mountains in the world : wikipedia link

Starting around 1,900m we walked up for about 4 hours passing a number of different types of vegetation and variety of steps (all of which we'd get to walk down the next day)

A few steps on the way up the mountain


Tree on Mt Kinabalu

Mountain raspberry
 We stopped for the evening at 3,300m at Laban Rata for hot soup, dinner & a mattress on the floor.
Sunset from Laban Rata
 It was up at 2am for a first breakfast we were delayed by rain so couldn't start climbing on safety grounds but at 3.30 we got the green light and were off, clambering along in the dark.  Nearing the summit the sun was starting to rise & I slowed down to take plenty of photos (as a handy excuse for having a regular rests)
Sunrise on Kinabalu

Sunrise on Kinabalu
Low's peak with Dan

The donkey ears
We then turned round and headed back down the mountain, stopping along the way for a second breakfast. The way down was pretty hard on the knees so it was good to see the bottom & know we were going no further that night.  This was the night of the official closing ceremony on expedition and included some great entertainment with local dances and a special fire show that literally nearly brought the house down.

Local entertainment

Fireating



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