Thursday, July 5, 2012

Mt. Kinabalu

Had the opportunity to visit the island of Borneo this last week. Borneo is known for it's world class scuba diving and snorkeling. It's also home to the very first season of Survivor. We have a number of friends who live there and it was just time to pay them a visit. I forgot to mention one small detail of this visit so far... It's known as Mt. Kinabalu. At 14,000ft, it is the tallest mountain in SE Asia. It took two days to reach the summit and all in all we hiked a total of a little over 18 kilometers there and back. It has to be one of the hardest things that I have ever done. We arrived at a lodge around 1pm where we ate and then went to bed around 6pm. Afterwards, we got up around 2am and started the final assent to the summit before the sunrise. We then hiked all the way down after reaching the summit.

Here are some photos of our trip

On the way up the mountain walking through the clouds. It doesn't look real!

This was the sunset above the clouds as day one drew to an end. Went to bed right after this!

We had the treat of a full moon to light our path as we climbed to the summit in the early hours of day two. 

Finally at the top!

Sunrise at 14,000ft. It was so worth the climb. This picture doesn't do it justice!

Me and my friend Danny perched at the top. Not a lot of movin' around room up there.

On our way down. It's hard to imagine how massive this mountain is without seeing it in person. The summit is granite with veins of quarts running through it. 

It was pretty steep on some parts of the mountain and this rope came in handy. We weren't fastened to it though... Just have to hold on tight. 

It was so much fun to climb this mountain. My legs are still on fire from all the hiking/climbing. It was so crazy to start in a lush jungle and end up in such a desolate place. Fyi, we did find several rats up on top of the summit. I think those things can live just about anywhere!