Monday, June 19, 2006

Kota Kinabalu: D+1 The struggle, part 1

[19 Jun 2006]

Did we sleep? I think we did for a half hour each. We gathered downstairs at 2am, waiting for our guides. They were late and we pilfered some food from our group members who bought the buffet breakfast.


Finally, we moved off but so did everyone else. We took what appeared to be an endless series of wooden stairs and we were proceeding slowly in a single file. Looking up, I saw a line of lights snaking up the mountain, as far as my eyes could see. We climbed and we climbed and in the next hour, we overtook 2-3 groups.

Finally we reached the ropes. What's that to our right? Oh nothing, just a very long fall to your death. The floor beneath us was replaced with granite and the climb was ever at an incline. I don't feel particularly brave so I try to lean towards my left on the rock face. Every touch wets my glove and it wasn't a nice feeling.

We broke into a flat expanse, inclined before us at about 30 degrees. To our left appeared to be a very long roll to our deaths. Darn. Is this over yet? Nevertheless, I made good speed and fatigue began to draw out our line. We hit the last checkpoint in pretty good spirits. Minghan bowed out of the final bid due to giddiness. We rested a bit and pushed on.


I set Rachael in front of me. The landscape remained the same but the incline angled up to 40 degrees. We saw the sharp peaks in front of us and the skies showed shades of grey. Gravity stepped in as my strength starts to leave me. Ahead of me is the outline of a girl. "Go Rachael, go!" We pushed on about a 100m and then I called her to take a break. It turned out to be Huijun. For the next hour, we made our way up, 100m at a time. The slower we proceed, the longer we last. Thus we painstaking walked our way up, one step at a time. All this time, my heart was pounding furiously.

By the time Daniel caught up with me, Huijun was ahead of me by 200m. He tried to motivate me but I was simply drained. He left to catch up with her. For the next 40 minutes, I made my way slowly. Morning has arrived and I start to overtake people. I gathered enough energy to push myself for the last 10 minutes and joined them at the submit.


And what a nice feeling it was. The light was good and the view great. We took several photos at the peak and awaited the rest. During this time, the cold starts to set it. It was a horrible 30 minutes wait before the Wenyao and Zhouxun arrived and another 10 minutes before the rest caught up. We took more pictures and ate our breakfast. I tried to send a SMS back but there was no reception. Oh well.

We descend the mountain.

Goto:
Kota Kinabalu: D+1 The struggle, part 2

-?H?U

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