~JcZw

Day 3: To conquer a mountain
Woke up at 1.20. Everyone fairly leapt out of bed cos few people actually slept. Some didn’t though. Altitude sickness had already began to act on the climbers. Some of them would stay behind during the climb. The day before I had headache and stomach ache. Became better though… thanks wei quan for offering the panadol =) Went to wash up, then everyone met downstairs with lightened backpacks (we had removed all our clothes and stuff, bringing just food, water, poncho, windbreaker etc) Brynner was debating whether to wear our Incredibles’ shirt, but at the 8. deg temperature he decided against it… Most people were wearing long sleeved shirts, some with an extra T-shirt over, plus windbreaker. We had our breakfast (Brynner ordered the buffet, then helped all of us get food =P), then we had a final briefing.

Stepping outside into the cold was like getting a slap in the face. Wei quan and I ignited our cyllum sticks (green for me, red for him). There were hundreds of stars in the sky… beautiful sight… As if the whole universe had turned out to watch the climbers depart. Pity we couldn’t take pictures though… Flash caused the stars to fade. Without flash there would just be blackness. We set off along the trail with our headlamps ablaze, on the look out for obstacles.

Altitude sickness soon took its toll though. People began to fall back… Among them was Wei Quan, who asked me to go on first while he caught his breath. Maybe that was stupid of me, especially since he had my water bottle at that point in time, and I should have known that there was a chance he wouldn’t have made it up. The air was really beginning to be thin, our breathing rates were really much faster than they should have been as we tried to take in more oxygen. I soon lost sight of the red light stick that marked the position of Wei Quan.

We continued climbing. Soon we reached the bare rock face that covered the upper quarter of Kinabalu. This time the gradient was steeper than 45 deg. This time there were no handholds. We had to haul ourselves up by a white rope, no mean task in the dark. Congrats to me, when I was on the way up the first aid kit got tangled in the rope, since my left hand wasn’t available to stabilize it. Somehow I managed to pull myself free without damaging anything. Then we edged along a narrow ledge, with a steep drop behind us. Even scarier was the fact that it was dark, and so the drop seemed impossibly long. So we clung on to the rope and moved and prayed that nothing would happen. Alex’s headlamp blew and i had to help him illuminate his path, climbing 5 m then turning back to let him climb 5 m.

At around 3+, a little more than an hour since we started climbing, we reached the Sayat-Sayat Rest Hut. By now I had totally lost sight of Wei Quan (and my water bottle). Natalia and Amanda (from the netball girls) gave me some water, saying that if I didn’t drink now I wouldn’t have much opportunity to drink later on. So nice of them right? Hehe… We continued on our way up. The gradient was more gentle and it was just a matter of placing one foot after another. This time I was climbing with Zhi Yong, Yao Peng and Natalia (Hope I spelt the names correct?) Allen was there as well, helping Natalia along although he later went somewhere else to help other people. I tried eating oreos since I was getting hungry. The biscuits were totally frozen. Had to exert a lot of energy to crack through them. Haha… We stopped from time to time to take pictures, to rest, to drink water. I had to steal water from other people… Thanks Zhi Yong =). Staggering up through the thin air was a very fulfilling experience though. By now our hands were frozen because the rope had been wet and our gloves had been soaked. Some people say that my lips had turned brownish-black. It was due to lack of water, NOT because I had been suffering from frostbite.

We sighted the summit and scrambled up towards it, reaching just after the sun started rising. Mr Yeow and Brynner was already there… fantastic man =) We were joined shortly afterwards by others (Alex, the netball people, the NCC guys etcetc). Took many pics. The scenery was beautiful, indescribable. We were above the clouds, sitting in the sun of dawn, looking down on Sabah. I SMSed my parents telling them I was on top of mt K… hehe… (there actually was reception) My hands moved so slowly lor, it was darn cold. Then, we started our trek down.

Again the weather closed in, the mist swirling around us, visibility dropping. Cassandra from table tennis was hit with a bout of altitude sickness, rendering her dizzy and nauseous. Wen Rong gave her the medicine Dramamine, supposed to fight these two problems. Unfortunately this medicine also made her sleepy, leaving a problem on Allen’s hands as he tried to get her off the mountain in deteriorating conditions. I also got into a stupid accident, when Vanessa (one of the netball girls) asked me if Cassandra was okay. I turned back to answer, but tripped and so slid 2 – 5m down the mountain on my hands and knees, prompting them to yell out “are you alright”, a standing joke between us cos earlier she had fallen down and I had yelled the same thing back to her =). Lucky nothing was injured… One of the NCC guys sprained his ankle on the way… No ice in the FA kit, so I used the salompas spray. Its supposed to help, I guess, although I don’t see the link between it and ice.

Allen was fantastic on the way down, supporting Cassandra with Yao Peng’s help. Natalia also displayed extremely high EQ, talking to her constantly. I’d say that SJers could learn a lot about reassurance from Natalia. I arh… I was quite useless… didn’t go near the casualty for most of the part. Honestly, we’re only taught how to treat injuries not sickness… the only useful thing I did was to take her temperature when we suspected fever. But either the thermometer was not working or it was too cold, cos the temperature registered was 36.5 deg C. No hypothermia though. The whole journey down was not easy, what with a semi conscious casualty and all… not easy for Allen they all, that is. The guide said that they tried to get a helicopter, but by now the clouds had surrounded the mountain, and no aircraft could approach safely. Somehow they got her down the slope, down the ropes by the side of the sheer cliff, and down the mountain to Laban Rata where we had spent the night. She recovered relatively fast there, thank God. I went to wash up and had some HOT noodle soup for lunch (again at an exorbitant price). Then I packed up my stuff, brought it to the dining room, filled my water bottle with warm water and promptly fell asleep in the dining room hugging that lovely hot water bottle… hehe…

I think I woke up ½ hr later, with Allen telling us that it was time to begin the 5 hour descent back to Timpohon gate. I was very gonggong when I left the room, since I just woke up, so I lost track of the sec. 4s. Found myself again with Wen Rong and Natalia. Amanda (who had given me water) joined us later on the way down. It was raining and shining at the same time… the same conditions that had caused so many people to fall sick during NCO course 2002. The rain stopped soon after.

Then at the rest stop where we had lunch the day before, since I was getting warmed up, I decided to remove my windbreaker. I was joking that “watch hor, the moment I take off my coat it will begin to rain”

I took off my coat.

The heavens opened and the rain came down. The three of them looked at me with expressions of amusement and mock horror. I’m not joking. Go and ask them if you don’t believe me, they’ll all be in 4L next year.

So we trudged down in the rain, stopping at each rest stop. Wen Rong gave me chocolate to eat… hehe… It was quite misty and wet, and Allen joined us in our descent. To pass the time Natalia was counting the number of steps from the last third of the trail to Timpohon gate. I think she counted 1100+ steps… haha… I dunno how we managed to climb so high lor. Going down was tiring enough, every step jarring our knees and sometimes the shock transmitted to our brains.

5 hours later we reached Timpohon gate, the second batch of AHS climbers to arrive. We took the bus back to the park HQ first, where we reclaimed the luggage we had left there. Then we waited in the bus for the other people to arrive. We talked about leeches (who had attacked Grace, Cassandra’s friend), penguins (Natalia had a stuffed one), potato chips (which were shared throughout the group) and so on. The remaining climbers arrived soon after and the bus took us back to Kota Kinabalu. We had managed to reach the summit of Mount Kinabalu, Low’s Peak (which was not Low at all), at 4095.2m

Oh yes, I broke my headlamp. It survived a 4095.2m ascent to the peak of Mt K, only to be broken in a 10cm fall in the toilet when I was changing

The bus ride back to Kota Kinabalu was horrendous. It was hot and stuffy, and we could not drink water because the bus jumped about so much. When the feller finally switched on the aircon everyone sighed with relief. As Brynner said, we came extremely close to becoming roasted chickens. We reached the Hotel Shangri-la (3 star, not 5 star, but good enough) at around 7+ We asked Mr Chua (who had rejoined us) whether the cost of the hotel had been more ex than the previous group. He said no, cos we traveled by budget airline. We checked into our rooms (mine was 613, with wei quan and alex). Then we took turns to bathe. After our bath we went out for dinner… went to eat bak kut teh at the coffee shop behind the hotel. Brynner wanted to go eat KFC after that, so we accompanied him there anyway. After that back to our room, where we slacked, and watched HBO (not bad TV services for a 3 star hotel lor), Terminator 3 n Maid in Manhatten… hehe….

We slept at 1 am =)