"Because It's There"

- George Mallory

In the halcyon days of 2019, three friends - Kevin, Gosia, and myself - made plans to climb South East Asia’s tallest mountain, Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. The ascent was to take place in March 2020, a reasonably calm period for every facet of our journey. Our work would be quieter, the weather on the ascent was to be better, and it was outside of holidays so less people as well. Scheduled afterwards was a week in a resort to relax/pamper ourselves and explore the rest of Kota Kinabalu. What could go wrong?!

However, little did we know that this would be the last holiday for all of us for 2 years, thanks to a little thing called Covid-19.

This travel journal was taken exclusively with an iPhone 11 Pro Max as I wanted to really stress test the iPhone Camera, and I have to say, I came out rather impressed! (I also didn’t want to lug 2kg of DSLR equipment either…)

I hope you enjoy the read and viewing the photos!

The Night Before.

We stayed at the Hilton the night before which had a rather quaint view Kota Kinabalu at night. It was a rather nice hotel to stay at, which also provided a 5am breakfast for us, and at that time, we duly set off on a 1 hour van ride to start conquering Mt. Kinabalu!

I would like to note, by this time in March, we did hear about Covid-19 or the “Wuhan Flu” as it was named then, but decided to press on ahead regardless. We assumed the odds of catching Covid-19 would be rather low on the top of a mountain anyway.

That group picture, look how smiley and happy we are. Little did we know we would be utterly broken in 48 hours time (at least, I was).

The Ascent to Base Camp.

The ascent to base camp started off well, but eventually crescendoed into a gruelling slog in the end. Suffice to say we only managed to reach base camp around 6pm-ish (we were supposed to be there mid afternoon).

The climb was roughly 6km in length but climbed about 3.2km in altitude, which doesn’t sound a lot, but with the uneven trail it did start to ache on the quads.

However, along the way, the sights and view were amazing. There wasn’t much in terms of fauna, but the flora was amazing. At the different altitude levels, you could see the dramatic and drastic change of the plant life owing to the temperature / oxygen / rain levels.

The iPhone was in its element here and didn’t miss a beat.

We reached base camp at around 6pm and it was outfitted better than thought, with it generally clean and modestly well kept. Even with a buffet dinner available for all the weary climbers. Accommodation was shared with bunk beds. There are showers available as well, however, there had a sustained lack of rainfall before we arrived so they were rationing water where they could and switched off the showers.

All the supplies in the base camp are manually carried by locals who, impressively, managed to climb up and down before we even managed to get to base camp.

After dinner, you’re greeted with free time, however, set off for the summit is at 2am, so it’s advisable to pack for the summit climb and rest as much as possible.

The Ascent to the Summit.

This leg of the climb wasn’t the toughest, but the scariest. Given that we were at the top of a mountain in the middle of the night, there was no light other than the headlamps worn by ourselves and the other climbers. There were certain instances where we had to rope climb up the side of the mountain in the black of night. If we slipped and fell into the darkness - or got lost - it would be almost impossible to find us. It was also cold, very very cold. Despite that, the reward of the seeing the sunrise rise over Kota Kinabalu and the ensuing warmth on our backs was a just reward.

This was the biggest test for the iPhone. As mentioned, the lighting conditions were less than ideal to put it mildly. However, the night mode, which was newly introduced with the iPhone 11, managed to perform admirably given the circumstances. Whilst it did struggle when there was absolutely zero light (the city centre shot shows it struggled), when there was low light, it managed to provide shots which would’ve been inconceivable from a mobile phone a few years prior.

The Peak.

I reached it!

It was unbelievably awe inspiring and magnificent to be on top of the world, far above the clouds and the world below (which unbeknownst to us, was imploding due to Covid). The view was jaw dropping and was worth all the effort to get up there.

Nothing more to say that I am incredibly proud of myself and my friends for conquering the mountain!

Going to drop this year’s hottest Christian Rock album

The Descent.

After reaching the summit, we proceed to head back to base camp and then back to the bottom of the mountain in one go. The views heading down were equally astounding (with the clouds like a warm blanket over KK)… and the darkened ascent didn’t look quite as scary in broad daylight!

To who ever says going down hill is easier is lying. It was hard - the continual stress on the knees and quads took its toll on me. All the uneven steps, trails, and hills which were tough going up (with 100% energy levels) were now herculean feats going down hill with severely depleted energy stores and sore muscles.

Out of the Frying Pan,
and into the Fire.

Exhausted. Utterly exhausted. I don’t think my body has been so thoroughly broken before. However, I would highly recommend this climb to everyone. The view is amazing and there’s nothing quite like this within South East Asia. I am incredibly proud and honoured to have done it, and that sense of accomplishment is irreplaceable.

Our plan was to spend a week at a Shangri-La resort to recuperate but of course, as previously mentioned, the best laid plans often go awry.

The instant we got signal, our phones lit up like Christmas trees informing us of the Singapore border closure and we had less than 24 hours to get back into Singapore. What was a drama-free, but physically challenging afternoon had now morphed into a frantic mental exercise in trying to organise all our returns to Singapore. However, that’s a story for another time.

I hope you enjoyed this and thank you for getting to here!