Mount Kinabalu

Sunrise at Low's Peak, the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

Mount Kinabalu, one of the prominent peaks in Southeast Asia, is deeply revered by the locals and natives. The climbing route to the summit (4,095m) is a popular track for amateurs as it requires no mountaineering equipment.

The day was very cloudy and misty, and I wasn't very hopeful that I'd get any pictures. It was rather lucky that I took my tripod up (I contemplated a few times whether I should lose that 1kg), as the long exposure smooths out the mist and produces a soft and dreamy composition for the sunrise; the cover picture is certainly one of my favourite images from the trip.

Another shot of the mountain terrain at dawn.

The climb consists of 2 legs distributed over two days. The first leg starts from one of base points and finishes at Laban Rata, a rest house that sits at 800 metres below the summit and is the last bastion of civilisation at the top. The second leg starts from Laban Rata and goes all the way up to the summit. Climbers would usually start the second leg early morning in pitch black to get to the summit by 6 for the sunrise.

The climb is arduous but manageable. The first leg is probably not too different an experience to climbing an infinite flights of stairs, while the second leg has some scary bits (from the perspective of someone with height phobia at least), such as scaling up or climbing down on almost vertical cliff walls. Apart from that, the journey involves just a lot of walking on sloping granite rocks.

Resources are scarce at Laban Rata. Most things, including furniture and heavy consumables such as gas tanks, are carried up by local porters.

Going through the route, it was interesting to see how the terrain changes with altitude. We start out in a tropical rainforest setting — extremely humid with greens and life all around us — and as altitude climbs the vegetation noticeably thins out and the terrain changes to mudrock and eventually to just pure granite at the top.

When we got to the summit, it wasn't all that interesting — it had a plaque to remind us that we were at Low's Peak and that's it. The views around there, however, are another world (hopefully the pictures attest that).

Once we've have taken in all the sights (and starting to freeze), the knee-breaking hike down awaits. The journey back is pretty straight forward: we followed the same trail that got us up there.

South Peak, one of the most photogenic and recognised peaks at Mount Kinabalu.

A great view point from the top to the civilisation below.

Waterfall at Poring, an area near the national park and is famous for its hot spring.