By Ron de los Reyes; Ron on the Run
I first heard about Mt. Kinabalu from a roommate during my early college days at U.P. The guy was a geology major and he would always talk about places he wanted to go to someday, one of them was Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. I found it quite interesting because almost every other week, my friend would come from a camping expedition from some mining fields and mountains as part of his class activities. I never heard from him after college and I’m not sure if he ever got to climb Mt. Kinabalu.
Just recently, I never imagined that I would be able to climb Mt. Kinabalu, Southeast Asia’s highest peak at 14,000 feet. The climb was one of the options offered by Isuzu Philippines Corporation and Isuzu Malaysia for those attending the Isuzu D-Max Dura Mission in Kota Kinabalu in November 2009. It was a very busy month and although I never got to prepare well the way I did when we climbed Mt. Pulag and Mt. Apo, I took the challenge along with seven other members of the delegation.
Isuzu Philippines president Keiji Takeda said they chose Kota Kinabalu to give us a broader peek into Isuzu’s achievements in this part of the world. He said, “The clamor for the D-Max has expanded in Malaysia when it was introduced here in 2005. Last year, the D-Max sales in Malaysia jumped by a whopping 67 percent. Being accepted as a real business tool, the D-Max has gained an unbeaten reputation here.”
Meantime, Isuzu Malaysia president Takashi Hata noted that IPC could not have chosen a better destination. ”Sabah is Isuzu Malaysia’s biggest market. The hilly terrain and rugged countryside make vehicles like our D-Max ideal for tackling the tough road conditions.”
On our second day, four D-Max 4×4 units lined up at the hotel driveway for us to test drive. Our first destination was the Mari-Mari Village, an authentic tribal community. The next two hours became an immersion of sorts into the Malaysian culture, food, and way of life. Of course, with a wacky group such as the motoring journalists, we had a lot of laughter in between.
After lunch, the D-Max I shared with Dino Directo of Manila Standard Today and my son Ronald, and the rest of the group drove for about an hour to KK’s main river for the white water rafting adventure.
After more than hour, the water adventurers hit dry land and we prepared for a real 4×4 drive to the Mt. Kinabalu Hertige Park where our hotel is located.
The D-Max’s shift-on-the fly 4×4 mode came handy as we tackled moderate to serious off-road driving conditions. A simple push to a button made shifting to 4×4 high or low very easy. Even at 4×2 mode, the D-Max survived some relatively hard maneuvers but when darkness enveloped the mountain roads, we maintained it at 4×4 high to make sure we had better traction on loose sand and gravel.
The only time we shifted to 4×4 low was when we passed a long muddy, 40-degree incline road that led to a sharp curve when we were about half an hour away from our hotel. It was like off-roading in Tanay, Rizal in the old days.
At 9 a.m. on our third day, all eight climbers assembled at the hotel lobby for the transport stage to the Timpohon Gate, the starting point for the climb at more than 3,000 feet.
Among those who saw us off were Mr. Takeda, IPC EVP Yuki Kato, SVP Art Balmadrid, public relations manager Timmy de Leon, PR supervisor Ronald Baladad and sales executive Rico Macalintal and colleagues Dino Directo and Anjo Perez of Manila Bulletin.
With a backpack of about seven kilos, the first two kilometers of the climb was tolerable but on the next two kilometers, the bag became heavier and my legs started to wobble. My rest stops became longer hoping I could harness some energy with three-minute cat naps.
Climbing Mt. Kinabalu is a major tourism activity in Sabah, The climb is divided into two parts. The first one is from Timpohon Gate at Kinabalu Park HQ to Laban Rata and the second one from Laban Rata to the summit.
On our 4-km rest stop and after about six hours of climbing, I gave my backpack to our porter and settled for my small backpack enough to carry my water canister, videocam and digicam. It was cold what with intermittent rains coming our way but I continued perspiring under my jacket.
At 2,515 meters or about 8,000 feet, the fourth shelter offers vistas of wild flowers and orchid ferns. The largest moss in the world, Dawsonia grows up to a meter high in this area. There are supposed to be a number of animals to be spotted here but I only saw squirrels as the other animals are either nocturnal or shy away from visitors.
Despite a lighter load, I still had a tough time taking the last two kilometers up to Laban Rata where our hotel in the mountain stands. The trail is harder than Mt. Apo (which I climbed almost four years ago) but much safer because of the well-laid out steps and directional signs to the summit. Mt. Apo has almost none of these and much more slippery.
On the 5-km mark, at Pondok Layang Layang the intimidating rocky wall of Mt. Kinabalu showed itself. By this time, we were already above the clouds and the air felt thinner.
A small hut serving as a temporary shelter stands on an open exposed ridge. The vegetation changes dramatically, where the trail crosses the orange-cinnamon soil.
The forest becomes progressively shorter and much more open.
I finally made it to Laban Rata at 11,000 ft. (1,000 ft higher than Mt. Apo). I was so exhausted and hungry, I went straight to the restaurant after depositing my bags in the hotel-dorm.
The hotel was comfortable and cozy and had limited hot shower and heater in the room but the air felt thin I did not get a good sleep. Joseph felt the same way when we saw each other at 1 a.m. of our fourth and last day. This was the time all climbers suited up for the 2:30 a.m. summit hike.
Joseph and I decided to stay and sent our six climbers off together with about a hundred foreign climbers. I worried I might injure myself if I pushed for the summit which was 3,000 ft more and had sharper incline.
Reaching 11,000 ft itself was no mean feat, I consoled myself. At this elevation, the clouds were several hundred feet below us and the view was already spectacular.
But at around 8 a.m., I decided to hike further up to get a better view of the peak and to welcome our hikers back and interview them on my video cam too. It was a tremendous view from another 300 feet up.
Finally the summiteers arrived one by one – Hermes Canon of Isuzu, Ayvi Nicholas of Philippine Star, Ronald Rey de los Reyes, Charles Buban of Philippine Daily Inquirer, Enrico Subido of Gadgets and Larajill Santos of Isuzu. They said they were happy to survive the very cold temperature, possibly 5 degrees, the wet surface and ropes, the slippery conditions and climbing in the dark. The view at Low’s Peak was spectacular and they were so thankful that they saw one of Nature’s most beautiful creations.
Breakfast and a two-hour rest followed and then we all headed for the descent, another six kilometers of hiking. Having rested a bit, I was the first to reach the starting gate at Timpohon.
The day before, I spent eight hours climbing while the others averaged six to seven hours. On the way back, I made it in less than 3.5 hours. Going down was not really that easy but we tried to make it as fast as we could because we had a 7 p.m. flight to catch.
After a late lunch, we shuttled to our meeting place at a seafood restaurant more than two hours away but we only had a few minutes to arrange our baggage and we hurried to the airport just in time for our flight back to Manila.
Whew! The Kota Kinabalu challenge is something we will remember for a long, long time.
