Marking 5th year of Mt Kinabalu quake
JUNE the fifth will mark the fifth year of the 2015 earthquake that hit the country’s first World Heritage Site — Mount Kinabalu in Sabah – killing 18 people.
The boulders that tumbled down on four mountain guides and 14 climbers who perished in the magnitude six tremor, can still be seen today. I was reminded of the tragedy when I saw the massive piles of rocks along the route while descending Low’s Peak, the summit of Mount Kinabalu or Akinabalu, as it is known among the Kadazandusun, on March 3.
I was with a tour group to Kota Kinabalu organised by the Sibu Journalists Association (SJA). The trip was actually planned one year ahead.
One of the places we visited was Kinabalu Park, where a monument, inscribed with the names of the 18 victims, is mounted at the Kiau Gap View platform. I was hoping we would be assigned a guide who had witnessed the seismic devastation as I wanted to hear his stories.
Mount Kinabalu need not be expensive for climbers from Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. For our trip, four of us in the group chose to do it on a tight budget, capped at RM1,000 per climber. We opted not to go through travel agents to secure climbing slots as we found the costs to be much higher than the capped price via our own arrangement (excluding air tickets, transportation, and accommodation in Kota Kinabalu).
Taking the cue from climbers who had slots without an agent, we contacted Sabah Parks, which handles the reservations. The availability of climbing slots is subject to the number of vacant beds at Panalaban Base Camp hostels where climbers stay before their ascent. The hostels, run by Sabah Parks and Sutera Sanctuary Lodges (SSL,) has 135 beds.
On Nov 7, Sabah Parks confirmed our climbing slots. We settled the booking fee of RM457 per climber, inclusive of a onenight stay at Kinotoki Hostel, three meals (dinner, early breakfast, and breakfast), insurance, and climbing permit. We bought our return tickets after receiving confirmation of the slots.
Overall, each one of us spent less than the capped amount, including for climbing slots and accommodation before and after the climb, transportation, meals, air tickets, guide, and Kinabalu Park entrance fees.
Guides and porters
The one name that lingers whenever I think of or see
Akinabalu is Robbie Sapinggi, who was the face of the mountain guides and porters. Robbie, 31, and three other guides, Joseph Solungin, 33, Ricky Masirin, 28, and Valerian Joannes, 28, were among the 18 killed in the earthquake.
Our guide Peter Subin pointed us to the spot where Robbie’s body was found when we stopped at the Aki View platform while climbing down from Sayat Sayat to Panalaban Base Camp. The body was recovered at 4pm on June 5 near Laban Rata about 20 metres from where Robbie was reportedly hit by falling rocks while trying to save a climber.
The locals believe the earthquake happened because ‘Aki’ (mountain protectors) were angered by 10 foreign tourists, who stripped and urinated near the South Peak on May 30, 2015.
The mountain, estimated to be about 15 million years old, and forming part of Crocker Range separating the west and east coasts of Sabah, is sacred to the
Kadazandusun. To them, the mountain is named after a god, Aki Nabalu, who takes care of the mountain with another god, Odu Nabalu.
At Timpohon Gate, the starting point of the climb, Peter briefed us on the dos and don’ts, and safety guidelines such as no shouting, no misbehaving, and no indiscriminate littering during both ascent and descent.
According to him, a male climber died when he plunged down a ravine near Sayat Sayat checkpoint after ignoring the advice of his guide.
Our climb started at 8.45am. After about 10 minutes, we passed Carson’s Falls, a waterfall named after Kinabalu Park’s first warden, George Carson.
Kandis Hut, the first of seven shelters, 1,981 metres above sea level, was sighted after about one hour into the hike. Here, climbers refill their water bottles, use the loos or rest before continuing to Panalaban Base Camp. The other shelters are Ubah Hut at 2,095m, Lowii Hut (2,286m), Mempening Hut (2,518m), Layang Layang Hut (2,702m), Villosa Hut (2,960m), and the last shelter Paka Hut (3,080m).
Somewhere between Mempening Hut and Layang Layang Hut, we spotted a woman and a child carried piggyback by a Mountain Search and Rescue (Mosar) personnel member descending to Timpohon Gate. One of the rescuers said the woman could not walk due to pain in her legs after climbing the mountain.
Guide, porter charges
Peter said the guiding charges ranged from RM400 to RM600 per km, based on the person’s weight, adding that the basis of the porters’ charges was similar.
Porters are important to Panalaban Base Camp hostel operators and the climbers. They carry almost anything — food, bottled and canned drinks, bed linen, toilet paper, gas cylinders, wooden planks, and diesel.
Peter, who became a guide two years ago, used to be a porter. He worked in Miri for many years before returning home.
We finally reached Panalaban Base Camp after climbing up countless steps for seven hours. We made many stops, particularly after Mempening Hut where the trail got steeper and rockier.
Three of us made our ascent to the summit slightly after 2.30am without our team leader Ho Toh Kai of See Hua Daily News, who had to stay back due to leg cramps.
After breakfast, Peter again briefed us on safety. At certain parts after Sayat Sayat checkpoint, climbers would be using ropes to pull themselves up. Climbing in stark darkness with 2.7km left to the summit, we had about two hours 30 minutes to reach Sayat Sayat checkpoint at the KM7 mark.
It was between Panalaban and Sayat Sayat that my colleague Jane Moh and I actually crawled along the stairs, built above steep rock inclines, as breathing got harder with thinning air. Florence Nervyn of Utusan Borneo was behind us with Peter.
The scheduled time to reach Saya Sayat checkpoint was 5am. Anyone who came later would not be allowed access to the summit. The reason was to give climbers ample time at the peak before trekking down to Panalaban to be in time for breakfast and checking out. There is a penalty for late check-outs. Those who miss breakfast could still buy food at Laban Rata cafeteria.
So near, yet so far
We stopped for a while at Aki Point Lookout, a new highlight on the Ranau Trail before continuing to Sayat Sayat. After walking for two hours, the generator-powered lamps at Sayat Sayat, which incidentally has the highest toilet facility in the country at 3,668m above sea level, were finally in sight. This was where the park ranger recorded the time climbers reached the checkpoint.
The distance from Sayat Sayat to Low’s Peak, the summit, is about 1.7km. The white ropes, bolted into the rocks, are linked from this checkpoint up to Low’s Peak for climbers to pull themselves up some of the steep parts.
Looking down, the view from below was spectacular and at this point, the Ugly Sister Peak, Donkey’s Ears Peak, and South Peak became more visible in the dark. We were fortunate the weather was kind.
The rope section is only 500m but it took us more than one hour to reach the KM8 mark before proceeding to Low’s Peak, just 700m ahead. We continued to walk at a slow pace and stopped after a few steps.
Jane said the final few hundred metres to the summit were the hardest because while she could see the peak, “It still seems very far away.”
We finally reached Low’s Peak slightly after 7am and had to wait for our turn to take photos at the peak’s signboard crowded with climbers.
The feeling was indescribable to be above the clouds. We took a wefie in front the signboard with the following epithet — Id Kahandaman Di Gunting bin Lagadan Huguan Manananud Tutumakad Nulu Kinabalu Ih Nokopogulu — or in memory of Gunting bin Lagadan, the first guide for Mount Kinabalu in Kadazandusun.
It warms of the cockles of the heart to know that we once stood at the 4,095.2m above sea level, the highest of Borneo’s Crocker Range, which, despite the 2015 earth-shattering trauma, still beckons to those with a love of the outdoors, a head of heights, and a mountaineering spirit.