I've not been on a mountain trip since Acon in 2020. I was thinking about going for trips but unfortunately the timing was not right and perhaps its not my climbing group trip. I guess Deeno and Pak Am needs to recover after the Denali tragedy that happened.
This trip was planned with my Chief Anaesthetist BossKhoo since early the year of 2024. But writing it down now, its a bit sad because perhaps that was the last time I met Wak. He has passed away late last year due to diabetic complications. He was our contact person there where he would settle all things for you on Sabah trip. The last was duing Covid 2020 with him when i climbed Kinabalu then. He was a good friend whom I met many years ago during our Gunung Hitam trip. Wak a native Sabahan was a very reliable person. When we met him in August 2024, he was just being discharged from hsopital after being ill. I did not expect later on the complications came back and we would not be seeing him again.
It had to be a Wak trip because during one of the shortcuts he claimed, we actually rammed down a big old drain! It was really a scene when we had to call people arounf that area to help pull the car out. But Wak was pretty cool about it as I was worried if we could not be in Kundasang on time that evening. Such memories with Wak will remain as classics.
I did not do enough training for this trip. However I do maintain my level basic of fitness because the important thing was not to get cramped or injured. I learnt from my last trip that I have to protect my knees because it gave me well whilst descending and few months after! Haha
We took the Sutra lodge hence it was very comfortable with the dinner and breakfast before the climb. I did not get much sleep because it always give me the jitters doing this climbing especiallu you know when you are not 100% ready for it.
The weather did not look it was clearing in the early morning. It was drizzling but it did stop. The clouds were dark and I was hoping as per my previous climbs it would be ok. However it turns out to be the wettest climb to Laban Rata I have ever done. It started to rain heavily 1/2 hour into the trek. It went superly cats and dogs! Visibility was bad and I was so cold! Gila.. the step up was like going through a continuous waterfall. That wasthe story of the next 4.5hours up! memang lencun lah tak ingat !!
The rain sort of stopped when we arrived at Laban Rata mid afternoon. Best gile mandi air panas and get yourself fresh at the lodge. Khoo arrived earlier than me as he went up faster. As I've mentioned before ,I was not that fit for this trip and just good enough to survive the hike up.
Later that night, rain started again and it was much heavier than before. Before lights out, I was hoping that it would stop as that would gurantee a very clear path to the summit. I was all hyped up to summit! Unfortunately when we woke up at 1am the rain was still really heavy. We proceeded to get ourselves ready but it did not look good. The ranger called us all down and would give time up to 330am before deciding we could do the summit attack or not.
At 3am he called us back and had to inform the bad news. According to their scouts, the condition after Layang2 was treachorous and dangerous. Hence he had to call it off! Aduhh.. It was so disappointing that we could not go up at the time. The rain was super heavy I have to say as I;ve never experienced such rain in Kinabalu like this before.
We wemt down early in the morning after breakfast with a broken heart. It was all clear and good view of Kinabalu that morning. It was just not our luck that day. Dapat sijil hitam putih je lah. hahaha
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