Gunung Kinabalu - 4.095m

And then it was time for the real stuff... for the first time in exactly 4 years, I would climb a mountain again (only if you do not count in the Dutch 'mountains' of course - and no dad, de 'Archemerberg' does not count either ;))!! I left KK at 7am which I considered a luxury realizing the meters to climb ahead of me.



(porters just carried everything up the mountain)



(Steps were endless... 2.500 at least until the resthouse!!)
Lucky me, this climb was actually without luggage, apart from some food/drinks/clothes.
Starting from 1.866m, during the first 4h30 I dragged myself up the 2.500 stairs until reaching 3.272 where was Laban Rata, the Resthouse that gave a 5-star service considering circumstances of the height and manual labour to keep it running: never had an unlimited buffet in a mountainhut before, nor hot showers or clean towels!! Although the guys complained that they only had ice-cold water...



(sun and rain in perfect harmony on this mountain!!)



(Sunset from Laban Rata Resthouse)



(sunset 2 from Laban Rata, just couldn't get enough of it :)

Next morning - or should I say late that night?! - at 2.30am it was time to climb the last 800m to the summit. The night was pitch-black, no street lightning here no, but after 3h of just switching off and easy going, I reached the summit at 5am :))



(no comment...)








It was fantastic!! Sunset and sunrise made it totally worth it, together with the great people I met on the mountain :))