The things you do for a good sunrise!
This had to be one of the most full-on days of our lives. Standing 4,000 metres up a mountain holding on to a rope for dear life up a vertical rock face in pitch black whilst wind and rain slammed into the side of us we turned into each other and said "What the hell are we doing?"
We were up at 2:15am and downstairs for supper which was pretty much breakfast part one. Outside the wind had picked up and rain had come down overnight. Fred warned us that the conditions were going to be tough encouraging us not to climb. He then delivered a hammer blow saying that there would definitely be no visibility up there for sunrise.
Being the ever optimists and determined to get to the top, the four of us cracked on in the pitch black, head torches on and into the unknown. After some heavy traffic to start with a few overtaking manouvres got us some free space as we started hitting some steep gradients, climbing hands and knees up rock faces and pulling ourselves up ropes but in place to help scale this part of the mountain. The problem was, the higher we got the further into the cloud got and the windier and wet it got.
It started getting really cold and the gradient was so steep which was made all the more difficult in the wind and rain. However, we got to the top a little before sunrise but came to the conclusion as because we could barely see each other's faces two feet away there was no way we'd see the sunrise up over Borneo.
The descent back down to the hut was really good fun using the ropes to absail down and negotiating the rocks as the water spilled down between them was amazing. There were also times that you felt on another planet, walking across a rock face in neither day or night we felt like real explorers.....until we were overtaken by a German that is!
However, to add insult to injury as we approached Laban Rata, the heavens had another treat in store for us as they opened and raindrops the size of water balloons started hitting us. We reached the shelter saturated.
We had s good breakfast wearing some random clothes (the only dry ones we had) including Layla wrapped in a towel and me in some thermal pants that put a little too much on show.
A bit of a 30 minute snooze and we ready for descent. Our hiking clothes were wet but we picked up a good speed and they started to dry. The descent was tough as legs were already weary but the conditions made it worse. The main thing that kept us going was the people we met going down who were only too happy to stop, chat and use it as an excuse to rest for a couple of minutes.
The last 2km in particular were a killer but we were back in the lush tropical rainforest which was stunning even more now it had got a severe dumping of rain.
We arrived at 1:30pm at Timpohon Gate at the bottom of the summit trail after 9 hours of walking. We were extrmely exhausted but so chuffed to have made it. The one bitter point was not seeing the sunrise which is the real drawcard but the whole experience was amazing.
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