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Climbing Southeast Asia’s highest mountain, Mt Kinabalu, can be a highlight of any holiday to Borneo. If you’re interested in making the trek part of your trip, have a read through the below. Our Borneo expert has done the climb and arranged many a holiday for Fleewinter guests who wish to do the same. Here’s what you need to know before you book – and a few things you may want to know, too.
If you’re reasonably healthy and generally active, the climb may be harder on the mind than the body. If your idea of a strenuous workout is walking the aisles of Tesco, this might not be for you. The trail involves an untold number of stairs, a few areas where a little rock scrambling is warranted, and many places to pause for breath.
Here’s how the climb breaks down:
Traffic jams happen but in most places the trail is wide enough to pass. Along the way, you’ll find shaded areas to rest, toilets, and taps with mountain spring water. Treating the water before drinking it is recommended.
All climbers must have a guide and if anyone in the group is under the age of 16, you will be required to have multiple guides. Children as young as age 5 have been known to do the climb.
If you ask, a good guide will set the pace for you. If you don’t, he’ll bring up the rear of your group and let you wear yourself out or dawdle as you wish. You may want to hike the first hour or so at your natural pace to let your guide get a sense of your level of fitness. When you stop for a break, ask him to take the lead. Speaking of breaks, it’s important to allow your body to adjust to the altitude so even if you have the energy to carry on, rest when you reach the rest points!
Anyone who is reasonably fit, has no major health problems, and has the mental stamina to make the climb can hike Mount Kinabalu. Guides have stories of people not reaching the summit until well past sunrise and finishing the descent at midnight. For the generally active person, it’s probably fair to expect about 3-5 days of sore quads following the climb and you may want to plan an easy day after the descent.
Rainy, sunny, cloudy, misty, hot, cold, and ever changing. Plan for all of it as there’s a very good chance you’ll experience myriad weather patterns. If the wind or rain is too strong at the summit, you won’t be allowed up on day two. If you wake at 2 am to the sound of rainfall, don’t give up hope. The rain may stop by 3 am and the path will open. You may still get a sunrise at the summit. If your guide tells you to hurry up or to turn around, listen and do as he says. Many of the guides have climbed the mountain hundreds of times and they know the warning signs for a storm. Winds can blow at 120km/hour and rainfall can be torrential. No one wants to be caught in that.
Historically, March and April are the driest and best months to climb but these days, it’s anyone’s guess when you’ll get a sunny morning and when you’ll have a soggy slog.
The highest via ferrata in the world is atop Mount Kinabalu. This “iron road” is a series of pegs, cables, and rails that allow people to pass along stretches of mountain they otherwise couldn’t. At the time of writing, there are two circuits in use and another under construction. The Low’s Peak Circuit takes an average of 3-4 hours dropping 1.2 km from the 7.5km mark. Walk the Torq is a shorter option beginning at the 7km point and ending at the same spot as the Low’s Peak Circuit. Climbers booked into the Via Ferrata stay in a designated hut and have a different meal schedule on day two to accommodate the prolonged descent time.
If you’re racing back to Kota Kinabalu after the climb – whether to catch a ferry to Gaya Island or because you have an early morning flight the following day to Sandakan or for any other reason – skip the Via Ferrata. If you’re caught behind a slower group, you will have no choice but to wait. It could easily be twilight by the time you reach the base of the mountain.
On the other hand, if you have time and you’re up for the adventure, it can be an incredible experience. When the weather is clear, the views as you look down the rock face and turn outwards are stunning. The physical challenge of using your upper and lower body to navigate the course and then descend the mountain as your legs turn to jelly is pleasantly exhausting if you’re into that sort of thing.
Yes.
There are exactly the same number of permits as there are beds on the mountain and some of those are reserved for Malaysians. For peak times such as March-May and July-August, permits are often secured a year in advance. Once you decide you want to climb the mountain as part of your holiday and you have a window of dates for the trip, the first thing to do is secure your mountain permit. Everything else will need to fall into place around that.
Accommodation on the mountain is at Laban Rata and Pendant Hut, primarily in dorms. You can read more about these here. There are a very limited number of rooms that can be reserved for a couple, family, or small group. These tend to book extremely far in advance so if this is important to you, it’s best to be very flexible with your dates and plan to arrange your holiday around when one is available.
When you book with Fleewinter, a packed lunch for your first day and buffet-style meals at Laban Rata are included in your climb along with a light lunch when you return to Park HQ on day two. Vegetarians are catered for and there is a small a la carte menu with additional offerings for purchase. We recommend bringing your preferred high energy snacks from home to keep you going through the climb.
Loads, actually. Which is why when you book the climb with us, we give you a handy guide full of tips, packing list, and other things you might want to know. For example, if you have a local SIM card in your phone, you can get a signal on most of the mountain and yes, there are places to charge your phone at Laban Rata. Aside from the practical bits, there are a few things to be aware of.
The mountain is considered sacred to the indigenous Kadazan Dusun people who believe it to be the resting place of the dead. Local guides and signage remind climbers that hiking the mountain is to be done with respect. Climbers are asked to not swear at or curse the mountain and when a group of foreign climbers stripped naked at the summit in 2015, they were jailed, fined, and deported. Disrespecting the local customs and rules is taken seriously.
A few weeks after that incident, the mountain changed forever. A 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook Mount Kinabalu, killing 18 people. Buildings were destroyed, the “donkey ears” peak is no longer, a trail was closed, and safety precautions were increased. There are new buildings in place now and rebuilding continues.
If you’d like to know more about climbing Mount Kinabalu as part of a trip to Borneo, please give us a call at (UK) 020 7112 0019 or email borneo@fleewinter.com. Our expert would be delighted to plan your holiday.
Do you fancy having a chat about Mt Kinabalu? Personally, it's one of our favourite things to talk about.