Shadow of the Mountain

We're back! The plan is to write a post on the first half of Mt. Kinabalu, then a post on other events in Borneo, then a final post on Mt. Kinabalu by Will... Hopefully before we go to Ethiopia. I have a feeling our posting will slow down some there, just a guess, so we'll try and get in a good bit before we leave.

So, after spending friday night at a barbeque with all of Candis' friends here, we left sat for Kota Kinabalu, and then started the mountain on Sunday. We started at about 9:40 a.m. at about 6,000 feet up, and we arrived at the rest house at 4:40 p.m. at about 10,500 ft. up, having traveled horizontally about 6km and vertically 1400 m in seven hrs. The hike that day was tough, tons of stairs and rocks, and a pretty steady rain for the last 4 hours. Will felt a little rough from the get go, which meant he didn't eat much lunch, which meant he kinda looked like a zombie for the last 4 hours of the climb that day. Poor guy. Anyways, we made it to the the rest house, got some dinner, and went out to see the view. Here are a few pictures:

The sun setting from the resthouse view.
The shadow that the mountain-yet-to-be-climbed was casting on the horizon; one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Us at the resthouse with Will looking much more chipper.
A sideways picture of a waterfall we saw along the way.
I think that's us at the bottom, getting ready to begin

Here's a video from basecamp, showing the view, the moutain behind us, and the shadow. Sorry for the bad filming.





So after we saw the sun set, we went back in to try and go to sleep at around 7:30 or 8pm for a few hours, the night climb starting around 2:30 a.m. or so. Unfortunately, our heater didn't work, so we couldn't dry off our stuff, so our wet stuff stayed wet. Candis didn't bring a rainjacket, and Will only brought a rainjacket, so It was looking like I was the only one who wasn't going to freeze the next day. Will was feeling a little better, but I wasn't really expecting him to make it far that night. At about 1 a.m. I was kinda cold and I heard Candis stirring so I asked her what time it was. We started talking and woke Will up, so he stumbled out and went to the bathroom. Candis went to try and find a heater to dry off her hoodie, and I was drifting back to sleep when Will came back in the room. I kinda heard him stirring around with his headlamp for a while, then I heard him say, "I think i'm gonna go." I responded, "Go where? " , and Will said, " You know, to the summit." Not long after, the door shut, then it opened again, and Candis came in asked me where Will was. I muttered something about how he left and I how I hoped he wasn't going to die up there, then I fell asleep.

To be continued!

John