Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 3)

Day 3 - 21 May 2009 (pre-climb)

For all the talk that we have talked, this is the time to walk the walk...

Woke up at 0600, dah terang benderang. Bangun-bangun je sudah angin, nak kubab tak boleh pasal air tarak. Dah la terpijak air yg bertakung dlm toilet, mak ai..sejuk gile. Ni semua Mantat punya kerja la semalam. He wanted to sort of clean/rinse the toilet floor, but to his horror the toilet doesnt have any water outlet. Leceh betullah...

We reported to Capoi of this water problem. He went down. 10-15 mins later air dah ada. I think the org cabin tu takut dgn loud speaker Capoi kut. Cepat2 dia bukak pump. Dekat cabin ni, the water heaters are a bit special. They are being heated by actual fire. Serious man, no kidding. They have this kind of penunu bunsen bawah heater compartment to heat the water up. Jakun jugakla kitorang tengok.

We went down arnd 8, wearing the magnificent orange dyr-fit t-shirts designed by Mantat. Jauh sebatu pun boleh nampak. Had another photo session with the mount as the backdrop. Betul la cakap Itik, bila tgk gambar balik mcm team Holland, except the real team tak boroi2 mcm kitorang la.

One thing I wanna touch about this t-shirt is that we had a line of lyric from commando song written at the back "Tiada gunung terlalu tinggi, buat kami daki di tengah MALAM". I'm sure you can spot the difference. Yep, the original line was PANAS, but Mantat changed it to MALAM, accidentally. But come to think of it, it does make sense, bcos our final climb to the summit will be at 2-3 AM. Good thinking lah Mantat.

We reported ourselves at Kinabalu Park arnd 0830. They passed to us the permit to climb, a tag that bears our name. You need to hang it on your neck at all time. As expected, they misspelled my name - Mior Arip Iskandar. Arif la bang. Ada jugak 2-3 org yg nama tak betul. We need to correct this at the last checkpoint(Sayat-Sayat) tomorrow, kalau tak tukar, it will be the one written in the cert.

The guides (Tubik & Sigol) did a briefing on our climb. Some key points that they touched were on cleanlines (jgn buang sampah rata2 and kalau nampak sampah tolong kutip)and on the pace (dont stop for too long nanti senang cramp).

The plan for the whole climb was,
1. Timpohon Gate - Laban Rata (4-7 hrs, 6K)
The next day
2. Laban Rata - Sayat-Sayat (1 - 2.5 hrs, 1.5K)
3.Sayat-Sayat - Low's Peak (1 - 2 hrs, 1.5 K)
4. Low's Peak - Laban Rata (1-2 hrs)
5.Laban Rata - Timpohon Gate (3-6 hrs)

Got on board the van again to get to Timpohon. This time they sumbat all 11 of us in the van. The spirit was very high. Hingaq gila with the usual kutuk-mengutuk. We were anxious and excited. The adrenalin starting to kick in. As we got off the van, Ayun had the last say..."selamat menZAKI"....as he saw the sign at Timpohon.. "SELAMAT MENDAKI"...Mantat panas.....

Some of us bought the nicely carved climbing pole for RM3 at the gate . Others have the canggih aluminum poles they brought from KL. This walking stick/pole really helps the climb. Advisable to use, as it can lessen the force you put on your legs.

Before the climb, I lead the strecthing and warm up. Meletup-letup bunyi sendi2 and lutut budak2 ni. Angin2 dlm badan, dgn kentot2 semua keluar sekali. Then we huddled up ala-rugby team, one hand on top of the other person's hand, the other hand hugging the mate next to you. Masing2 memberi sepatah dua kata which was caught on Farouk's camcorder. This moment was..... special.

After that, Bedul and Own recited the doa. Finally we had the loudest roars of GEMPUR WIRA. Habih terkejut beruk2 and ungka2 dekat Kinabalu Park yg baru nak makan breakfast.
3 kali GEMPUR WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!
GEMPUR...WIRA!!!

The official climb started at 0910. And so it began...