Kinabalu Climb - 10th Thoroughbred 20 years of friendship (part 6)

Day 3 - 22 May 2009 ( Summit Climb)

The guides told us that we need to reach Sayat-Sayat, the last and only checkpoint, before 0530. That gives us abt 2.5 hrs to do that, very do-able. Our game plan was to stick together as a group, at least until Sayat-Sayat, where the guides will verify and certify you to climb to the top.

If I'm not mistaken, we were the 2nd group that started the climb to the peak, as we can see few moving lights ( assume to be headlights, abt 50m ahead of us). We were all walking in a single file. To make sure everybody was close to each other, we started calling ‘nombor dari depan’. I was no 2, behind Ayun and in front of Idi.

It was pure climb all the way man, and you couldn’t see anything except the person in front of you. From time to time, when there were clearances(no trees/rocks), as I turned back, I can see the shimmering lights of KK city. And at that point , I started to realize that the view was not much different from an aero plane. Heck, we were like 3500m above sea level, that’s abt 10-11K feet.

Every 10-20 mins, Ayun will shout for nombor. Mula2 tu dgr la, 1 sampai 11, lepas tu 1 sampai 7, bila dah sampai 1-5, dah malas dah nak call for nombor lagi . Apparently, some of us needed to stop and rest. Air was getting thinner, susah nak bernafas.

To keep the spirit high, at the front of the pack, Ayun, Idi and myself tried to keep the spirit high by singing. But it was a tall order, adala 3-4 lagu je kitorg menyanyi, sampai ‘Taman Rasyidah Utama’ kitorg stop, tinggi beb lagu tu, tak sampai….angin pun dah tarak.

The real...I mean the 'real' climb came when we saw so many lights high above us, but not too far from us, basically kena dongak abt 45 degree jugak la. It was a little bit congested actually, bcos this was the part kena start panjat pakai tali, so pergerakan agak slow.

There were no more trees to protect us from the forceful wind. And for the first time, I doubted myself. All the negative thoughts started to kicked in (kalau terlepas tali, mesti jatuh bergolek2 masuk gaung) . But I stopped for a moment, rechecked, and doubled up the positive thoughts. I’m not one to be put off with this challenges. I must carry on.

At this point, I realized that only Ayun and Idi were left with me. And bcos of that, Ayun was the sole victim of the angin that came out of my ass. Gila bai, asyik terkentut2 je. Ni la bahana makan byk sgt, tapi tak berak2. Eventhough Ayun was walking in front of me, because of the wind, dia yg terpaksa menghirup dan menikmati kentut aku. Sorry bro, Mantat kata pasal ‘Nature’s Valley’ bar. Byk kacang dlm tu. Don’t blame me.

After abt 1.5 hrs, we reached Sayat-Sayat. We cheked in our name and I went to kencing. Still no sign of rasa nak 'kubab'.. good. We(Ayun&Idi) shared, the power gels and put on lip gloss here.

After abt 10 mins rest, we started again. In my opinion, this was the hardest part of the whole climb. Steep gile, kena pakai tali and totally exposed to the wind. Silap langkah mmg Jatuh gaung punya, gerenti.

But it had the most beautiful view of the sky, it was soooo clear. I just felt so close to the stars, I feel I can reach them. But on the ground, we struglled to move up. We stopped every 50 steps.

Kaki rasa berat gila and perut tiba2 buat hal. Byk org kata, tuhan akan bagi dugaan yg berbeza2 dalam perjalanan ini. To me, the god was testing whether I can hold my stool or not. FYI, when I climbed G. Tahan, I sudah melepas kat puncak, and perut sakit the whole way back (Own, my G.Tahan buddy can verify that). Now I don’t want to make the same mistake again. I said to myself if I have to berak dlm seluar, so be it. I don’t care any more. Well obviously, I did not do that. I kept my dignity intacted and passed the test with flying colors as the sakit perut hilang after 10 mins.

Few stops later , suddenly we heard a very familiar voice. Capoi!!!.

As he was the only experience climber, initially he was at the back of the group trying to support the others who he anticipates gonna have problems. But he said, he needed to make a move up bcos he would not be able to continue the climb if he arrives too late at Sayat-Sayat.

He urged us to walk faster if we were to catch the fantastic sunrise. But we told them its hard to do that, so he asked us to walk zig zag. Really zig zag man, like if u walk straight u take 5 steps, by zig zagging u’ll take 20 steps. Sounds like kena jalan lagi jauh, but it fought off the effect of gravity as compared to climbing straight. It works man, it really worked. But by then, Capoi was nowhere to be seen, mcm sherpa la dia jalan.

Now, we were not struggling as much as before. I kept on walking, and I made a target to reach a landmark abt 200m ahead where I saw few lights close to each other. It was actually the 8K mark signboard(3929m). I stopped there and waited for Ayun and Idi. They arrived few minutes later, with Itik and Own, who also started at the back as the sweepers. Unfortunately, they told us that Izzat could not join us to the summit . I feel for Izzat but at the same time I felt very happy as I can reach the summit, which was abt 750m away, with at least 4 other guys at the same time.

We stopped abt 10 mins, gobbled up the PowerBar Gels and drinks and snapped up few pics. Now, this is it man, the last climb up to the peak. We started walking again and I felt very comfortable doing the zig zag. After a while, I turned back, the others were quite a distance from me. But I couldn’t stop, I’m on a good rhtym now.

At the 90 degree turn, maybe 100-70m from the peak. I started to feel very tired again. But as the sun started to rise, I can see the imposing figure of the peak....It was a very humbling feeling.
Allahuakbar, Allah maha besar, those were the words that I uttered, subconciously . The feeling was indescribable. I just felt like I'm soooo small, terharu, sebak and happy. God is great. I don’t know what else to say.

Well I need to keep on. I'm not there yet. I kept on saying “One little step at a time, don’t stop until u reach your goal’. Abt 50m from the peak, suddenly I can hear very clearly Capoi shouting, “C’mon Jabir, sikit lagi”. Those words brought strength to me. I ramp up the pace and at points was running. 5m from peak, Capoi held out his hand to reach and hug me.

At 5:50 AM, 22 May 2009, I was the highest man standing in South East Asia (4095m). Alhamdullillah....

Ayun, Idi, Itik and Own reached the peak few mins after me, to join Capoi and myself at the top. We spent quite some time at the peak to take pics. No need for me to elaborate on the view, it was fantastic. But more importantly, we stayed up there as long as we could (sejuk gila bai angin dia) to enjoy the moment, the moment that will stay with us for the rest of our lives. The moment where we celebrate 20 years of friendship....

Farouk, Pelat and Mantat reached the summit a while later. I’m just so happy for them that they can reach the summit despite all the problems(during the climb) that they had. Bedul succefully reached the 3929m mark and Izat also achieved 3272m.


TIADA GUNUNG TERLALU TINGGI, BUAT KAMI DAKI DI TENGAH "MALAM"....