A self employed General Practitioner who lives with his lovely family in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. He dedicates his spare time serving people with precious information on climbing the Majestic Mountain of the Borneo, Mt Kinabalu. Reachable at drizad(at)gmail.comClimbing Mount Kinabalu in ONE DAY???
YES, you can climb Mount Kinabalu in ONE day, climb up in the morning, and climb down in the afternoon. I called Sabah Parks Ranger office just now, inquiring about the possibility of 3 US citizen summit Kinabalu in ONE day. They said it is possible, but there are few things that you have to do.
1. You have to present yourself (and your two other friends) in Kinabalu Park at least a day before your intention to climb. Look for the Manager of the Park, Mr. Haji Abdul Wahab and ask to get the permission & permit to climb in one day. If he is not around, look for the Kinabalu Park Ranger On-Call, and mention the same thing. If everything is satisfactory, You will then can check in to where you have book for your night stay.
2. For ONE day climb, you will then be allowed to climb next morning after confirmation from the Rangers. Guide, insurance and permit is compulsory, i.e. guide will be around RM100-150 for the group, insurance will be around RM10 and permit will be RM100 per person. Certificate of achievement is optional (RM10). All fees to be paid next morning before the climb.
3. You need to start climbing very early next morning, usually before 7am. Better to wake up at 6, and head to the Park office and you will be allocated the guide for you. You will start the climb earlier than other regular climber.
4. You will not allowed to continue your climb to the peak, if you are not able to reach Laban Rata before noon (12pm) or if the weather is not permitting.
Remember, you need to be really FIT, maybe as fit as a climbathon runner… or maybe at least 50%of their ability…
September 18th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Thanks to Dr. Ruhaizad’s reply about the possibility to have a day climb to the Mt. Kinabalu, I actually made it last week. But my experience is a little bit different from the article.
To avoid a 2-hour one-way travelling to the HQ from my hotel before the climb, I gave a phone call to the HQ manager about my intention. After a brief hesitation, he said there was not much problem about this and asked me to show up next morning to contact an officer in the HQ before the climb.
I met the officer next morning in the office around the HQ. Initially he refused my request for the sake of my safety. After some discussion and negotiation, he finally approved my day climb but set a time limit of 4 hours within which I needed to get to the summit, otherwise I had to return. When the weather turned worse, I had to return too. After some bargaining, he agreed to extend the time limit to 5.5 hours.
Anyway, it was a great tour as I like the mountain which is very beautiful. With the help of the guide, Andrew, who kindly carried my bag for me, we got to the summit in about 4.5 hours. It was a good and memorable trip in Sabah.
regards,
alex ng
September 18th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Thanks for the feedback, Alex!
Congratulations on your trip to Kinabalu also!
October 11th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Hi, very valuable information!.. Thank you! My colleague and I are very keen on climbing Mt Kinabalu during an official 2.5 day trip to K.K. Surely we won’t have the time for an overnight stay hence wish to do it in 1 day. I have been trying to get the number for the Head quarters but have been unsuccessful in attaining it. Would greatly appreciate if either one of you could please send me the contact details for the appropriate person to get in touch with for making my trip possible. Once again thank you and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Kind Regards,
Fariha Q.
October 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am
@ Fariha:
You may want to contact Sabah Parks directly for more information on the one day climb.
Telephone: +6088-211881
Good Luck!
October 13th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Thank you … Truly appreciate it!