After eight years in Sabah and numerous views of its magnificent peak from the air, when flying over it between Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu, Sumathy and I finally climbed the mountain on 18th January 2005.

We drove from Sandakan to Kundasang, a beautiful village at the foot of Mount Kinabalu. We stayed there at the Kinabalu Pine Resort hotel where we had a room that gave us a breathtaking and delightful view of the mountain. The unpolluted air there is cool and invigorating and the night sky full of stars. Some of the stars are so bright that one may mistake them for flashlights shining down from the mountaintops.

The mountain path that leads to the summit is 8.5 kilometers long. We started the climb at 7.45am and took an average of 40 minutes for each of the first two kilometers. The path is steep and the muscles of our thighs soon felt the strain. The going became tougher with each further kilometer and we were soon taking more and more time per kilometer, needing to rest frequently to catch our breaths and slow our pulses. The fifth and sixth kilometers really tested our physical and mental strength as the path was now mainly over big and small boulders. At kilometer six from below, there is a rest house where all climbers stay overnight before the final ascent to the summit is made early the next morning.

We took five and a half hours for the climb to this point and checked into the rest house with gratitude. We were now at 3272 metres above sea level. The thin air here gave some climbers altitude sickness with headache and vomiting. We too experienced some of its symptoms. It is very cold at this level and the wind, when present, makes it even colder. I noticed the temperature to be 11 degrees Celsius at 6am the next day. On top of the mountain, it can even become 0 degrees Celsius.

Sumathy and I chose not to climb to the summit the next day. While many of the others in our group went on ahead to the peak, we rested and conserved our strength. After breakfast at the rest house, we began the climb down the mountain. It took us between three and a half to four hours for the descent. Our knees bore the strain this time but the descent was easier than the upward climb.

We were tired and our muscles were aching at the end of it all. But were we exhausted? No! We had the exhilaration of having achieved something. We also had memories that would warm us - memories not only of the climb itself but also of the brief friendships made during the one night stay atop the mountain.

The drive back to Sandakan the same day was uneventful. At night that day our muscles began to feel sore and painful. As Sumathy said, Below the neck, it hurts everywhere. Yet, it was a kind of delicious muscular ache, for it gave us happy memories.