Trip Report: Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu

“It's been a while since my last trip report (PCT 99) so I thought I'd let you TT'ers know what I've been up to... I just got back to civilization last week, after a two month climbing expedition in Borneo on Mt. Kinabalu (At just under 14,000 ft., it's the largest peak in Southeast Asia). We were a team of four attempting to compile data for a guide book to the area. Our first phase, after shuttling our gear up to 11,000 ft (With the help of 3 porters, we carried nearly 600 lbs. of
climbing equipment and food up 5,000 vertical feet over a mere distance of 6 kilometers), we made an attempt to traverse the Mesilau Pinnacles.
Imagine a mountain ridge line rising out of the jungle, studded with jagged pinnacles and spires (some rising upwards of 600 feet), and you have a good idea of what this thing looks like. Once we reached the West summit plateau, we then spent the next two weeks putting up as many first ascents as possible. The climbing was superb, rough, yet fairly bomber granite -- in the course of this time we put up nearly
two dozen new routes, most of which are 4-5 pitches long and rate in around 5.10/A2. Our final phase was to attempt a descent of Low's Gully -- this is a huge cataract which splits the summit plateau in half...
imagine a valley with 2,000 ft walls, that starts maybe 1/4 mile wide, and then narrows down to a mere 25 feet in places. Although many expeditions have attempted this, what a London paper called "The Everest of Descents", the first success did not happen until a huge party of 30 people made it down during an unusual draught in 1998. We,
on the other hand, we trying to do it with a team of 4 in a light and fast "alpine style". The entire time on the mountain, with the help of
lap top and satellite phone, we did live web casts of the expeditions progress (e.g. journal entries, digital photos, personal annecdotes and stories, etc.) -- If you are interested, you can find this at
http://www.webexpeditions.net/kinabalu/journal.asp?fulltoc=1 . I know that most of you are bp'ers and not climbers, but there are a number of easier (non-technical) routes and trails on and around the mountain...
if your into heinous, tortuous jungle bushwacking then Borneo is definitely a location to keep in mind. Sadly, as Bilbo recently passed away (he was run over by a Vespa scooter), I was hoping that I would encounter a Borneo Blood Python, which has variable temperament, heavy body, and extremely strong constrictor. Supposedly if raised from a baby and handled frequently they may become tractable and even tempered -- I thought one would make a nice companion. Found in rice patty fields and moist swampy situations. Killed in large numbers for their skin & meat, over 60,000 blood python skins harvested each year, so perhaps this is the reason I did not find one. I guess I will have to keep on looking for a new replacement for Bilbo. What do you think about this?”

“forgot your password, eh?”

“LL -- Yeah, it's kinda strange, I always seem to forget my password... and then when I get a new IP address, I all of a sudden remember it. What do you think about this? Coincidence, I think not!”

“It sounds like you had a great time and that was a great trip report too. But, you can keep the stinkin` snakes and have all my share of them.LOL

Thanks for sharing that!”

“Is that what you do for a living? Wow, what a job that would be. Thanks for the report.”