Mount Kinabalu Trek (3 Days 2 Nights)

Recommendations

1. Try to spend your first night close to Kinabalu mountain region than the airport. The elevation gained help you to acclimatise.
2. One inner layer and one outer jacket are ok to beat the cold. The temperature at the summit would be around ~2 Celcius. Definitely not under 0.
3. Book your tickets in advance (like 2-3 months). There are restricted number of permits allowed every day.
4. Practice climbing stairs (downwards as well) to strengthen your legs.
5. Use a waterproof hand gloves. You would use ropes and quite a possibility they get wet.
6. One pole is ok. No need to take two. 

Just climbed the highest mountain in South East Asia - Mount Kinabalu (4095 meters above sea level). Though the climb is only 2 days and is far easier compared to climbing Kilimanjaro, you definitely need to train yourself before attempting Mt Kinabalu. I learned through my research that the terrain contains stairs, so this time I spent much time climbing 30 storey building. Twice. Three times a week. This helped me this time but it did affect me a bit while climbing down. Also, I would suggest that you strengthen your arms and shoulders muscles a bit, as towards the top, you need to use ropes as the climb becomes steep.

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I booked my trip via amazingborneo and everything was handled by them. I went for 3 days 2 nights trip, they picked me at airport and transferred to their hotel which is around 2 hours away from airport. We started the climb next day around 9:30am at 1800 meters above sea level and reached Pendant Hut at 2:30pm. You would not get to see the tip of Kinabalu until you are like 600 meters away from the summit. The view at Pendant Hut/Leban Rata Hut keeps changing, so spend some time absorbing wonderful views nature offers to us.

Water plant. Many!

At Pendant Hut

At Laban Rata Restaurant. Beautiful views

I was in my bed by 7pm and then woke up at 2am. Had a bit of food and left for the summit at 3am. I reached the top at 6:30am. The climb was fine, no real threats or issues, but I did feel tired after using ropes for sometime. Saw the sunrise and felt blessed to witness this after reaching the top.

Sunrise at Summit

At the top.

Very Famous South Peak

Mount Kinabalu Summit - Lows Peak

We were down to Pendant hut by 9.30am, took some time to freshen up, breakfast and started the journey down at 10:30am. Reached the gate by 2:30pm. By the end, as expected, the legs were paining to the best and it took me 3 days to recover. But thats the amazing part you learn about your body - they are anti-fragile.