turned in around 10pm but Ivan & I kept waking up at 11pm, 11.30pm, midnight....light sleepers in a hut with thin walls & full house (around 60 people) tonight. woke e rest at 1am. down to 5 people from 7, we climbed down to Laban Rata for breakfast at 1.30am. realised that I had become addicted to e 'Kinabalu lychee' - for some reason tinned longan is called lychee in Laban Rata.

climbed back up to Gunting Lagadan hut, this time with Japili, to deliver e mineral water we had bought for Angeline & Kaimin to them. Japili went in to check on them, & then we were off. as usual Ivan took e lead, & Swee Cheng & I tried to keep up with him. e trail was crowded with a long line of climbers snaking all e way up - at many points we had to squeeze past people who had stopped to rest & were sitting down all over e trail. from afar e train of torchlights probably resembled a long string of Christmas tree lights trailing down e mountain side.

Ivan kept calling back into e darkness from above, 'Huaying are you still there?', & Swee Cheng also kept yelling out e same from somewhere further below. ended up climbing while calling out a series of 'yar's, & won't be surprised if at least half of e climbers & guides that night learnt my name =P lost Ivan somewhere around e 6.5km mark, after Swee Cheng & I stopped to wait for a few jittery climbers immediately in front of us who weren't really confident with e ropes. had this fear that we might trigger screams if we continued on & pulled on e ropes while they were still hanging onto them.

kept meeting people whose torchlights had died on them, & many eyed Swee Cheng's headlamp & my little maglite. e nicer ones asked if we could help & spare them some light for a while - no problem obliging them especially if they were stuck at a more difficult section of e trail. e less-than-nice ones demanded that we walk with them & guide them all e way up. one Chinese uncle insisted that I get up (was sitting down to rest & enjoy e view of a lit-up Laban Rata glowing yellow in e darkness far below) & continue climbing so that he could use my torch, & another guy told Ivan to GIVE him his torch?!

now that we were above e treeline, Swee Cheng & I started to venture off-trail from time to time to stargaze, catch our breath & watch other climbers passing by. one of our chosen rest points was on e eastern side of e trail along e Panar Laban rockface, where we could stare down into e nothingness below us. when we looked back at climbers being helped by their guides along this particular stretch, it appeared as just a narrow ledge with not much room for people with big fat feet, but pretty straightforward. it was only when we looked at this rest point again as we climbed down later in e morning that we realised why people were so nervous =P on a more sober note, this was where Teck Chia would fall later on his way down & be left dangling from e rope until Japili pulled him back to safety - DAMN HENG.

reached e checkpoint at Sayat Sayat hut at 4.30am, where our ID tags were checked against a namelist. here we finally realised why e 5 of us had ID tags with e big fat letters 'MA' on them when everyone else had 'AK' or 'A-something else' - we were e right about being e only aliens who had started from Planet Mesilau (coded MA) among e hundred-plus earthlings who had climbed up from Timpohon.

e nice thing about climbing up is that e trail gets easier as one goes along, & e terrain gets kinder to e feet. from here onwards we started to go off trail - e ropes don't exactly follow e easiest & smoothest path, & walking a zigzag path up particularly steep inclines is easier on e feet. note that even in good clear weather, going off trail in e dark still has its dangers - we stayed clear of rocks & boulders as e larger they are, e more privacy they potentially offer to e guide or climber desperate to answer nature's call, & e higher e chance of one stepping on what was left behind =P

kept turning back to look eastwards for e first light over e horizon. from a distance, could see e crowd of lights atop Low's Peak, which kinda spoilt e atmosphere - by this time Ivan was already up there on e summit, being elbowed & shoved around & stepped on by people fighting for space to place their camera tripods. not particularly conducive for e anticipation & enjoyment of a beautiful sunrise, so he ended up retreating a few steps down. e first glow of red was spotted at 5.30am as we looked back towards Donkey's Ears & I beat Swee Cheng to e first shot (cheap thrill) *grin*

first light on e horizon from Donkey's Ears (top row: HY, bottom: SC)

left Swee Cheng behind to photograph South Peak & e rest of e climbers coming up, & went to e edge of e western summit plateau above Low's Gully to watch e peaks of e eastern summit plateau turn from black to grey as e sun crept up & turned e clouds pink, then gold. peeped down into e gully but it was still too dark to see anywhere near e bottom of it nor take any clear photos. took a shot of Ugly Sister Peak instead. stumbled across e sacrifice pool - seemed like not many noticed it? - while heading northwest back towards e trail to e base of Low's Peak to photograph St John's Peak & wait for Swee Cheng to catch up.

looking up across e western summit plateau with St John's peak at left & Low's Peak at right (SC)

top, middle & bottom: looking back towards South Peak & all e climbers behind as e sky lightens (SC)

top & bottom: (SC)

e western summit plateau is like a playground full of features of glacial erosion =) Tunku Abdul Rahman Peak, South Peak & St John's Peak seem to share a distinctly different morphology from that of Low's Peak. guess that Low's Peak was probably a nunatak i.e. a peak that was not covered by ice when e Kinabalu summit plateau was smothered by glaciers during e last ice age, & that it has been shaped mainly by frost shattering, thus e relatively 'rough' appearance? in contrast, each of e former 3 (& Victoria Peak as well?) seems to comprise of a taller peak & a shorter 'horn', & all 3 have far smoother slopes due to ice abrasion, which makes them technically harder to climb. perhaps that is why e summit trail leads up to Low's Peak, when Victoria Peak is actually e highest point on e Kinabalu massif?

preceding pictures: Low's Peak (SC)
Surf's up! - glow of e rising sun on Low's Peak (HY)
top & bottom: Swee Cheng coming up e western summit plateau; running parallel & left to e rope in e bottom picture is an aplite dyke (SC taken by HY, HY)
preceding pictures: sunrise as viewed from summit (IV)
sunrise over eastern Sabah (IV)
top & bottom: St John's Peak (HY, SC)
looking east towards e opposite side of Low's Gully (SC)
Ugly Sister Peak (HY)
top, middle & bottom: South Peak, South Peak & e back of St John's Peak, & e front of St John's Peak & a little of Alexandra Peak (SC)
St John's Peak (IV)
Ivan's first time on e summit that morning (IV)	'ice floe' cloud resting on e peaks of e eastern summit plateau (IV)
Ugly Sister Peak & Donkey's Ears (IV)
western summit plateau (SC)

while waiting for Swee Cheng, climbed past some 'fence' (actually white strings tied across wooden stakes) to get a much better view of Alexandra Peak & Oyayubi Iwu (not really a peak? guess it has a name just because it sticks out of e plateau), but couldn't locate West Gurkha hut in e shadows. e 'fence' probably serves to direct climbers up towards Low's Peak & prevent them from straying further north along e western summit plateau in times of poor visibility, like what happened to a British girl & her brother some years back - her body was later found behind St John's Peak.

by now Ivan had climbed down to seek respite from e crowds on e peak & we waited together at e base for e hordes to clear - getting up to e summit ended up being such an anticlimax with so many many many people there, & not as many many many of them willing to give way to one another. in e end we climbed e last bit of rocky stretch up to e top of Low's Peak with a 'while you're there, might as well get it done' kinda feeling, much like taking a peek into e refrigerator since you've walked all e way to e kitchen. sorry for e lack of a better description, but this was really how we felt when some people we came across actually didn't seem too happy with one another over things like who got to hold onto e ropes. goes without saying that when people are tired, cold & stressed, you get to see e 'best' side of them?

shadow of Gunung Kinabalu & Alexandra Peak (SC)

Alexandra Peak & what is thought to be Oyayubi Iwu (HY)

some who sounded like Taiwanese had been complaining all e way up from e base of Low's Peak, & now they upped their volume. we silenced one of them by passing her my Olympus & asking her to help take a photo for us =P think she was only too glad to see us help displace e guys with e big fat banner from e summit?

e 3 photographers being photographed; this was Ivan's second time on e summit within that morning =) (HY)

so much for solace & isolation, peace & tranquility.....this is no mountain for hermits!! guess this was what made us resolve to take our own sweet time to climb down to Laban Rata so that we could be alone & stop regretting not bringing ear plugs with us on this climb =P