Doi Kinabalu: Climbing One of Southeast Asia’s Most Iconic Peaks

Our journey started when the van dropped Beth and me off at the trailhead around 9 am. From here, it’s about 6 km to basecamp, where we’d stay the night before the summit push.

Along the way, we saw plenty of porters who were in charge of bringing up supplies, other people’s belongings, and sometimes even carrying people down. We hope these porters were compensated well, given how challenging the climb was.

Here’s just a glimpse of the terrain. About 90% of the entire route up to basecamp was stairs—wooden stairs, rock stairs, stone stairs… stairs of all types and sizes.

We made it up to basecamp around 2:30 pm and spent the rest of the time getting to know some new people. Others from all around the world came with the same dream: to summit this beautiful mountain. There was also a briefing for those who signed up to do the via ferrata.

A via ferrata is a climbing route that uses fixed steel cables, metal footholds, ladders, and different sizes of rungs placed into the rock face. Fun fact: the Low’s Peak Circuit on Mt. Kinabalu is the highest via ferrata route in the world and holds a Guinness World Record.

This sunset greeted all of us after a buffet-style dinner where we carb-loaded in preparation for the climb, which would start at 2:30 am.

The Mountain Torq basecamp provided food, sleeping bags, tea—and the window views were incredible too. Going to sleep at 7 pm at high altitude was one of the hardest things to attempt. I personally got maybe 3 hours of sleep, plus a lot of “resting my eyes” while awake.

The summit climb was great, but also a little harder than expected. Hiking at altitude—especially around 3,750 meters—proved to be a challenge. The weather at night was incredible though. As someone who “runs hot,” I only needed one layer while moving until we got to our final checkpoint before the summit. After that, I wore my Patagonia vest for an extra layer, along with gloves to keep my hands warm.

Here is the Doi Research Team making it to the top of Mt. Kinabalu! We were at an elevation of 4,095 meters (13,435 ft). Huge congratulations to my summit crew—Beth, Mez, and Armand. We did it!

The walk down to the via ferrata starting point was absolutely beautiful, with the sunrise getting more and more epic by the minute.

Pretty unreal when you’re above the clouds at a height usually reserved for airplanes.

It became even more epic when we started the Low’s Peak via ferrata circuit. This is a photo from the beginning, where we had to rappel down a vertical rock face.

This isn’t AI! Sorry Mom, but I had to get this epic memory captured.

Out here with Armand from Sydney, Australia. He’s already caught the climbing bug and has a goal of climbing the legendary K2. Excited for your journey, bro!

That wraps up our trip to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu and back. This last photo was taken after we summited—you can see other climbers still making their way up with headlamps on.

Consider this mountain researched… more to come.