Kota Kinabalu Hike

Expensive af hike. Do not recommend. lol.

Budget: JPY222,000 (~USD1,500) from Tokyo

• JPY110,000 ish. RM3,190 Hiking Package rate for 4pax 
• JPY3,000. Hostels the night before and after the hike (JPY1,500/person/night)
• JPY4,000. Meals 
• JPY100,000 ish. Flight, Tokyo < > Kota Kinabalu Airport
• JPY5,000. Transport to/from Tokyo / KK airports (only less than JPY1,000 to use Grab from Kota Kinabalu Airport)

Hike Date / Difficulty (Elevation: 4,095m / 13,435ft)

• Hike Date : Feb 22-23, 2025
• Difficulty: 5 out of 5 if via ferrata, 3 out of 5 otherwise. 
• Route below is around 20.8 kilometers, with an elevation change of ▲2,936m/ ▽2,936m (16h29m). Here's my friend's log : yamap

When to Go
March to September. I went end of February and it was ok, but people who climbed the day before we did couldn't summit due to rain. 

Special Notes

• Weather forecast. If the weather is bad, they will not allow people to summit. Normally summit attempt starts at 2am. If it is continuously raining, they will wait until 3:30am at which point if the rain has not let up, they will close the gate (in short, nobody summits)
• Small FYI.
• Low's Peak. This is the name of the summit, named after the British guy who "discovered it". The other peak is called John's peak, and not open to most people due to the technical route. 
• They will give you an ID with your name and group that you will have to show at various checkpoints. 
• Independent vs Tour. 
• The Laban Rata rate is already RM1,840 a night (JPY60k ish). That's half the total fees. Adding the cost of the transport from airport (about 2 hour drive one way), the guide (RM350/group of 5) and just the overall hassle, we chose the tour option. There's a much cheaper option when you book the permit + hut option, but then you'll have to figure out everything else. 
• I talked to some locals, and they paid half what we paid (JPY70k ish is what they said). But this was arranged by a local. and there's around 120 people in that group. We had four.
• We went with River Junkies, and I couldn't find a better rate.  
• Route options :
• Classic 2d1n. Piston climb to the top, plenty of chain sections as the summit has a very rocky surface
• Via Ferrata:
• Walk the Torq. You'll do a bit of the ferrata which is a small extra loop in the descent.
• Low Peak's Circuit. The ferrata starts about 30 minutes below Low Peak's, and basically most of your descent will be in the ferrata. Not for the faint of heart. We went first and finished this in 3 hours. The next group finished in 4. The longest in the memory of my guide took 13 hours. If you're behind another group, you cannot move forward so do try to go first. 
• Trailheads. There's only one. So easy peasy. 
• Timpohon Gate. There's a free shuttle that goes here from the KK Headquarters. People can only park close to KK Headquarters (gmaps). 
• Mountain huts. 
• Paid. Quite a lot, but the only ones I know are below. There are others, I think, but too much work to find and book. 
• Laban Rata. The main hut. This is where most people stay. 
• Pendant Hut. The hut for people doing the ferrata. This has a shower room too. 
• Free. None.
• Camping. Apparently you can camp close to the summit, but you'll need to know the right people.

Itinerary
Saturday

• 06:00am. Pick up from Kota Kinabalu town. 
• 09:00am. Arrival at the reception, start registration, take shuttle to the trailhead.
• 10:00am. Start hike.
• 02:00pm. Arrive at Pendant Hut.
• 04:00pm. Ferrata briefing.
• 04:30pm. Dinner

Sunday

• 01:30am. Wake up. Eat breakfast.
• 02:30am. Start hiking. 
• 05:00am. Arrive at summit. 
• 06:00am. Start ferrata.
• 08:30am. Finish first let of ferrata.
• 10:00am. Back at the hut. Eat second breakfast.
• 11:00am. Start hike down.
• 02:30pm. Back at Timpohon gate. 
• 06:00pm. Back at hotel in Kota Kinabalu town. 

Kota Kinabalu view at the car.

A very crowded reception. 

View of Kota Kinabalu from the reception.

Since we paid for a tour, we just chilled at the reception while our guide does the paperwork. We had to fill up some forms saying we're healthy etc. Probably took about an hour to finish everything. 

Timpohon Gate!

Registering. All I had to do was sign.

Starting the hike. 

So many "excuse me"s coz I wanted to go my normal pace and not stay behind everyone. If you are shy to say excuse me, prepare to wait an extra two hours at least. 

One of the many many stops.

Oh, ridge!

Ok, maybe not ridge. 

So many stairs. 

Squirrels on the stops where people snack. Don't feed them please. 

Back to stairs. 

Another stop. 

We took our acclimation stop here and did an extra 30 minutes. This is on top of the lunch break we did the stop before this. 

Continuing on. 

Surprised but not surprised to see that it's rainforest-ish.

Definitely enjoying the trail.

More squirrels. 

Oh, is this the hut?! spoiler alert - no. But close. 

Yey! We're here. Apparently this is a sacrificial place. Even now, every year, locals come here to sacrifice some livestock for safe hikes. 

Gosh. Really bad visibility. 

Almost to our hut.

That's our hut!

And I was told this was the highest hut in the world. 

Our home for the night. 

The shared area. 

Taking a look at our ferrata walk outside. 

wow that's rocky. 

view down the hut. 

They have a shower room!

The briefing for ferrata. 

Heading down to dinner. 

A complicated set of stairs.

Dinner. 

Looking out the hut after dinner. 

Our breakfast at 2am. 

Starting the hike. 

As you can see, no visibility. It was sooo dark. 

Finally the summit!

Heading back down. 

Finally some sun.. 

Looking back at the summit. 

Will the clouds let up? 

Looking down the other peak.

Setting up for the ferrata climb down. 

Finished the ferrata, here's the rest. 

Looking up the face of the wall. 

Back at the hut. 

Back at Timpohon Gate. 

My accommodations in Kota Kinabalu town.