Mt.Kinabalu (4095,2m)

I finally climbed I finally climbed another mountain – wohoo – I feel so alive! Climbing high mountains really are that I’m living for, and my biggest passion in life. I do not know how to explain it other than magical. This particular mountain wasn’t that high, but still quite hard to climb. We used only three days from sea level to 4095,2m and back down again. I can assure you my poor leg muscles felt stiff and sore, it’s been a long time since they‘ve been like that. But I  healed, and it was a super training for my upcoming Aconcagua climb. I felt fit all the way and didn’t lose my focus or energy. We had great weather almost the entire trip, only when we left our base camp to go back down did it rain… or I’m not sure it classifies as rain... it showered! We literally walked in a shower and a river for 3 hours – funny 

In addition to the climb, I also traversed the world highest via ferrata. THAT was amazing; at one point it has a 200m drop! It was bit scary, but oh so breath-taking. I could do that over

and over again.

We (a colleague and I) flew to Kota Kinabalu Friday morning, and stayed at a resort at the foot of the mountain the first night. It was so nice to finally breathe cool fresh air again. I must say, KL is very nice, but the air is not… so this was a delicious relief.Early morning the next day we were picked up, and drove to the National park. Mt Kinabalu is one of the world’s heritage sites, and is in a very good shape. We got ID tags to wear at all times, a packed lunch and started to walk slowly. The road to our base camp was quite hard, steps

almost all the time, and a steep climb. Pretty hard if you ask me. Especially with the high temperatures! Luckily we walked in jungle in the shadow almost all the time. It ws a nice walk, we saw loads of squirrels, strange flowers and interesting rock formations. Apparently Mt. Kinabalu is mostly granite with other rock above; the granite is warm so the shape of the other layers looks very interesting. Sometimes I wish I knew more about geology to understand it all 

After walking in about 5 hours we reached our base camp; the Pendant Hut. We had dinner, and went to sleep around 7pm. I slept like a baby for 7 hours and was more than ready to go when we started at 2:30am 

We put on our head torches and went outside in the cold, step by step we climbed towards the summit. It was a nice climb, not to hard and not very easy. You could feel the altitude and the pressure in the body – just perfect! A few minutes before sunrise we reached the summit and what a morning! It was absolutely breath-taking! We could see miles and miles and the colours… I have no words. Look for yourselves ;)

After a short while we started the descending, and met our via ferrata guides. I took the long route, while Bjørn took the short one. As mentioned above, it was soooo cool! I’ve never hung in a wall, only supported by a harness with 200m drop behind me… The traverse took almost 3 hours – and I loved every bit of it 

Mt.Kinabalu was a perfect mountain, and I recommend this trip top anyone being near here. Or far for that matter, you just have to travel longer. Food was nice (It’s Malaysia you know), guides was nice and accommodation was nice. Last but not least, the mountain was very nice, and the view spectacular!

KL city life

As some of you know, I´ve spent the last two month in Kuala Lumpur, working. I travelled here 28^th September, and am going home the coming Thursday; 28^th November. I love Kuala Lumpur, one of my favorite big cities in the world, but I really can´t wait to come home. I don´t always appreciate it the way I should, but there is something special with living in Norway: nature right outside the door, and almost no pollution. At least if I compare it with this big city – concrete, cars and noise… I´m ready to go home J

So, what have I´ve been doing while staying here… first, work takes a lot of my time, and that is the way it should be. I´m having a great team here, that is really working their buts of and takes on all work I give to them. I´m really proud of them and are looking forward to the future and all what will happen J Other than working, I´ve been focusing on my very soon upcoming trip to Argentina. I´ve been running, swimming, played tennis, been in Krabi, Thailand, climbing and… I climbed a mountain! Wohooo! A colleague and I climbed Mt. Kinabalu (4095,2m) in the beginning of November. That was amazing, I´ll create a separate post about that climb. All mountains deserves their own space J

Also while being here, Jakob Urth, a friend (think I mentioned him earlier) managed to be the first Danish person on Mt. Shishapangma (8027m)! Congrats Jakob – you are truly an inspiration J

All comes to an end, and my KL city life is soon ending too. This trip has been great, I learned more about the Asian culture, I´ve been eating tons and tons of wonderful food, I´ve made new friends and I have literally not been bored a second. If you ever get the chance, come visit Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia. As they say in the advert on TV: Malaysia, truly Asia J