It was decided that the dads and sons would do the gruelling 2 day 1 night hike up Mt Kinabalu which was a not too shabby 4095 Metres. Mark and I had vowed to take the boys up and bring them back as men; a real father and son bonding experience.

The day prior to the hike Rico wasn’t feeling the best: he was  running a bit of a temperature and had a bad chest, and the next day’s  adventure was looking in jeopardy.  Ascending a high mountain at quite a pace with a bad chest was definitely a no no, and it was  decided we’d have to make a late call on Rico the following morning. Mark is a big Christian and asked if I minded if he sat with Rico and prayed, which I course I didn’t. The overseer upstairs, whoever he/she is, certainly came up trumps as Rico was a lot better the following morning, so we were back on track.

The four of us were given a lift by Jeremy, the owner of our accommodation, to the HQ of the national park where the trek was to begin. There was quite a buzz with mini vans arriving carrying  groups of trekkers, and we stood about with nervous anticipation in the shadow of the majestic mountain.

A guide was assigned to the four of us; Nisa who was a 25 year old local and had scaled the mountain over 500 times, and as a result, had calfs and quads that any athlete in the world would be proud of! We donned our rucksacks and started out at around 9:30am. There was no gentle introduction to the trek and it was a slow grinding climb from the start. Rico started to complain about his chest 20 minutes into the walk, so I took his rucksack to alleviate the load, as I was still concerned he wasn’t 100% healthy.  Zack followed suit so Mark and I became the packhorses. It was one slow step at a time, watching our footing on the slippery rocks and tree roots. There were a few dedicated huts along the way with benches and a toilet where we stopped to rest our legs for a few minutes. The boys were in good shape, but Mark and I were feeling it a bit due to carrying the extra 20kgs each on our backs.

It took 6 hours to reach the base camp at Laban Rata, where we would stay for the night. It consisted of a big open dinning area and kitchen on one level, and dormitories, cold showers and toilets on the first floor. The boys received a lot of kudos from fellow trekkers, as they were the youngest on the mountain by far. Dinner was superb and we were tucked up in bed by 19:00, ready for our rude awakening at 1:30am for the gruelling ascent to the summit.

It was impossible to get any sleep due to the other inmates of our dorm; the rustling  of plastic bags, trips to the bathroom, creaking beds, sneezing, the blue light  of phones. At 1:30am we reluctantly hauled ourselves out of bed and layered up, in anticipation of the cold night awaiting us. Breakfast was shovelled in, and we started our ascent at 2:30am. It was extremely slippery and muddy due to the nights rain, and each step was taken with caution as visibility from head torches was poor. Zack hadn’t felt well since waking up and was taking strain as he suffered with altitude sickness. Base camp was at 3200 meters and the summit was still another 900 meters ascent so we had a good 4 hours climbing in front of us. After 45 minutes Mark made the decision to take Zack back to base camp as he wasn’t holding up too well, and there was a time constraint to get to the checkpoint by 5am in order to climb the hardest stretch to the summit.

Our guide Nisa, Rico and I plodded on into the dark abyss in silence. I periodically asked Rico if we was ok or wanted to turn back, but he was resolute in his quest to reach the summit. We reached the checkpoint before the cut off, by which time the sun was starting to rise and a cerise backdrop was emerging behind the mountains behind us. The climbing became tough, the air was thin and ropes were needed to pull us up the steep rock face. Rico was nearly running on empty and I was wondering if I’d done the right thing. He was cold and his lips were slightly blue, but these were trumped by his resolve, determination, strength and stamina.

The sky turned brighter as we passed a few groups who were already on their way down from the peak. Rico was getting a lot of high fives and encouragement from people who were amazed that someone so young was doing this walk. The peak seemed tantalising close, but each 100 meter ascent felt like 1000 metres as we traversed the rock face to the top.  We stopped every few meters for Rico to sit down and catch his breath, and I secretly also enjoyed the small respite from walking. The sun lit up the mountain top for our finally few hundred metres and warmed the chilly windy air slightly. I felt pretty emotional at the top: bursting with pride with what Rico had achieved. We stayed at the top for 10 minutes, taking photographs and feasting on what small supplies we had left, and then began the long journey back to base camp to hook up with Mark and Zack.

The descent was quicker but tougher due to the fact our legs were jelly and the jarring on the knees was hard. On arrival at base camp Nisa told us we had 90 minutes to rest before carrying on all the way to the bottom. I was concerned about Rico as he was exhausted from the early morning’s exertions, but we gorged on the breakfast buffet and had a 20 minute power nap.

Zack was feeling better and had managed to get some sleep and eat something. The four of us began the 4 hour decent back to HQ and Mark and I fantasised about a shower and a cold beer. It has been an amazing experience for us all and the boys had certainly giving their everything on Mount Kinabalu.

Mark compiled a video of our trek: