My Low's Peak...

Day 13... started at 1am with a bowl of unfulfilling cereal and crap-milk! Oh the hell of it! At 2am, it was time to venture out into the dark (headtorches ready!). The plan, very basic one, was to climb to the 4,100m summit of Kinabalu - woop! Despite the uphill-ness, 'twas easy at first, until it got windy and colder the further we went (Zoe pulled out somewhere around here, and was led back down by Leader Su and a guide... i think). With 1km walking distance left to the top, i was f.r.o.z.e.n (esp. hands!) It was sheer hell for the last few steps... The rope that was there for an extra guide and safety only chafed my hands further, causing them to swell to double their size!
Just as the situation seemed to go on and on, with no end in sight, pain excrutiating, and gradient increasing... Finally, Low's Peak! We scrambled, swering profusely up the last few jagged, cold rocks. My hands were so cold and hurting so much i had to hold onto the guide rope using my elbow...
At the top all we could do was huddle - not even see any planned views / sunrise as the conditions were awful. Apparently it was the worst conditions the mountain had had for a long time, with temperatures as long as minus 15c with windchill. You certainly couldn't see clearly for more than a metre in front of you. I was so goddam cold i felt like i was going to go unconcious at any second as we huddled closely, sitting down, curled up... we stayed and froze at the summit only long enough for Soos to (somehow) have a pee... and for Lyndz to do some bra adjusting...
I had never been so cold in all my life, and paid the price for only wearing a shirt and thin coat, with no gloves... Oh dear. Quite a silly and collossel mistake!
We could've had the option of warmth if we'd brought the Kissu (giant orange fabric dome to sit under and trap heat). But before we'd left off to start the climb, no-one could find it! We knew SOMEONE had it as we'd been carrying it about all expedition, but no-one knew who! If we hadn't of had the Kissu and the guides, the climb would've been too dangerous, and would've been cancelled. Maybe if we'd've known the conditions would be this bad, we'd've cancelled it anyway, with guides and without Kissu.
In agony and rain, we descended from the peak as quikkly as we could allow ourselves to. My feet hurt and slopped about in the wet (having to abseil down a newly-created waterfall certainly didn't help!). I got warmer and better slowly, and we all began to recover... although there was still the prospect of having to get down the mountain which we'd have to do in one go! Today!
We briefly stopped at the 3,100m restaurant before death-marching to the point where we started the other day... back down the gazillion steps whilst constantly needing a piss... singing the final countdown, thinking we were near the end, when we weren't at all... thus, we sang that for about an hour! It felt a TINY bit easier going down, but hurt more.
I somehow (think: relief!) managed to run up the last few steps to the point where we started the mountain climb. It was such a great feeling knowing we'd done it, and everyone (or maybe just me) was greatly invigorated! Ready to do it again!
It was then onto crappy-ish Poring Hot Springs for a bath/swim by mini-bus, to rest our dreary, weary limbs, muscles and souls...

There's dogs all over the road...