Finally. :) Route reopen!
MOUNT KINABALU TRAIL REOPENED!
Two months following the magnitude 5.9 earthquake that hit Sabah in the Ranau epicenter on June 5, which destroyed parts of the Timpohon trail, leading up to the Mount Kinabalu summit; Mount Kinabalu is finally reopened for a ‘trail test’.
88 climbers will be making their way up Mount Kinabalu this Saturday starting at 8am, marking the ‘soft opening’ of a new and improved route to replace the previous trails. The climbing group comprises mainly of Sabah Parks staff, mountain rangers, mountain guides and members of the media.
According to state Tourism, Culture & Environment Minister, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, the experimental climb will take climbers from the base of Timpohon Gate to Laban Rata around KM 6 or 3,272m of the 4,095m mountain. He also noted that most of the previous trail was retained, apart from certain parts that were damaged by the earthquake.
“We have repaired the damaged routes and built new paths were necessary. This may not be the final trail but whatever we end up with will likely be more challenging that the previous route,” said Masidi.
The earthquake, measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale had claimed 18 lives on the mountain, including Singaporean schoolchildren on a school expedition and four mountain porters. Since then, Mount Kinabalu has been closed to the public for damage assessment and repair works even as aftershocks continued to strike the region, causing mudslides and rockfall.
Masidi is optimistic that the alternative route would be safe for climbers, although upon it’s reopening, climbing size would have to be limited to fewer than 100 pax per day--about half of its previous capacity.
Sabah Parks director, Dr Jamili Nais said that the new path that will be opened to climbers is a day-climb with a cut off-time of 2pm. The rest of the trail, from Laban Rata to the summit, is still under review and will not be open till all safety measures are met.
According to Dr Jamili, Sabah Parks have engaged the expertise of mountain experts from Canada, Italy, Spain and Japan to recommend the necessary action. Sabah Parks will then be collating their reports and take on their recommendations before deciding the next step.
Dr Jamili said that they have already received many enquiries with people interested to climb the mountain as soon as possible. However, they have not decided on when the summit climb will be reopened.
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