Climbing Mount Kinabalu in Borneo
Published by Johnny Ward on March 14, 2011
At 4,095 (13,435ft) Mount Kinabalu is the tallest mountain in Borneo (20th tallest in the world) and to normal backpackers and travelers alike, takes around 2 days to summit and descend. After conquering the mountain, prepare to have your ego dented as you leave, with the world record times for ascent and descent proudly displayed at the exit – the current men’s WR is 2 hours 30 mins, honestly when you’re sweating at 10,000ft, on your second day, you will quite simply not believe that!
Amazing view from Mount Kinabalu peak
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO CLIMB MOUNT KINABALU?
Anyway, let’s get down to business. The burning question. My answer is, as always, not as expensive as the internet suggests AS LONG AS you wait until you’re in Borneo to book it. You can book the whole package which includes all the fees listed below to minimize hassle.
Coming down Mount Kinabalu
It cost me, after guide fees, dinner, accommodation, transport and food (in 2009) 400 Malaysian Ringgits which was about $130 USD. The fees have now gone up again, with rumours of further increases still. These fees are broken down as:
(These are all unavoidable)*
Park Entry – RM15 ($5 USD)
Climbing Fee – RM100 ($32 USD)
Insurance Fee – RM7 ($2 USD)
Guide Fee – RM100 ($32 USD), divided by the members of your group. Taking a guide is mandatory and unnecessary – a great combination.
Transport – approx RM12 ($4 USD)
Accommodation – approx RM335 ($110 USD), including dinner, breakfast and lunch
*if you’re a crazy mountain climbing expert, you can rush up and down in one intense day with no need for accommodation, keeping the cost low but I couldn’t dream of this!
So basically If you travel on a tight budget you can climb Mount Kinabalu for approximately RM500 ($160), not cheap but well worth the money.
NOTE: If you read it’s cheaper than this, it’s because the information is outdated! The prices more than doubled in 2009.
Looking down, from the summit
HOW DIFFICULT IS CLIMBING MOUNT KINABALU?
To be frank, it’s no gentle stroll. You don’t need any technical climbing skills
though! The failure rate is around 10% so make sure you don’t fall into that category. If you’re a young, active backpacker you won’t need any real preparation as such but make sure you get a good nights sleep and eat well as you get ready to go. This will be one of the most grueling things you do on your travels, it’s eminently doable but it’s by no means easy. If you’re out of shape, I’d recommend cracking out the walking shoes and do some brisk hiking a month or so before you ascend.
Climbing Mount Kinabalu can be quite steep!
The total climb is only about 9km. The first day you climb from Timpohon gate (1600m) to Laban Rata (3272m) – it’s about 6 horizontal kilometers but takes between 4-8 hours depending on your fitness (I took about 5 hours). You set off from Timphon between 8am-11am and arrive at Laban Rata anytime between lunch time and dinner time.
You have to do little bit of climbing on the night ascent
The next ‘day’ begins at 2am, an early wake up and you make the ascent in the dark. It gets tougher, steeper and the air is thinner so take it slowly. You should arrive at the Low’s Peak, the summit, around 5-7am to watch one of the most amazing sunrises you’ll ever see. It’s freezing up there, so see the sunrise and make a beeline back to Laban Rata for breakfast around 8 or 9am. Finish brekky and head back down the mountain, you should arrive around lunch time.
WHEN IS BEST TO CLIMB MOUNT KINABALU?
Around April is optimum although all year round should be fine. That being said, December and November bring a lot of rain so try to avoid it around then if possible.
WHAT EQUIPMENT SHOULD I BRING?
I’m not a planner so I freestyled it in shorts, t-shirt and adidas trainers, as did my friend, although we got some strange looks from package tour groups of older American and Japanese tourists who were all kitted out like they were about to take on Everst (we paid about 10% of the price they paid so last laugh is all ours muhahahahaha). You can rent a walking pole (read – wooden stick) for RM5 and it’s probably worth it. Bring some warm clothes for the summit morning though, it will reach freezing point so hat, gloves, fleece, long pants and walking shoes are a must (needless to say I had none of these and thought I was going to die of cold in trainers, shorts and a hoody!)
Me, completely unprepared in shorts and a free hoody. Freezing at the summit, but what a sunrise!
Sunrise on Mount Kinabalu
HOW IS THE FOOD & ACCOMMODATION ON THE MOUNTAIN?
Not too bad at all. The food is delicious, the ‘restaurant’ is cosy and has a great atmosphere – with your room booked the food is inclusive, if you want to have a beer ($10!) or anything similar be ready to pay premium for it! The beds are in a dormitory style, single, warm enough and besides, you wake up at 2am so it’s not like you’re there long anyway!
ANYTHING I SHOULDN’T DO?
Don’t book a 3 Day, 2 Night tour – it’s completely unnecessary. I would say book nothing until you arrive BUT if you feel the need to plan ahead (or if you’re on a crazy time schedule like 3 days in Borneo or something mad like that) then only book a 2D,1N option. The additional day and night is a scam which forces you to stay in an average and overpriced guesthouse outside the grounds the night before you climb. Ridiculous considering you can get a bus from Kota Kinabalu city direct to the grounds (90km) for RM10 ($3USD), it takes about 90 minutes and is a beautiful ride.
Reaching the summit of Mount Kinabalu!
If climbing mountains floats your boat check out my posts on the Mount Everest base camp trek and climbing Kilimanjaro 
Or if you’re in Borneo, check out the orangutans at Sepilok, amazing!
NOTE: Update 2012* and it’s not good news folks!
From a good irish traveling friend of mine, David M. He blogged about climbing Kinabalu in 2012, read about it here
The cheapest price I could find for an organised 2 day, 1 night trip from any Kota Kinabalu (KK) guesthouse, hostel, hotel or travel agent was MYR900 (US$280/€225), a tidy sum of cash to pay to torture yourself for the best part of two days. Although expensive this price does include everything, with everything being:
- Return transfer (KK – Kinabalu National Park Headquarters (HQ) – KK)
- National Park Entrance Fee
- Shuttle Bus (National Park HQ – Timpohon Gate – National Park HQ)
- Trek Guide
- Insurance
- Climbing Permit
- Accommodation & Meals
Having had Johnny’s 3-year-old figure of MYR400 in my head I wasn’t too happy to see this MYR900 figure being bandied about so I decided to see if it could be done any cheaper independently. It can, but not by much and after reading what I did you might just decide to pay the MYR900 asking price for the convenience. It’s your call.
Tags: Backpacking, borneo, malaysia, mount kinabalu, mountains
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OneStep4Ward loves to hear from you readers, so don't by shy! 
Hi Johnny, great photos and story – pretty much spot on. I just done the Mount Kinabalu hike last week and LOVED it. Highly recommend it. Yes the prices have gone up, but we did a 2 day 1 night trip booked in advance through the Sutera Lodges website. This ended up being cheaper than a lot of the people who booked it on arrival in Borneo. It was peak time for the hike so that’s maybe why. We stayed in the first hut rather than at Laban Rata. Will get round to writing about it too at some point! Safe travels. Jonny
How much did it cost you now buddy?
I’ll be writing a full report on it at some point soon, but I’m crap at converting currencies!! I’d estimate between 170 – 200 $US, we did one night in Laban Rata and had a car share from Kota Kinabalu so it was 2 days 1 night at the national park. We did it at Easter which was peak time so had to book within one month of advance to secure out place. Laban Rata was full so we stayed in the Waras Hut. Will send you the link to my post when its done. For a bonus point I treated myself to a Guinness at Laban Rata which probably added another $8 to the cost, but I wanted it!
$8 well spent bro!
Oops I was wrong with my estimation earlier Johnny – after finally writing my post on the current cost of hiking Mount Kinabalu, I can confirm the cheapest you can realistically get it for these days (without going up and down in one day!) is 672.5 Ringitts or $221 US Dollars. I also factored in my extra costs including a tip, return transport from KK and my luxuries (including that $8 beer) so I spent a total of $259 US. A lot dearer than in your day but still WORTH IT. Here’s the full post: http://dontstopliving.net/how-much-does-it-cost-to-climb-mount-kinabalu-in-borneo/ Safe travels, Jonny
Sounds tough and expensive, but we’ll do it anyway. Are the prices you’ve quote for 2 people? Now, lets see what you’ve got on Orangutans ….
It’s around 600RM per person now :S
This is a really helpful post. My partner have started working in Sabah recently and we plan to scale Kinabalu in November if the weather permits. We’re planning to do things on our own and we’re hoping we can do it for MYR500 (fingers crossed!)
good luck Cotz, keep me posted
what do u guys do in Sabah?
Thanks Johnny. My partner works for an oil and gas terminal in Papar somewhere near Kota Kinabalu. I’m based here in the Philippines so I might visit him there in 3months and maybe push through our plans of climbing Kinabalu. Wish us luck!
wow, u guys are very international! sounds cool, all the best
did u do it cotz?
Hello Johnny,
I was able to travel to Borneo on the first week of December last year. We were not able to climb the mountain and just settled for a visit to Kinabalu Park. January came in with our determination to climb it on my next visit to Borneo so I (seriously) pestered Sutera booking staff for a 2day/1night climb package slot for 2 persons and she finally gave it to us after 5 weeks. So we are climbing on Mar 10-11. Package now costs 577 RM per person. We’re nervous we’d fall on the 10% fail rate, but you make it look so easy on this post.
Best wishes,
Cotz
Well done Cotz, I’m gonna try my luck for our grp of 9. We r only interested on 2D1N. Wish i cld get the same price as you. Buzz me if you any tips on tht. Thx.
Hey! I think Sutera opens their 2d/1n climb packages approximately 1 month from your schedule. Do email their booking staff her name is Petronella and her email address is petronella.t@suteraharbour.com.my and try to be really persistent like I did. Good luck with your group Kseelan!
thanks for this Cotz
good day sir, i am curious with ur statement that it is expensive to book online, and is cheaper if we book it there once we get to kota kinabalu city, would you have a suggestion on where we can book to climb mt. kota p\once we get to Kota Kinabalu city? thanks
there are so many agents, but i think the offical centre is inside the small shopping mall there, if i remember rightly
thanks for the info, because i thought u cant climb mt. kota if you dont book online, thats what we are afraid of.
no probs shalom, just turn up – no probs
hi there johnny, is it still alright hiking up mount kinabalu alone? Should i have any concern on my safety? And which package and accomadation you book with?
no safety issues
but taking a guide is park rules
Hi,
Great info, been looking everywhere for something like this. I’ve heard that accommodation get’s booked out and you need to book at least three months in advance. If we just turn up to do the climb what if it’s booked out? Can you recommend a website to book through?
Cheers
Gemma
hey gemma, there are so many cancellations – i”d never book in advance and juswait the day or two for a cancellation. I hate my plans being fixed so i can’t help ya i’m afraid :S sorry!!
Hi Johnny,
Great info!! Exactly what I needed to hear…I’ll be coming to Borneo for 100k ultramarathon in November, so I’m actually not sure if I will be in condition to climb it at all!! So great to hear that’s better to leave it and see how things are when I’m there
Cheers and good luck with your next travels
JIRI!!!
hope it goes well mate, 100k?! are you mad?!?
Good article, thanks.
Good Design