Key facts

• The summit climb: the most popular multi-day mountain trek in Southeast Asia — the standard summit route (Via Timpohon; 8.5 km one way; permits required; only 135 climbers allowed per day; 2 days/1 night; overnight at Laban Rata Guesthouse at 3,270 m) involves: Day 1 — hike from Timpohon Gate (1,866 m) to Laban Rata (3,270 m; approximately 6 km; 4–6h; the trail is well-maintained with steps and handrails on the steepest sections; the final kilometre to Laban Rata is the steepest section); Day 2 — summit attempt (2h 45 min from Laban Rata to the summit via the granite rope section; depart Laban Rata at 2–3am to reach the summit at approximately 5–6am for the sunrise; the rope section begins at approximately 3,700 m where the trail leaves the forest and crosses bare granite slabs; ropes are fixed in the rock; the route is exposed in wet weather but technically easy in dry conditions; the summit plateau (Low’s Peak, 4,095 m; the Donkey’s Ears (two pinnacles slightly lower than the main summit at approximately 4,040 m; the most distinctive feature of the Kinabalu skyline) and St John’s Peak are the main summit features; the sunrise view from the summit over the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea, and the forests of Sabah and Sarawak is one of the most spectacular summit panoramas in Asia; descent the same day back to Timpohon Gate via Laban Rata); the 2015 earthquake (5.9 Mw; June 2015; caused a rockslide on the summit section that killed 18 climbers) resulted in significant changes to the permit and safety systems
• The biodiversity of Kinabalu: one of the most species-rich places per unit area on Earth — the Kinabalu Park has been described as “a treasure house of plants and animals without parallel anywhere in the world” (the park brochure is not entirely wrong); the numbers: approximately 5,000–6,000 plant species (half the species of all of Europe in a single park; the largest number of plant species in any park in Borneo); 326 bird species (37 Bornean endemics; the Bornean Bristlehead, considered the most charismatic bird in Borneo; the Bornean Mountain Whistler; the Kinabalu Serpent Eagle; the Black-and-crimson Oriole); 42 species of freshwater fish (the highest density of freshwater fish species per km of stream in any park in Southeast Asia); 100 mammal species (including the Bornean Pygmy Elephant, the Proboscis Monkey, and the Clouded Leopard, all of which range into the park lowlands); the Nepenthes pitcher plants: 16 species in the park (the world’s largest pitcher plant, Nepenthes rajah, growing only above 1,500 m on Kinabalu and a few adjacent mountains; the pitcher of a mature plant can hold up to 3.5 litres of fluid and has been observed to drown and digest not only insects but also small vertebrates — frogs, lizards, even small rats — that fall in)
• The Rafflesia and the Bornean flora: the world’s largest flower is sometimes visible in the park lowlands — Rafflesia arnoldii (named after the 19th-century British naturalists Stamford Raffles and Thomas Arnold who first documented it in Sumatra in 1818) is a holoparasitic plant (it has no leaves, roots, or visible stem — the entire plant consists of filaments growing inside the root tissue of the Tetrastigma vine host; only the flower emerges from the host root) that produces the world’s largest individual flower (approximately 1 metre in diameter; 7–10 kg in weight; deep red with white spots; the smell is often described as rotting flesh — this attracts flies which pollinate the flower); the flower lasts only 5–7 days before turning black and collapsing; sightings in Kinabalu Park and the surrounding forests require local intelligence about which plants are currently in bloom (the park visitor centre maintains a bloom sighting board; local guides in the forest around Poring Hot Springs, just outside the main park boundary, are the most reliable source of Rafflesia sightings)
• Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site, Kinabalu Park, inscribed 2000
• GPS: 6.0750° N, 116.5500° E