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13/11 Wednesday 04:51PM

a rock solid via ferrata adventure

image:mountaintorg

If you are looking for mountain views and thrills the likes of a National Geographic documentary, Kota Kinabalu has  Asia's first, newest and highest Via Ferrata for you to catch great views from dizzying heights.  The Via Ferrata is on Mount Kinabalu, a UNESCO Heritage site in Sabah, and at 3,776m it is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the highest Via Ferrata in the world.

It seems the Via Ferrata is designed for anyone who can scale Mount Kinabalu and they have had climbers from 10 to 76!  They have proper system of routes, devices and an experience trainer to guide you so that you can experience this lofty challenge under a safe and controlled environment. The Via Ferrata is managed by Mountain Torq - South-East Asia's first mountaineering training centre that provides rock climbing, rappelling (abseiling) and mountaineering skills courses.

The Via Ferrata trail is made up of iron rungs, palletes (footholds), cables and rails that are wrapped around the North Face of Mount Kinabalu. It starts at the Panar Laban Rock Face (approximately 3,300 metres) and reaches its highest point at 3,800 metres.

They grade all the routes from 'easy' to 'extremely difficult' - the latter being physically demanding and suitable only for those with very good physical fitness -  to give climbers an idea of the difficulty of the routes.  Beginners are of course recommended to start with easy routes before attempting the difficult ones. Adrenaline junkies can choose from various packages to satisfy their thrill level.

Accommodations are available at the company's Pendant Hut  at 3,270 metres which can house at least 30 people at the same time in dormitory-bunk-bed style.  Higher up, the Sayat-Sayat (3,668 metres) accommodates 10 people at a time in dormitory-bunk-bed style.

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