There were no rains. The sky above was clear, although at times there were mist. For instance:
The sky was clear initially at approximately 6.16am on 16 September 2011.
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| Low's Peak, Mount Kinabalu. At 4,095.2 meters (131435.7 feet) above sea level, it is the highest peak in Malaysia and arguably the highest in South East Asia too. |
But it was all misty two minutes later. As below.
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| A misty Low's peak at the summit of Mount Kinabalu. |
I remember it was freaking cold with the strong mountain wind.
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| Another view of misty Low's Peak. |
But in just another 20 minutes, the sky was all clear again.
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| Clear sky, 6.40am 16 September 2011, at the plateau of Mount Kinabalu's summit. |
And it was all clear when we reach the top of the mountain at 7.05am, 16 September 2011.
I can only suspect such good weather is due to the altitude of cloud. At night, it is cold and the cloud goes down. In the morning, the sun heat up the cloud and the cloud moves up. Therefore, when the cloud is below the summit in the night and dawn, the weather is always good. And when the cloud is above the summit in the afternoon, the weather becomes unpredictable.
On the opposite, the weather from Kinabalu Park to Laban Rata is always unpredictable. Occasionally there are rains after 11.00 am till night. In both climbs, while we had clear weather in the morning at summit, we experienced heavy rains during descend in the afternoon.
You can read more about the weather and the seasons to climb Mount Kinabalu here.
