From August 22 – 25, David Lim will be in the Malaysian state of Sabah, making at attempt to climb from the Kinabalu National Park Timpohan gateway (1800m) to the summit of Mount Kinabalu (4095m) – in a day. Virtually all climbers in the park will make a 4- 6 hour ascent from i’s base, to the collection of alpine huts in the Laban Rata area (3300m), overnight, and then leave the next day for the summit climb lasting another 3-4 hours. David will attempt a rare mobility-impaired (MI) ascent of the peak, and attempt the complete ascent in a single day. Altough David has scaled numerous technical peaks on the summit plateau, and the non-technical Low’s Peak ( the highest point) since 1995, none of his eight trips to Mt Kinabalu have been attempted this way.
There is no information available so far as to whether such a one-day challenge has been completed by anyother MI athlete.
David has permanent disabilities in both legs, and requires the use of an ankle-foot orthoses from footdrop in his right leg; a condition caused by Guillain Barre Syndrome in 1998.
This climb will be in aid of the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD). The SPD is committed to working in partnership with people with disabilities to develop their potential to the fullest so that they can be self-reliant and independent. It’s vision is “To build an inclusive community where everyone is a part of it, and not apart from it. Your donations go to fund a variety of initiatives, including but not limited to services offered for vocational training, rehabilitation, assistive technology, IT, children’s services and many more. SPD is an instituion of public character and your donation qualifies for 2.5x tax rebate. You can start by making an online donation from as little as SGD$10 at SG Gives, an online portal for Singapore non-profits and charities.
Make sure you insert in the field that says “Special Occasion/Person” – ” For the Kinabalu 1-Day Ascent” so they can track your contributions. 100% of donations will go directly to the SPD.
Left to right: The SPD flag flying high on summits of Kongsberg Peak (2009), Orizaba (2003), Aconcagua (2000) and Kilimanjaro(2004)
– and many more summits since 2000! Stay tuned for more updates and news.
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Update ; July 1 – 7: An update on what’s been happening: A lot of business travel, with 5-day breaks as part of assignments to Melbourne and Yangon in May and July respectively took a shine off the training schedule. That being said, since early 2013, the plan has simply been to get my legs into a as good a shape possible to make the grind up to the summit of Kinabalu happen in late August 2013. 
Training has been reasonably consistent outside those ‘breaks’ mentioned – two gym sessions per week focused on high intensity strength (early 2013) and strength endurance ( since June) plus an additional two cardio or similar sessions involving running, stairs et al. The fact I turned 49 years old on July 2nd is a sobering reminder that this old bird needs to climb and train smarter.
A couple of highlights in the run up to this micro-adventure in August was the 10 -day Chomolhari trek in Bhutan, as well as the breaking of my own post-1998 disability record for the 5-km time during Jun 17th’s Pocari Run; clocking 47:58 minutes. This is an improvement after my first-ever 5km run in the longest time in 2011 of around 50 minutes. By comparison my all time best of 17:50 as a teenager seems like a lifetime ago
Stay tuned for the next update as the plan comes together….
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