‘In awe of the majestic Mount Kinabalu’

KOTA KINABALU: When Rossiti Maineh Karim joined Sabah Parks as a general worker in 1992, not once did she imagine that she would be assigned to go on research and survey expeditions to Mount Kinabalu.

When she was young, she did dream of joining the police force but when she got the job offer from Sabah Parks after completing her secondary education, she took it up.

Sabah Parks is a statutory body responsible for the conservation and management of the state’s national parks, including terrestrial parks, marine parks and wildlife reserves.

Initially, Ranau-born Rossiti, 52, was assigned to general duties at the Kinabalu Park headquarters in Kundasang, about 88km from here, before being transferred to the administrative section.

Little did she realise then that she would one day be required to take part in nerve-racking yet exciting expeditions to and around Malaysia’s highest peak, the majestic 4,095m-high Mount Kinabalu.

Only female participant

Probably the only woman in Malaysia to have extensively trekked the length and breadth, and height as well, of Mount Kinabalu for research and survey activities along with her male colleagues, Rossiti got her first major mountain assignment in 2005. By then, she was married with three children.

Relating her memorable experiences to Bernama via an e-mail interview, she said her first assignment, where she was the only female in a 13-member expedition team, required them to survey the Panataran route from Melangkap Kapa village in the eastern Plateau of the Mount Kinabalu area to the Laban Rata Rest House, located 3,272m above sea level.

Rossiti was tasked with cooking for the team and assisting them in their activities.

The team members included the then-Sabah Attorney-General Datuk Mohamed Bazain Idris and the then-Sabah Parks assistant director Eric Wong.

Although Rossiti grew up in Kundasang and was familiar with Mount Kinabalu’s terrain as she had climbed up to the summit four times during her schooldays, she found her maiden eight-day expedition gruelling and back-backing.

“Our work was to make an assessment of the trail along the Panataran route and to recommend whether it was safe to be opened to the public. But the entire trek was tough as it was raining every day and the trail was very slippery.

“On top of that, we didn’t have enough porters with us,” she recalled, adding that each male expedition member had to carry more than 39kg of equipment and supplies, while she carried a 20kg load.

But there were some high points as well, such as the time when she was resting at a spot along the trail surrounded by upper montane forest just before reaching Panataran camp when three orangutans came towards her.

“I was dead tired; then suddenly these three orangutans came towards me at a close range, probably just one or two metres away from me.

“I was stunned, but the unexpected close encounter lasted just a few minutes as the primates were probably just as surprised to see me! It was a wonderful experience and I was very excited,” she added.

More mountain assignments

Rossiti, who is from the Kadazandusun community, also took part in six Mount Kinabalu expeditions between 2006 and 2007, one of which was to inspect Bowen’s Route – a trail used by two British climbers Miles Bowen and Ross Urquhart to scale the eastern summit of Mount Kinabalu in 1957.

In 2009, Rossiti was involved in three major mountain expeditions and again, she was the sole female participant. The first assignment that year was to trace a mountain trail used by Lilian Gibbs, a British botanist and the first woman to ascend Mount Kinabalu in 1910.

For this expedition, the team had to trek from Kiau Nuluh, a village in Kadamaian in Kota Belud district, to Kamburongoh, which is located 2,252m above sea level, along the main trail to the summit of Mount Kinabalu.

A section of the trail used by Gibbs led to a cave known as Lubong Cave, but locating it was particularly challenging for the team, said Rossiti.

“During this assignment, we had to make two attempts to survey the route as we failed to find the trail to Lubong Cave in our first attempt and had to return to Kinabalu Park office.

“During our second attempt, it was already dark when we were about to reach Lubong Cave but strangely we couldn’t find the last stretch of the trail to the cave. The visibility was very poor and our torchlight was of no use.”

They then decided to trek down to a nearby river as they thought that it would be easier to locate the cave from there since it was situated near the waterway.

While Rossiti and Sabah Parks senior ranger Martin Moguring – who was also a member of the expedition – tried to descend the steep route to the riverbank using a rope: “We suddenly lost grip because it was very wet and both of us nearly fell down. Luckily, I managed to cling onto a tree root, while Martin got stuck on top of a stone,” she said.

Rossiti said it was almost midnight when they found their way to Lubong Cave and that she was so traumatised by the incident earlier that she could not sleep that night.

“The next morning, I made a bonfire to dry our wet clothes but the fire suddenly became big and destroyed our clothes. Luckily we had some spare clothes,” she recalled.

More adventures

In 2009, Rossiti also participated in the nine-day Poring-Rhino Horn-Mesilau expedition, organised by Sabah Society to collect topographical information as well as take photographs of the area for a guidebook on the eastern part of Mount Kinabalu.

The distance from Poring to Mesilau Cave was only 23.4km, but it took the team nine days to trek to the cave as the unexplored path on the eastern plateau of the mountain was more difficult to scale than the western plateau.

“The route was steep and slippery and we did not have enough water supply. In fact, I had to wake up in the middle of the night to collect rainwater. I was soaking wet and couldn’t sleep as it was so cold,” she recollected.

At Rhino Horn, where they had to negotiate a steep slope, they clung on to tree roots and branches to swing down a section of the rock with their heavy rucksacks in tow.

Rossiti said although she was tasked with the cooking chores, she also helped to collect plant specimens for departmental recording purposes.

All-female expedition

In her third expedition in 2009, Rossiti accompanied another Sabah Society team to clear the trail used by Gibbs in order to prepare for the Centennial Climb of Mount Kinabalu in the Footsteps of Lilian Gibbs in 2010.

Rossiti was also assigned to take part in the four-day centennial climb in 2010 organised by Sabah Society. The event itself created history as all the nine participants were women.

“It was the first time I was escorting an all-female Mount Kinabalu expedition. It was quite a challenge because my job was to look after the safety of all the participants.”

In 2017, Rossiti participated in an expedition to try out a new 2.8-km trail on Mount Kinabalu, which was created to replace the old single trail from Panar Laban Rest House to Sayat-Sayat Hut that was damaged after a 6.5-magnitude tremor struck Ranau and the mountain’s eastern side on June 5, 2015.

Rossiti, who would retire in 2026, is looking forward to participating in more expeditions as the mighty mountain never fails to amaze her each time she sets foot in one of its trails.— Bernama