Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Mount Kinabalu climber slips and falls to his death

Mount Kinabalu climber slips and falls to his death

KOTA KINABALU: A climber slipped and fell to his death when trekking up Mount Kinabalu.
Tan Tzu Hau, 31, from Inanam here, was found dead 5.5km from the Mesilau trail at about 2pm on Monday by a Sabah Parks porter.

Ranau district police chief Deputy Supt Suhaimy Hashim said that Tan was part of a mixed group locals and peninsular Malaysians trekking up the mountain through the Mesilau trail when the incident occurred.

''Tan was trailing behind the group when he apparently slipped and fell. No one knows exactly how he fell but a porter who was behind spotted his sprawled body beside the trail," Suhaimy said.

He said the incident occurred near the Panar Laban rest house at the height of 3,270m of the 4,101m mountain.

''His body has been brought down to Ranau and we are waiting for the post mortem to be conducted, he said, adding that police did not suspect foul play as they believe it was a case of misadventure.

Masilau trail is second but tougher route to the mountain as compared to the more popularly used Summit Trail or South Ride Trail.

Accidental deaths among climbers on Mount Kinabalu is relatively rare though they have been a few incidents with the last reported incident occurring in Aug 2001 when a British teenager Ellie James lost her way and was found dead on the mountain nearly a week after she went missing.

9 comments:

Small Hiker said...

I got to know the incidence from a fellow hiking's blog. Was told that the hiker was exhausted and fell. A rare incidence but it happened. It reminds me to be very careful in my hiking activities. I fell a number of times in my hiking activities, but it never injured me so far! Terjatuh sikit je tapi selalu!

Sharif John said...

Have to be carefull when trailing on the rugged surface

Anonymous said...

i never heard bout the news. thankz dude for sharing it with us. i just come back from Mnt Kinabalu last month from Timpohon Gate. it was easy route to Laban Rata...but still if you fell, u might get seriously injured.
btw, moga2 both u and me, and everyone who love hiking have a safe adventure. Keep posting your experience or news like it. thankx again.

DrSam said...

Take good care and be careful. Accident can happen anywhere, what more in a place such as Mount Kinabalu.

Pyromaniac said...

Nice blog bro!

Small Hiker said...

thank you all....Selamat hari Raya again... leaving for Kelantan in a few minutes....
Pyromaniac... nice blog you ahve there too...

ReActivate said...

::: salam aidilfitri bro.. scary gak bila baca artikel nih.. its true agak rare accident sebegini apatah lagi mount kinabalu byk kemudahan.. apapon kejadian ni adalah satu hikmah & pengajaran buat yg masih hidup.. sama2lah kita mengambil iktibar & hati2 ketika hiking walo di manapon sama ada mudah atau susah gunung/bukit tersebut..

~ selamat hari raya aidilfitri bro, maaf zahir batin.. tak balik kampung ker bro?

The trekker, agnes said...

We always promote Safe Trekking, not only in Bukit Tabur, but any mountains. just wanna to say thank you for following my blog.
Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to you & your family.

Trekker said...

the climber fell on KM5.5 Mesilau-Laban Rata (just before mesilau-timpohon junction). He fell 2 days before i went through that route(2 weeks ago). His guide also once brought me & my wife climbed Kinabalu last year.