Two boys teeter on the edge of the world as they marvel at the view from an electrical house atop Mount Kinabalu, 10,000 feet above sea level.

This was at the halfway point, Laban Rata Resthouse at Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia. After 6 hours (and some) of climbing, I sat/collapsed against a rock. As I watched other climbers trickle up the mountain, I caught this split-second scene of two boys atop a utility house.

The journey was spiritual. The pain, the sweat, the desire to reach the peak. Turning each corner of the mountain, I prayed for a rest stop. After reaching the halfway point, I gorged myself, ravenously, on the simple buffet.

Climbers filed into their rooms as I passed the corridor to my room and collapsed onto my thin-mattress bunk bed…Only to wake up at 3am to start hiking in pitch darkness to the peak to catch the sunrise.

It won’t be long until I itch to climb this mountain again.

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“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go and do that, because what the world needs are people who have come alive.” – Harold Whitman
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Mount Kinabalu
Sabah, Malaysia

December 28, 2009

Ⓒ Rachel Gouk Photography

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