By Syafiah Sakirin
KOTA KINABALU,1 March 2022: Climbers on Mount Kinabalu were given a surprise yesterday morning when snow fell over the tallest peak in South East Asia, according to news reports.
Kinabalu Park deputy director, Justinus Guntapid was reported to have confirmed that climbers and guides experience the “snowing” along their trail from Sayat Sayat (KM7) trail to the summit at about 6.40am Monday (Feb 28).
“It lasted between two and three minutes during what was seen by witnesses as light rain,” he said.
Although snowfall is uncommon on the mountain, it has been recorded in 1975 and in 1993.
“There might have been more incidents but it was not recorded as it could have happened during hours when no one was on the summit area,” he added.
In the latest incident, Justinus said the general temperature on the summit area was between 6.9 degrees Celsius (2am) and 12 degrees Celsius (10am).
“We had 154 climbers and also guides in the area. Many of them witnessed it and recorded the snow,” he said.
He said guides and climbers were taken by surprise when they felt snow coming down on the mountain.
“It was a sudden and surprising experience for many of them on the mountain,” Justinus said, adding that they initially thought it was sleet which had occurred previously. ***
Source: The Star