Gunung Mulu
- Gunung Mulu
- 2376 m.
- Prominence: 2025 m
- Sarawak, Borneo
- Location: North 4.04565, East 114.92996
- Difficulty: (YDS) class 3
- Climbed March 14th. 2026.
Gunung Mulu
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How to get there:
Mulu National Park is served by Air Borneo. There are no roads
connecting it to the coastal area of Borneo.
The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site known for some of the largest
caves in the world as well as a unique biodiversity.
This airline flies to/from Mulu Nat. Park from several other
airports, but not every day. Thus, one should look carefully
at the schedule when planning a visit.
The closest town with an airport is Miri (MYY), on the coast just west of Brunei.
The Mulu National Park is 5 minutes from the airport,
a taxi cost 5RM. The park has accommodation
and a small store as well as a restaurant.
Advance reservations are recommended.
The taxi will drop you at the park entrance,
this is a pedestrian suspension bridge crossing the river.
Route description:
A strong party can do this in 3 days, even 2 long days may be
possible. The park claims a round trip distance of 50 km.
My Gaia measured closer to 40 km,
The route has more than 2300m net vertical gain plus quite substantial
additional gain due to local loss along the way.
The route starts with about a kilometer walk-board, then a signed trail forks
left. After about 2.5 km, you
reach a small waterfall. A signed 5km trail forks left
here and loops back to the park HQ in another 5km. The Mulu trail continues, then
crosses a small river.
Removing shoes and socks, this is a shallow and easy crossing.
About 45 minutes after this crossing, you will arrive
at a larger river. Unlike the previous river,
this has big rocks that may be
used to cross, they may be slippery. Most people seem to wade across and not
attempt the boulders. Shortly after this crossing, you will reach Camp 1. This is
a shelter, the park offers a 2 day, single night hike to here and return.
The next section starts a gradual ascent crossing several humps, but each uphill
is typically longer than the previous downhill. After this, the route has a pretty
sustained 1000m vertical gain in order to reach Camp 3 (there is no Camp 2).
Steeper sections have short ropes that may be useful if wet and slippery.
Most parties will spend the first night in this shelter.
The elevaton of Camp 3 is about 1350 meter, another 1000m net gain remains before
the summit. This location is N4.03798, E114.88829.
The next section continues up the ridge to beginning of a more horizontal part
of the ridge, elevation near 1735m, location N4.03230, E114.89358.
Shortly before reaching more level terrain,
there is a nice viewing area on the
right hand side of the trail-
Horizontal is perhaps not very precise as the trail now has a large number of
ups and downs, some dip loosing as much as 70 meter. After a few more hours
you will arrive at Camp 4, elevaton near 1780m, location N4.04419, E114.91387.
Most parties stay here. If the weather is nice one may consider doing the summit
before calling it a day. One should allocate at least 5 hours for the trip to
the summit and return to Camp 4. A strong party could also push all the way to
Camp 4 on the first day.
The weather is often best in the early morning, thus a very reasonable plan
would be to start from Camp 4 about one hour before daylight. The route first
descends gently, then starts the final ascent. This section has both pretty
flat sections and some rather steepish passages,
including 2 ladders.
A final steep section
protected by ropes will get you a flat area that could
be called the west summit. A very gentle trail with only a small loss of
elevation connects to
the slightly higher east summit.
A track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments / Trip report:
I had contacted Mulu National Park and asked about possible options for
climbing Gunung Mulu. It turned out that they only offer a 4 day trip,
3 nights away from the Park Headquarter, with a minimum group size of 3.
Thus a 5 night visit seems to be the minimum in order to climb Gunung Mulu.
I originally planned this as a visit from Kota Kinabalu, but a more careful
look at the flight connections showed that I needed to fly in from Kuching,
but then out to Kota Kinabalu. A round trip from Kuching had been better for
me as I next would need to fly to Singapore. Kuching has good connections and
quite a short flight to Singapore. The distance from Kota Kinabalu is just longer.
With all information in place, I ordered a 5 night stay in the park, with 3 nights
on the trail to Gunung Mulu.
The flight from Kuching went smoothly and the airplane had surprisingly many people
headed for the Mulu National Park. The airport is close to the park, but there was
no obvious information about how to get there. It turned out that a local taxi ride
is only 5 RM (2026), the way to go. I next entered the park on the official pedestrian
suspension bridge across the local river.
I had reserved a lodge accommodation for
the first and last night, this was a separate house for each unit scattered nearby
the park headquarter. I met my guide for the trip, a nice young man named Elli, and we
agreed to start around 0800, after breakfast, the next morning.
Meals were served in the local restaurant and breakfast started at 0730. There was also
a small store there and I purchased a gas canister for cooking as well as some biscuits
and power bars. I had brought 3 dinners (mountaineering food) from Norway.
We did not really get going until 0830 the next morning. Elli brought along a porter
for himself, I had informed that I would carry my own gear.
We met a group that had done an overnight on Camp 1. Arriving there around 1115, a short rest
was called for. I soon felt for going and Elli said they would follow. I arrived
Camp 3 around 1400. It turned out that my guide and his porter were way behind. I started to
worry slightly, but finally, almost 3 hours after me, they did show up.
This shelter worked ok. It is important to hang all food, the local hut-keeper in permanent
residence, is a small rat. I slept ok and was ready to continue around 0700. Again, I got
ahead and arrived Camp 4 around 1030.
No rat hut-keeper here, but a squirrel, so keeping the food secure was still a priority.
Elli turned up around 1100. He said we would have
acceptable time to summit.
I went to a small, open viewing area
only a very short distance above the hut.
The summit was completely hidden in a big cloud, but the clouds were moving and a brief view
of the upper mountain opened up.
I suggested that we just took the rest of the day off, then tried the summit the next early
morning, quite often the weather is pretty good just after sunrise. Thus, I suggested a start
around 0500, just to summit in good light, but still early morning.
The next morning, I started as planned. Elli would (as before) start a little later. Everything
looked near perfect. A dark sky with many stars, the moon was also visible. The ascent was nice,
quite steep in places. Elli caught up and we arrived on the west summit
together. I carried on
and soon a visit to Gunung Mulu could be recorded. A small, ugly hut had been put up here, by helicopter?
The peak would look a lot nicer if the national park authorities used a helicopter and removed
this structure.
There is a summit sign as well as a memorial marker.
I was here around 0715, very nice weather and a blue sky.
An ocean of clouds in all directions below us.
No need to hurry, nice to spend some time here at the 2nd. most prominent peak of Borneo.
I walked back to the west summit after about
30 minutes and took a brief stop also there. Care was needed
in the upper part of the descent. The return went smoothly and a stop back at Camp 4 in order to
fill the backpack with the gear left there. Then, on my way down to Camp 3, I met two younger
persons from the UK. They planned to do the summit the same day, but by now, it was completely
engulfed in a big cloud. It turned out that a big group of 18 from the UK was at the park
headquarter to celebrate an anniversary for a large expedition to Mulu in the 1970's. Two
younger people participated, he was the son of Robin Hanbury Tenison, the expedition leader, while she
was the daughter of the expedition cook.
I arrived at Camp 3 at a very reasonable time. What remained was dinner and my 3rd. night before
the final descent and walk back to the park headquarter the following day.
I was back around 1330 the next day after making a couple of minor navigational
errors. I had my track from the ascent, so no good excuse for some extra "sightseeing" on my
final few kilometer. Nice to be back with the luxury of a lodge room. I was invited to join the
big group from the UK for dinner. A nice opportunity to learn
some more about this park and
the time of early exploration.
This was my last peak on the trip. My flight back to Kota Kinabalu with two local stops with
a good old Twin Otter,
reminding me of my trip to Greenland in 2004.
