RANAU: The PBB Auxiliary Fire Officer Mountain Search and Rescue (MoSAR) team was again called to attend to an incident involving a climber who encountered trouble while scaling Mount Kinabalu on Friday.
Ranau Fire and Rescue Department Chief, Ridwan Mohd Taib, said a local woman suffered difficulty breathing or Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) at km6.5 of the Kinabalu trail.
“We received info from Laban Rata Restaurant Mount Kinabalu Manager informing us that a woman climber was noticed suffering from shortness of breath and dizziness at about 11.45am.
“A MoSAR team involving six personnel led by PgB Sahidi Mahili along with two Sabah Parks Rangers and a mountain guide hurried to the scene. Upon arriving at the scene, our team calmed the victim down.
“After that, we helped to bring the victim down from kilometer 6.4 to Panar Laban. A doctor at the location also provided medical assistance to the victim and then placed in Sick bay to monitor and further action. The operation ended at 1.33pm,” he said.
Ridwan said the woman became the fifth victim in February and the 13th so far this year who had to be attended to by MoSAR after encountering various kinds of complications during a climb or doing activities on Mount Kinabalu.
Meanwhile he added that the current weather condition is making the already challenging route to Mt Kinabalu more testing, and would-be climbers need to carefully contemplate on this matter.
Ridwan advised future climbers to do a self health assessment before climbing Mt Kinabalu. He said there must be a mental and physical preparation, and only bring along suitable and necessary items.
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