After a restless nights sleep, we awoke with a feeling of both anticipation and trepidation. Today was the big day we had been waiting for. With our day packs ready, complete with 3 litres of water we first stopped for breakfast and to collect our packed lunches. I knew I should eat, but could only manage to force down a slice of toast. We reached Timpophon Gate just before 9am and following a final briefing from Henry we set off up the mountain along the summit trail. The general chit chat and banter soon petered out as we focused on the task in hand. If I was to use one word to describe the trail I would say it was "Relentless". The 6 km hike to our overnight rest stop rose from 1850m to 3200m - almost a vertical mile!! There was an ever changing landscape around us with ground orchids giving way to pitcher plants and bonsai trees. I'd like to say that I appreciated all this, but I'd be lying. Priority number one was to keep putting one foot in front of the other until you had eeked away another kilometre from our target. In fact we all ended up making it there in pretty good time reaching the 4pm Mark by noon and the rest house by 2.30 - just 5 and a half hours since we set off. We were actually some of the first people to make it up there. This was a major advantage as the weather closed in and we were deluged with torrential rain and howling winds. After a buffet dinner where again I didn't eat much - this time due to the altitude and the continuous headache I had developed as a result, our good luck finally ran out. Henry somewhat sheepishly informed us that we wouldn't be staying in the main rest house, but were in huts some 15 minutes further up the mountain. So my bright yellow plastic poncho I had bought at Mulu caves finally emerged from it's packaging. What I hadn't realised was the great big Mulu caves logo was on the back of it along with a rather fetching image of a large bat. Feeling beyond care about appearances we set off into the cold wet slog to our hut. We were sharing with the other couple from our group, Jo and Andy, with whom we had shared previously. As we arrived at our hut I was hoping it was a mistake. We were the last hut up the mountain, in what was basically a freezing tin box with 2 sets of bunkbeds. Worse was yet to come as I realised that the loo and shower were 20m away along a slippery and waterlogged path. It was at this point that I told Jon that I was having a humour bypass and I have to confess to some pretty bad language too!!! With nothing else for it I redonned my soaking poncho and trudged out to the privy. Whilst it made little difference to me at that point there was also no hot water for a shower, but frankly there was no way I would have got undressed out there in the storm and temperatures close to freezing. Jo was equally dismayed as we stared out of the fogged up windows at the newly formed waterfalls that were cascading down the mountain either side of us. The cabin literally shook all around us and I confess to a certain level of nervousness as the lightning went off all around us in our metal hut. With no heater in our hut the temperature was continually dropping so we decided that the best bet was for each couple to share their bottom bunk - that way we had maximum body heat and could pile all the blankets on top of us. Even so it was very cold and you even had to have your face under the covers - so by 6.30 we were all in bed and trying to get some sleep before the final push to the summit the next day at 2am.