I’m an amateur mountain climber. While I’ve tackled a few peaks in the past, my health and time constraints prevented me from fully diving into the hobby. This year, as part of my New Year’s resolution, I promised to climb more mountains.
Already, I found myself on my second climb of the year, tackling the highest peak in Luzon: Mount Pulag. This mountain is also the third highest peak in the entire archipelago of the Philippines, following Mt. Apo and Mt. Dulang-Dulang, both located in Mindanao.
I even trained for this climb because I was told it would be strenuous. I focused on strengthening my legs for about three weeks, coinciding with my decision to start working out. This preparation proved essential for the challenging ascent of Mount Pulag.
I joined the Bokal Extreme event along with my officemates – the Kaladkarins – for this little ‘expedition,’ lol.
Travel time from Manila to Baguio was very smooth and fast – thank you, SCTEX! It took around 5 hours, inclusive of a couple of stopovers.
We were picked up at the Baguio Victory Liner terminal by what they call the ‘Monster Jeep.’ I don’t have the foggiest idea why they call it that, since it looks like a regular passenger jeepney to me, albeit a bit bigger (ding!). From there, we went to the DENR office for registration and orientation. The travel time there is about 3 hours. We had a 30-minute stopover for breakfast and a little photo op.
(Side note: You can also buy hiking gear here, which I found to be way cheaper! Bought my mess kit here!)
Before you’re allowed to climb Mt. Pulag, you have to present a ‘Fit to Climb’ medical certificate and attend a 30-40 minute orientation regarding Mt. Pulag, its history, and the know-how of climbing it.
After the informative lecture, we went to the jump-off site to set up camp for the night.
We woke up around 1:30 in the morning and started the trek at 2 AM. It was really muddy since it rained the night before, and it was still drizzling throughout our hike.
My number one advice for newbie climbers of this great mountain is to wear appropriate clothing. I was stupid enough to think that I could endure the cold by wearing my favorite football jersey, so I was freezing by the time we arrived at the ‘first summit.’ It was such a foolish move on my part, so please, just please, wear something warm during your climb here.
For amateurs like myself, Ambangeg is the preferred trail. The hike wasn’t that hard even though it was all muddy, so I thought if the weather had been really good at the time, it would have been an easier trek for us. It’s a good thing we waited for the weather to clear up and saw the beautiful mossy plains at the summit and the sea of clouds, which are the summit’s main attractions. Watching it is like being one with nature – just beautiful! I think the whole hike, ascending and descending, took us close to 12 hours. Yes, it was that long, but it was all worth it.
I cannot wait to revisit this majestic mountain in the future!
(This was a long overdue post. Since most of my blog posts are pre-scheduled, I didn’t realize that this one didn’t make it to my published posts. It’s still on my draft folder which I’ve only seen today! Ugh! Anyway – here’s my adventure at Mt. Pulag)
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