October 31 to November 2

I cannot say I conquered Mt. Kanlaon but I say now I survived the climb of Mt. Kanlaon and was allowed by the Mountain to peek on its crater.

The Guintubdan Trail to Southwest Saddle – Day 1

The trail of Guintubdan was difficult and took me about 9 (others 8 and 9.5) hours including the night trekking since it was wet, muddy, narrow, and all uphill.  There are so many fallen big trees (57 according to the guide that you have to crawl on your hands, arms, feet and knees to pass the trail or cross over big trunks of fallen trees at about 3 feet high. In crossing several narrow and stiff cliff rivers, you have to cling and hold on the roots and stepping on very sticky and slippery earth mud. It is just like wall climbing in several malls although this is about 10 ft only.

You have to pass the Limatik trail for about 4 hours. Limatik are very active during cold and wet weather. Just three days before our climb, there was heavy rain and impending typhoon coming from China Sea near Palawan.  About 14 Limatik stuck on me, 5 on arms, 2 on neck and 7 on my clothes. Limatik sucks blood and in 5 minutes they are full. All I did was flick them with my fingers while limatik is standing on its tail. Limatik use its head/teeth and tail to crawl. Going downhill back on the same trail. I was lucky that no Limatik got me.

On the Southwest Saddle, our Base Camp - Day 1

We reached the saddle about 6:30 PM and it was so foggy and windy. The wind is so cold. I believed the temperature is about 10 degrees C but because of cold wind, it must be below 5 degrees. I never expected that it will be that cold since this mountain is only 2,465 MASL. I was wearing Speedo short pants and I even left behind my cotton/nylon jogging pants for sleeping. Reaching our pitched tent, I began to chill and can’t get out of the tent.  I chilled for about half hour and slid in my sleeping bag to maintain my body heat. I was not able to eat good dinner and slept instead.

Outside the tent, the wind keep on blowing and tent specially the flysheet keep on flapping the whole night because of poor tent pitching

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