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

Click the button more for continuation of this. 

Morning of Day 2

I woke up about 5 AM and at about 6 PM, I went out of the tent to join some mountaineers of another group waiting for the sunrise with their cameras set up.

Using the compass of my trekking pole, I checked our bearing at the Southwest Saddle. At South is crater of  Mt. Kanlaon, East is the caldera called Margaha Valley and lake and East Saddle, West are two mountains (forgot the names) and beyond is the Guintubdan where we came from. At the Northeast, is the Makawiwili Peak where we are supposed to be trekking that aftenoon. Our trek was supposed to be going around the Margaha Valley and trekking on saddles, ridges and mountains before descending to Wasay.

Fast moving clouds from the Margaha valley, east side, keep on passing us on the saddle and go down the other side, west side, of deep ravine and two mountains. It was cold but tolerable with my speedo shorts, leg warmer and double socks.

I realized that our tent was pitched in the open that’s why our tent is subjected to heavy wind. The other tents are in flat terrain beside the forest, protected by the forest against the wind.

Assault of the Volcano – Day 2

The volcano cone is quite foggy and when it was cleared of clouds about 9:30 AM, we began to prepare our assault. We left the base camp 9:45 AM and reached the peak at about 10:15AM. There is no trail since the cone is mostly small pebbles and stones.

Everybody was elated. Our cameras did not stop clicking, shooting the crater as background. On the descent, the view is also fantastic. As soon as the clouds cleared, you can see clearly below the Margaha valley and lake. This valley used to be the crater.

Change of Itinerary

On Day 2, we stayed the whole day at the saddle and watched the volcano to clear of clouds for good shots.

We are supposed to traverse the volcano. That is reaching the summit, go down to on the east side pass the Makawiwili Peak, 2,141 meters above sea level, go down thru PMS lagoon then Samoc lagoon. Because of heavy rain past 3 days, the lagoon is waist deep instead of knee deep and dangerous. We can pass along the side but still dangerous. For safety reason, we decided to go down same way at Guintubdan trail on Day 3.

On Day 3, we skipped Harden Balo but we still went to Mambucal Resort by our Vans, where we climb the 7 waterfalls except the 6^th one.

We had the best time of Mt Kanlaon climb.

On Day 3

We explored Mambucal Resort and climbed and trekked to the 7 waters falls. Check out my pictures at http://dumboqtpie.multiply.com/. Pictures speak thousand words.

The beauty of Mt. Kanlaon climb

Along the trail is bird watching area where silence is important to keep the birds on the trees..

Before reaching the saddle is Buslugan waterfalls. It is a beauty.That is nature.

On the saddle, you have the scenic view of Margaha valley, Margaha lakes, Makawiwili peak, the mountains on the West, and Cebu island on the East. 

In Mambucal Resort at the foot of the Mt. Kanlaon, our side trip, there are seven scenic Water falls.

Injury – Muscle Pain and knee ligament pain

On Day 2, my  body has acclimatize with high altitude and cold tempature. I wasn’t chilling even wearing my shorts.

On this day, my blue jogging pants and white wind breaker were dried by hot sun since there was no clouds. I used this wind breaker and jogging pants for trekking against Limatik on Day 3.

I used to have muscle pain the day after the climb. But this time, the muscle pain on my right leg was too much on the first night. Changing position while sleeping was so painful and I was afraid I might not be able to climb the summit. I applied Bengay and put on knee pad and knee support to keep it warm. Morning of Day 2, I decided to climb with inconvience of muscle knee pain and made it to the top.

Going down was more painful but I have to get down to the camp. Still I did it. I was saying to myself, NO PAIN NO GAIN. And I survived the summit climb.

Three times the whole Day 2, I applied Bengay, massage a little and wore knee support and knee pad.  On Day 3, the day to descend, the pain was gone.

I got injured again going down under a trunk of  big fallen tree. This time it was my ligament. It was stressed or stretched to much. Lifting to step up and jumping down was painful. Good thing I felft the pain when it was half way down and most of the trail has not much steps up or down. Descent, I made it about 6 hours compared to 8 hours going up. Indeed an achievement for me.

Everybody was happy. Others, who climbed Mt. Kanlaon last 2006 and failed to reach the crater due to bad weather, were happier.

I say that we are lucky and blessed since we reached the crater without an accident. The volcano showed up to us for good photo shoots.

My Backpack

My backpack is 50 liters capacity, extendable to 60 liters. It was heavy at 28 lbs without the mineral water yet.  This is the usual weight whenever I climb.

This time because of long hours of uphill trek and crawling under trunks of tress and crossing 3 – 4 ft high fallen trees, my backpack stressed my knees and muscle legs.

Usually, I wear dri-fit in the morning and change to cotton in the afternoon. I change pants daily and different at night. I bring along too many medicines usually 10 pcs each kind.

In this climb, I learned that one windbreaker for 3 day trek and one dri-fit shirt daily will keep me comfortable. At night, two leg warmers and socks will keep my feet and legs warm.

Next time I will reduce my backpack to 15 lbs only including water. I can do it. Mountaineers must pack light.

My Shoes

My pair of shoes is a newly bought TNF Daughlagiri. No break-in yet but keeps my feet firm on slippery, wet mud and keeps my feet dry during the climb.

My Jacket

My TNF jacket keeps me warm at nigh when we are having our social party under the moon and the stars and the clouds.