Mt Amuyao Traverse

Mt Amuyao  (8,864ft)

Philippines 9th highest 

Brgy: Macalana Barlig Mountain Province
October 29 2016

At last!, We were back in Cordillera, after a year of climbing mountains, were bound again to complete our bid for climbing Philippines highest mountains, and this is the 2nd sequel of PH's 10 highest mountains. Packed with courage and enthusiasm were all excited to do one of cordilleras greatest traverse climb,. It was not only one of the hardest we did but it was the most amazing climb I did this year. Joining me this time are the pioneers of our organization, as we were total of nine.

BACKGROUND:

Mt Amuyao is PH's 9th highest mountain standing at 8,864 ft, It is situated near the border of mountain province and Ifugao. Its summit is where a tower of two large network in Ph is located. Its trail is one of the hardest and greatest trail in Cordillera after Napulauan and ugo,. The trail will start in the  humble village of Barlig up to summit passing down through the ancient villages of mountain province until reaching the worlds famous Batad rice terraces in Ifugao that served as our exit point. Its a strenuous hike of 31 kilometers crossing two provinces and countless of rivers plus death defying steep and narrow trails tested our toughness, adaptability and resiliency. We took 52 hours and 35 minutes to complete the whole traverse with a difficulty of 8/9.

note: (Mt Amuyao is not for beginners doing a traverse climb is very dangerous especially on the rainy days)

Day 1 Barlig to Mt Amuyao Summit

The trail started in the humble village of Barlig

01.30am when we arrived in Barlig after 2hours of travel time from Banaue. and 11 hours of travel from manila. While we were in Banaue we packed and buy foods before heading to Barlig. It was my first time in Barlig. The sun was shining bright on the afternoon we took our bags and registered on Barlig Police station and started paying our fees, the weather was cold and it was only 2 weeks when mountain province was struck by a typhoon. We met our local guide who resembled carrot man of Mayaoyao.

We commenced our trek at exactly 02.30pm after we fixed and geared our things . The first leg of the traverse was a mid steep ascent up to the pine forest area. A preview of the summit was visible to the naked eye, there were a lot of discreet moments not to disturbed the overwhelming view, a feeling of satisfaction. A landscape shaped by hands of creator, we were so mesmerized to see this beautiful area of Mountain province that we didn't notice that we were trekking for 3hours until dawn.

It was exactly 05.30pm when we felt the first chill.  we knew that it would take us 6hours to climb summit so we expected to summit at night.

The pine forest was one of the best part of the first leg

It was a continues sub steep ascent and a well established trail with a nice breeze from the pine trees.

      
It was when around 06.00pm when we arrived on the first waiting shed of the summit, It was already dark when we put our 2nd layer of cover. We geared our lights for the final 3hours of ascend to the summit.

The 2nd leg was hardcore, major assaults welcomed us, as we climb higher and the night is getting darker until total of darkness engulfed us. There was a sudden drop of temperature and a bit of rain. We pass through the man made staircase built by locals.

1hour after 07.00pm major assaults still pounding our legs on our way up still no sign of summit. I was in the middle as we were divided in 3 groups. Still overwhelming with power I continued to push through after rehydrating my body.

exactly around 08.00pm when I finally felt my leg muscles starting to wobble. It was still full of assaults and we were bit exhausted, It was totally dark.

The lead team were my climbing buddies from cannon, I was in the mid, while Gerald, Erika and Lemuel were in the back.

After 30 minutes of walking we finally reached the water source at exactly 08.30pm we were bit tired and gust of wind around 30-40kph hit us. good thing were wearing wind breakers.
It was also due to temperature drop that we were walking a bit slow.

We rest for a bit, as team cannon, Daryl and friends decided to go ahead the summit was just an hour away

I waited for the last team to arrive as I am there to assist them. It was roughly around 9.00pm when they arrived on the first water source
.

We continued trekking up to summit at roughly 09.05pm and push through, the final leg of Barlig to Mt Amuyao summit was the most tiring part of the day, It drained my energy to the point of questioning if we can make it up to the summit. many factors have affected our ascent because the gust of wind kept on pounding us with chilling factor and it was raining at the same time.


It was when 09.38pm when we arrived at the knife edge section, strong gust of wind reaching 70kph pounded us as we make it up, just I thought we were close to the summit but it was a continuous 30minutes of assault before we could reach the Tower. Roughly the weather was a degree lower than 10.

We took 7hours and 35mins finishing the first 7 kilometer leg before we could camp on the summit.. We reached the bunker at exactly 10.05pm. The bunker was an old storage room, but converted to a house catering climbers who climb Mt Amuyao.  It was first come first served tired and weary, we still manage to cook food and set tent outside.  There was also a large group of mountaineers inside the bunker.

10.45pm was when we finished eating,  I cooked nilaga baboy (pork stew) eventually my team mates were already asleep, when I got outside, Gerald and Lemuel were having a massage session. I joined them, good thing I brought Tiger balm, I felt at ease on my back pain.




It was 11.00pm lights off and it was a chilling night.



DAY 2

MT AMUYAO SUMMIT - PATYAY VILLAGE

Good morning summit!

We woke up with chilling temperature roughly around 5-8 degrees C, Daryl, Floro and me slept inside the bunker, because it was already full and the rest of my teammates are outside.
The sun was not shining on the great Sunday morning, and it was raining like crazy.

We hurriedly packed our stuff and started to boil water until all of us were already awake at around 06.00am. We were expecting a 14 hours trek that Sunday, although we were having second thought but we commenced our trek at exactly 06.15am

Mt Amuyao summit is full of pines and different fauna the descent from summit to pat yay village was estimated 6 hours of trekking

we continued descending down and still gust of wind around 50-60kph pounded us, the rain kept on pouring constantly and there are no signs that it will stop.

07.45am after descending  for about 2hours we reached the mossy forest.

many traces of the previous typhoon were present along the trail

The rain suddenly poured hard as we continued until we reached the waiting shed area at around 09.00am.  We push down descending via diversion road as we saw a lot of typhoon aftermath effects on the part of Amuyao, there were many land slides and fallen trees

the trail was too dangerous so we were cautious. .

We didn't noticed the time and we were starving, as to when I checked my watch it was already 10.30am

We crossed the first river crossing down to the flat area of Amuyao at around 11.30am after 5 hours and 30 minutes of trekking.

and crossed another river again!

and again . .

non stop. .

until we reached the first view deck of pat yay rice terrace. . I CANNOT FIND any words to say but it was overwhelmingly awesome!

these ancient structures were sculpted by mans hands thousands of years ago long before the Philippines became nation. It was always nice to see and know the culture of the cordilleran people. Even when we were kids we were taught in school of how the cordilleran people built the rice terrace

but it was fascinating to see it in real!


It was around 01.30pm when we reached Pat yay village, an ancient cordilleran village known to natives as resting ground of mountaineers doing a traverse and rev trav. we were 2 hours late on our itinerary.

It was a sanctuary for mountaineers, we decided to spend the night in pat yay because our guide recommended that it would take us another 7hours to reach Cambulo, plus the trail to Cambulo is very dangerous especially in the evening add the rain factor we decided to camp in pat yay! We rent a house in pat yay village for about 145 pesos each person pat yay village has no electricity but the weather was still cold and chilling at night.

03.00pm we prepared early dinner after it, hola siesta!!! We massage each other to relive the pain in our aching bodies, I had 18kg back pack that I carried  for about more than 27hours. We washed our things and set our sleeping bags to an early evening sleep.

ahh! massage was good when your body was aching

Lights out at around 07.30pm



DAY 3


PATYAY VILLAGE TO CAMBULLO VILLAGE TO BATAD SADDLE


Pat yay kang bata ka!  13 hours non stop trek!

The next day we woke up by rain and very cold temperature roughly around 10 degrees, still raining as we hope that the sun would shine soon.

we woke up the next morning at around 04.05am to prepare early breakfast for our morning assault on cambulo village, still dark and sleepy we needed to cook rice , and the water was freaking cold as ice!

TO BE CONTINUED. . . . . . 




continuation Mt Amuyao Part 2