MT APO

Mt Apo 9,692 ft

Nov 1 2018

I was so thrilled when Mt Apo was opened last year after a massive forest fire that burned Apo back in 2016, It has been 3 years since we first planned an attempt to scale our highest peak after climbing Pulag way back 2015. We made several attempts, but eventually resulted to failure due to lack of proper preparation and logistical knowledge.

considering the conditions of Apo recovering from the ashes of the past I was reluctant pushing through, but

Finally after several failed bids the plan materialized, together with 33 strong climbers headed by Dr Ericson Ranchez we made our successful 3 day climb last week. 

I was so excited on scaling our highest peak ever since, I remembered planning it while climbing Mt Halcon last May as it was supposed to be my recovery climb.
Climbing Apo was a pride and honor to me personally after having climbed several major peaks here and abroad.

BACKGROUND 


Mt Apo is the highest peak in the entire archipelago with its lofty heights of 9,692ft engulfing its neighboring mountains of Mt Talomo and Mt Matutum (Cotabato) to name a few and is also in the UNESCO WORLD heritage mountain list.

It was first successfully climb way back 1880 by Joaquin Rajal, governor of Davao; Joseph Montano, a French anthropologist; Jesuit missionary Father Mateo Gisbert it was the first known documented ascents after 2 failed attempts of the early 1850 and 1870 expedition.

Often dubbed as the "God father of all Philippine mountains" Apo gained its popularity throughout the years of climbing in Philippine Mountaineering Society, the fact that Apo has several major trails which a climber may choose and consider depending on his/her physical and mental fitness. Some of its trails is comparable to Ambangeg or Ambaguio-tawangan of Mt Pulag in Luzon. Having its 2 Regions facing several peaks of Davao Del Sur, and North Cotabato. Surely you will be mesmerized by its astounding scenery and highly diverse biodiversity home to our very own Philippine eagle. 


Although Apo is not considered the toughest climbs in the archipelago, but I could assure that its lengthy trails, boulder segments, sulfuric vents and sub zero temperature will not be your afternoon walk in the park mountain.  

Oct 31 2018
Brgy Kapatagan Digos Davao Del Sur
3:00 PM

We arrived in Brgy Kapatagan  at 3.00am after 3 hours of land travel and almost 2 hours flight from Manila, Oct 31 served as our Day 0 preparation for our food and other logistical concerns. Local guides welcomed us and porters as well.  We carefully planned our 3 day traverse from Brgy Kapatagan to Kidapawan alongside with our guides since we were 33 climbers one of the biggest group to climb Apo that day.

Nov 1 2018

2:00 am. Mainit jump off was the trail head and was 35 mins away from our camp. Climbers could choose to take a (Habal-Habal) motorcycle to jump off  but for our large group composed of 33 Climbers and several guides/porters we took the 6 by 6 bumpy truck ride to trail head.

3:00 am. We arrived in Sitio Mainit jump off which has a dam alongside with slight steep ascents that we ate for breakfast. We ascended via community trail towards the upland community Brgy Hall and DENR office of sitio mainit. It was a reminisce of the mangyan community we visited in Mindoro last may before climbing Halcon.

We had some short briefing with what to expect and other concerns such as water source and itinerary schedule. Shortly we commenced our trek at exactly 5:45 AM, the sun was up and shinning. We first aimed to reach Tinikaran camp 1 before 1:00 PM and hopefully regroup before planning our next move.

The first segment was still local community trail alongside with rolling hills and herds of cow's and horses.

The preview of Mt Apo boulders was clearly visible to our naked eye since the sun rays reflected its boulders from the east. We could see dust of clouds which was likely sulfuric vents from a distance, a glance on what to expect afterwards.

Shortly At 9:00 am we entered the forested area of Mt Apo, Approaching Godi Godi campsite we had a lot of photo ops I was part of the Mid team together with fellow climbers based in Makati. The lead pack ahead of us reached Tinikaran camp 1 at around 10:15 am.

Tinikaran Camp1 (2100 masl) was our regrouping point. but ended up our camping ground for the night. The original plan was to reach white sand campsite at 2700 masl if the lead pack and the sweep team will meet on Camp 1 before 1:00pm. The guide insisted that it should be the proper camping ground since it had a water source for cooking and reaching the boulder segment before sunrise should be our main priority since it was the main highlights of climbing the Kapatagan side of Mt Apo.

Shortly we ended up setting an early camp at 11.30 am. Some of my teammates chose to continue the ascend up to white sand camp. But eventually Most of everyone pitched
there tents by noon, I tied my hammock with a tolda  on top and we slept early. Until 5pm we woke up and our dinner beef stew was already prepared by our local guides they were great cooks.

At 7:00 pm lights out..

The night was frigid surely I felt a single degree Celsius chill since I was sleeping in a Hammock with my thermal gears and sleeping bags on. We recommence our trek at 2:00 am in the morning..

Day 2

MT APO BOULDERS TO LAKE VENADO

At 1:30 Am. The night was early, the wind was chilling while breaking our camp we had our breakfast and packed lunch cooked by our support team..

We recommence our trek at exactly 2:05 am, and found our way up to camp 2 after a short burst of steep ascents.

We reached the entrance of the boulder segments not before 4:00 am.
some ate there breakfast, some had photo ops, We were estimating the sunrise while climbing the boulders which for me was the most astounding moment of the climb.

Sulfuric vents smelled through  the vast thin air of frigidness. As we ascend through the boulder, we saw the southern lights from Davao City which was visible 25 kilometers away.

At 5:00 am, Ray of light was transcending the horizon reflecting a golden spectrum and was flowing directly towards the mist thin air revealing the boulder section. As an Asian tradition in mountaineering we always aimed to reach the summit before sunrise. It was spectacular!

Absolutely stunning. I had witness many sunrise and sunsets in the mountains across South East Asia but surely Apo didn't failed to provide a stunning view of the beauty of creation.

We had so much photo OPS that declined our pacing until it was already 6:30 am. The boulder was completely revealed. we ascended up and reached white sand camp at 7:30 am.
The aura had me a short reminisce of climbing Mt Kinabalu in Borneo last year. The two mountains were like twins.

We had a photo ops every 40- 50 steps

Shortly we regrouped after passing through White Sand Campsite our team sweep became the mid pack, short steep ascents continued pounding our legs all through out the entire assault. 

We reached the old crater after 30 minutes, the clearing was very low alongside with the smelly sulfur from the misty air.

Assault

Sulfuric vents

We had short photo ops before finally assaulting DIGOS peak,. The first 3 peaks we climbed from the old crater.

Digos Peak

The wind was pounding rapidly  the clearing was visibly low, we descended through Digos peak traversing the grassland area of the summit where we had our early lunch at around 10.30 a.m we had short photo ops from another peak they called KIDAPAWAN peak facing North Cotabato.

Kidapawan Peak

Team Makatey

12.30 pm, after a good number of photo ops, the lead packs descended via traverse route down to lake Venado, we were the last team of sweepers. Although we never had a good clearing, we were still delightful, we had so much fun climbing earlier on the boulder segment.

Arrived in Lake Venado

lake Venado was situated 3000 ft below the summit and 7503 ft altitude, it was a sanctuary to climbers due to its flat diverse camping grounds, crystal clear waters and also home to our Philippine Eagle, The fact that I saw one roaming above our campsite that afternoon on my way down.

I was exhausted, that afternoon the temperature dropped again to single degree unit.
We arrived in lake Venado at exactly 4.15 pm, our tents were already pitched out the slope of mt Apo was clearly visible from lake Venado. It was spectacular the silhouette of the mountain reflected lake Venado at dawn, every corner Apo has a beautiful side.

5.00 pm we had short nap before Ms Jonah started waking up the whole pack some were exhausted and could not stand up, it was already 8:00 pm when dinner was served and it was freezing, the wind had little rain that made the night chilling. We had a nice sumptuous dinner accompanied by liquor.

We had a nice sumptuous dinner accompanied by liquor.

The night was filled with laughter and socials as we were still sober.

lights out at 9:00 pm, but not for us, we continued drinking liquor until 11:00
The night was frigid but thanks to the liquor that kept us warm.

The next day we woke up at 6:30 am. It was a fine chilling morning everybody was calm
stream of frigid air welcomed my face as I unzipped the tent, from my view I could see the calmness of Mt Apo and Lake venado on the right side.

I started the morning with stretching and few sets of cardio, then I grab my go pro and camera and started taking photos of the crystal clear lake Venado, little by little other members of the pack woke up.

"Good morning" said one of our guides, I asked him about the enticing tales of lake Venado, then he thoughtfully responded to my question, lake Venado was sacred to locals, you could clearly see how clear the water above reflecting the main peaks of Apo and how charming it is. Though it may be calm as it seems but the lake once claimed a life of a local mountaineer based in Davao.

He drowned while his body was not found only after 3 days divers from Davao based divers and Philippine Air-force provided equipment for the retrieval of the body that came out 3 days after locals performed a local sacred ritual. 

10 years ago, it was one one of tragic known fatalities of Mt Apo after another fatality that happened few weeks after our organized climb. Up today the lake was still off limits to climbers due to extreme cold of water. 

6.30 am the peak was cleared and the reflection of Apo was clearly seen from lake Venado. We had our photo OPS for an hour until we had our breakfast at around 7.15 am.

8.00 am, we had our break camp and started trekking down at exactly 8.14 am. The lead packs left 30 minutes before the mid team followed by the sweepers after 15 minutes interval. Our aim was to reach lake Agco before 3pm. and we were still 7000 ft above sea level. lake Agco served the exit point of our trail.

We passed through the 87 degree boulder segment as it was literary a 20 feet by 87 degree descend,. We were very cautious, the mud was thick as 4 inch, some segments were eroding while we were descending. 

Apo's thick vegetation is home to many endemic species specially our very own Philippine Eagle.

Kidapawan side was more of the familiar Rain forest topography compared to the boulder section facing Davao Del Sur  

We reached Ko ong campsite by 11.00 am followed by a heavy rain on our way down, we consumed our remaining trail foods and refilled our water containers before recommencing our descend down to Matinao campsite which was 2 hours away. We had several river crossings before reaching the more established trail headed towards the exit point.

We reached lake Agco at 2.00pm. Rainfall still continued on our way to the famous resort and Mudpack destination due to presence of sulfuric vents

Lake Agco was a hot spring resort similar to Pansol Calamba Laguna which is my hometown.
We had our late lunch on lake Agco that also served as our wash off Point before exiting Kidapawan City that afternoon.

We reached Davao City by 7.30pm to catch Davao's Roxas night market.


Overall

I had a difficulty organizing an Apo climb this past few years due to lack of commitment which few resulted to failed attempts, but because pursuing Apo was one of my dream I occasionally changed plans or eliminated toxic joiner, but never the goal. It was an honor climbing our highest peak as Climber, another milestone for my personal Legend.

Clearly Apo was not a walk in the park climb but we had so much fun meeting new companions that shared same passion as you. like the essence of mindfulness is to enjoy every detail of our journey and to experience profoundness of the deepest beauty of mother nature, this is why we climb.

This is true mountaineering.

Till next climb
Mt Hallasan (South Korea)