A few months back, a friend posted some pictures of us during our climb to
Mt. Apo. It made me reminisce the past and as I did, it curved a smile on my face. I miss that place, I miss the people we spent those days with and I miss the feeling of getting to the top of the mountain... As I describe it, as FULL of AWESOMENESS!
1st Day: Monday, Aug. 21, 2005
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| We've just arrived in Kidapawan |
In climbing the tallest mountain of the Philippines,
Mt. Apo, you can choose between the Kapatagan and Kidapawan trail. Well, they say there is a third trail but I'm not familiar with it. For first timers like us, we followed the Kidapawan trail. They say it's the shorter but the steeper trail between the two. We left Davao City on a Monday morning, and arrived in Kidapawan before lunch. Settled our permits and off we went to Lake Agco Resort to stay for the night and prepare for the climb the following day.
2nd Day: Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2005
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Preparing for a rainy night at
Lake Agco Resort |
After a night's rest inside the resort, although we just slept on our sleeping bags under a covered hall, we geared up for the trail of our lives. We had breakfast before we head out, checked our tent, food and water, then off we went for the adventure of a lifetime.
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| Our first few steps |
My friend Neil, whom we fondly call "Yeye" had his hydration supply stocked inside his bag with a tube so he need not get it out. Me, well, I've prepared a 500ml Gatorade for the climb up, and it worked for the whole day, I still had a little left when we arrived at Lake Venado late afternoon.
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| Before getting inside the forest |
From Lake Agco, we started our climb to the highest mountain in the Philippines around 7:30 AM. We managed to group and regroup at some point along the climb, some of us have faster or slower pace than the other. Momi Shei is most often with Manny, while I'm usually with Yeye, Tatay and Jan2. Often, we would be a bit ahead, but if we think we're too far from Momi and Manny, we would stop and wait for them to take a little rest, regroup and recharge. Further, everyone has a whistle with, just in case something happens along the way and we need to call for some help.
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| At the Marble River |
Just as we, (me, Yeye, Tatay and Jan2) were about to start the trek along the Marble River and have just started climbing the big boulders in front of us, that would be around 10:00AM, we heard a whistle from below. Tatay went down and checked what happened. Later we found out that Momi stumbled a big tree root and wasn't able to retain her balance and fell, face down and her forehead hit the ground or a rock, which resulted to a swelling forehead.
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| Jan2, Momi and Yeye |
We put some meds on Momi's forehead while constantly asking her if she felt like vomiting or nauseous or if she wants to go back to Lake Agco or Kidapawan to seek medical attention or something. But she said, no and insisted that she is fine.
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(R-L) Yeye, Jan2, Momi,
Marlon? (I'm not sure), Me and Levi |
Later, we conquered the Marble River, me with literally a "pain in my ass", I slipped on one of the very slippery portion, my ass hit the ground with a "bog!" But anyway, I stood up like nothing happened and went straight to our lunch stop. When the rest of the group saw Momi, they were all worried and I might add, kind of a bit panicking. As Manny settled, he gave Momi around 5 capsules (I think most are vitamins), I'm not sure if she took 'em all though, but she was fine the whole trip.
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| At our lunch stopover |
After lunch we continued the climb until we reached
Lake Venado and setup our tents. We were also hungry, so while the guys are setting up the tents, we started preparing for food. We had a nice dinner, with a very cool ambiance, almost at the top of the Apo... :D
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| Stopover as we wait for the others |
It was our first night and knowing that we only need about 4 more hours to reach the peak the next day, we were more than excited, we head back to our tent early and had a good night sleep. Me, Momi and Yeye stayed on one tent, while Tatay and Manny on the other and Jan2 our dearest guide/porter stayed in his.
3rd Day: Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2005
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Almost there!
Momi, Tatay, Manny, Me & Yeye |
Morning came and as excited as we were on our first step, we started boiling water for our coffee (which we sip right away before it got cold), then had our breakfast and geared up for the climb to the peak of the Mountain. Since we need to bring as little baggage as possible, we only brought one outdoor wear for the whole climb & a raincoat, so we re-used our worn and dirty (because of sitting on the ground and heavy rains almost every hour) shirts and shorts and started climbing...
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| Going to the Peak! |
A few hours later, we reached another camping site near the peak and took our lunch there. Some of the campers would stay there for the night but it was not recommended for beginners like us, since it's windy up there and most probably colder. We stayed just a few minutes and started the climb again. We reached the peak of the mountain after about 20 minutes and it was amazing. I have to admit, it felt really good, I was glad I joined the climb and I'm not sure if there will ever be another chance in the future.
We stayed for a few minutes in the peak, took as many pictures as possible and started to trek down back to
Lake Venado right after. Me and Jan2 had an agreement that if we reach the lake before 4:30PM, we'll take a dip or a jump, whichever one prefers. And so we did, since we've been jumping down our way back, we reached just before 4:30PM and went for some swim in the very cold lake.
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| The Peak! |
Night came and it was our last night in the camp site, so everyone's getting pumped up and we had quite a celebration. At that same night, everyone's telling everyone that we conquered
Mt. Apo, and not just amongst the climbers but also our families in Davao. Would you believe that TM (touch mobile) got signals at the camp site? Yes it did! Although we needed to look for the right spot, and that spot is inside Ramil's (one of my officemates) tent, right at the center. So the rest of them will get in and kneel, but for me, I was standing tall, the tent was just right about my height. :D How lucky can we get? I had with me my TM at that very moment, having unlimited text, so it was free text for everyone!
4th Day : Thursday, August 24, 2005
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| At our back is our camp site |
It was our time to do the deed we were supposed to do at the mountain, to clean up, and we did. We brought back some garbage we had and some left by perhaps other campers or visitors at the site. After we took the garbage and prep our things, we started our trek down, back to Lake Agco. On our way up, we grabbed all the roots and trunks we needed to pull our selves up, but on our way down, we encountered the what we call, the "spiderman", where our feet were looking for a place to step on, since we cannot really look down there. We held on to the tree roots or branches as we get ourselves down. But we didn't call it difficult, we called it a challenge and we took it courageously, might be a little frightened, but as they say, you can't be fearless if you don't know fear... :)
We reached Lake Agco Resort a little before 5:00PM and among the best things on that resort were their hot/warm pools we somehow made grey because of the mud we had on us as we lay there and remembered the climb that has been. And we felt superior from our previous selves, we conquered
Mt. Apo!
5th Day : Friday, Aug. 25, 2005
The last day of the adventure was spent going back to Davao and to our families who were excited to listen to the adventure we are also proud of telling about. Home sweet home...
I was 27 years old back then, and I actually thought I should have done this when I was younger. Most of us were ranging from late 20s to late 30s, but our boss who joined the climb was 56 and still went for it! So, it's never too late to dream, and when we want our dreams to come true, we work for it, enjoy every moment along the way and thank God for the opportunities.
NOTE: Thank you to Manny and Momi Shei for the pictures!
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