My Mountaineering

A Journey Which I thought Would Only Exist in Dreams

Like I said in my second blog, mountaineering was not an activity I could hooked myself on. With parents against exploring mountains, it's difficult to find ways and do things I wanted. I needed to wait for the proper timing, and I guess that's common to almost all of us. As a kid, there is nothing more appropriate than to live life according to parents' wishes, until we could finally lead an independent life of our own. 


When I started making a living, I thought of working on achieving those items I have in my dream list, and I meant to fulfill them all before I reach 30. Slowly, things had fallen into right place and opportunities to chase out those little dreams just popped out from anywhere. And this includes a dream to experience how it feels to stay in the mountains even just for a day or night. 

When I met Bogs, one of the good ladies I've known in the workplace, I got contact with The Backpackers, a mountaineering group that's composed of young individuals. I was invited to join in one of their climbs, and that's where my mountaineering life began. It started with a minor trek until I reached the highest peak in the Philippines. 


Here are some photos of my unforgettable mountains and climb:

Mt Maculot

Mt Pulag

Mt Talamitam

Mt Talamitam

Mt Pulag

Mt Tarak

Mt Makiling

Pico d Loro

Mt Makiling

Mt Pico

Mt Banoi

Mt Pulag

Pico de Loro

Mt Pundaquit

Mountaineering is fun. I got to see the most beautiful places on earth, much blessed with elegance than the extravagantly adorned buildings and lights in big cities. Spending time at the pinnacle of each mountain is a different kind of life: the warmth it gives in the daylight and the soothing coldness at night plus a peaceful environment where all you could hear are whispers of the wind. These are among the things that anyone could enjoy in the mountains, something that's not typical in a day-to-day life in metropolis.

However, no matter how lofty life seems to be in the mountain, my life does not revolve around mountains alone. Due to a knee injury I got few years ago, I needed to stop climbing mountains for my own safety, a reality that's so heart breaking and feels like as if I was breaking up with my Gord.  


I was part of The Backpackers already and I found it hard to break a news and tell them I'm leaving. I needed proper timing. After I reached Mt Pulag, I told myself  "I had reached the third highest peak in the Philippines. That should be enough." So I thought I was ready to say good bye to mountaineering. I was serious by then and I thought that declaration was real, meaning I wouldn't have any change of heart. However, whenever the group would set a date for the next climb, I felt I was becoming submissive to a desire of setting my feet at the summit. I could not say "NO" and I didn't know the exact reason behind that sort of addiction for mountains, except for one thing - that mountains serve as perfect sanctuary for people who search for fun at a tranquil spot in a huge space. I seldom want to be in a peaceful atmosphere and at the same time seeing huge space around me. Given that set-up, I feel that every little thing has bigger value, every tiny specie is given utmost care and respect, that everyone else is special, or that everyone else has equal right over cleaner air to breathe, to a wider sky where anyone can find refuge at, and to an absolute right to live according to unique nature. This is one thing we don't get in real world.

Everything that exists there is beautiful. That's what mountains mean to me - a beautiful place to live in where simplicity of life seems to be an absolute rule.

When I see every existence of any form of life in the mountain, I would come to agree that there is something higher and larger than what I can think of - a spacious room where I could cast all worries and negative emotions along side, including that feeling of being hopeless or hurt over things that are not mine in the beginning. 










In all those climbs I did, there is one realization that commonly stayed in my mind for a couple of days right after I'd come back to the typical city life, and that is about a thought that there is something beautiful that awaits for every one else, like a beautiful forest in a mountain, or bountiful harvest in the rice fields, or a stunning water falls or rivers whose water flow as free as a happy soul. We may not know what it is and when it's going to happen but I feel it's something wonderful and valuable, something so precious to keep, like this journey which I thought, at the beginning, would never occur in my entire life. 


Life in the mountain is so wonderful for nature-lover individuals, and I'm so glad I was able to experience it myself, even for a short span of time. When I get fit to climb again, I will certainly go back and make new experience!