Mt Pico de Loro

Freedom Climb
June 12, 2014



"Hey guys, I'm back!" Well, that's a typical salutation by someone who wanted to make a come back story, yeah? It's been months since I shared my last travelogue and here I am to share another experience.


June 12, 2014 - it's an old friend's wedding day but I decided not to attend as I miss mountains so much. Wait, is that a valid excuse for missing an important event of a friend? May be not. But how about this - it's Philippine Independence day which fell on my rest day too! A rare coincidence and the patriotic side of me says, I should climb on Independence Day to honor the people who died during revolutions and 330 years of slavery from Spain. Now, I sound so cheesy! Okay, let's get into the bottom - I simply wanted to climb with my sister and my bestfriend's sister. 


The initial plan was to climb Mt Pulag with my friend Weng, and her sister and my sister. So it's going to be "Sisterly CLIMB" supposedly. With sudden change of my work schedule, that plan was crossed out. Weng and I both had a look back of our previous climbs together with The Backpackers, then the thought of being able to climb the "Torreng Bato" of Pico de Loro made us decide to climb Pico de Loro on Independence Day. Who's not gonna be interested to climb this rock:

I took this photo in 2011 with my cheap point and shoot cam

It's been 3 years since my last visit in Pico de Loro and the feeling of being able to climb this mountain again just excites me a bit more.

Me, 3 years ago in Pico de Loro

When I told my team about our plan to climb the mountain, they got interested, and so they joined. Completing a group of 10, we have Nino, Julia aka Roberto, Yumi, Jasper, Ivan, Clarence, my sister Eiffer, my friend Weng, Dang (Weng's sister), and of course, me, myself.

Brave Souls - ready to kick and start the adventure

As far as I can remember, it takes 2-3 hours to get to the camp site of Mt Pico de Loro but it seemed not the case. When we began the trek, it started with a long hike to the basecamp which already consumed almost 2 hours of our time. It was a long walk and I felt bad because I set an inaccurate expectations about the trail as regards to distance and time. I was expecting to hear complaints from my team. Fortunately, they seemed to have fun along the way and they enjoyed every second of the hike. They were showing me their happy faces, so I felt relieved.  

Long long walk

We stopped for a picture :)

As we continued with the trek, the weather was getting worse. It continuously rained as if there's no tomorrow. Oh my! When it rained, hiking's gonna be hard, injury could happen at any point. Let's find out what's gonna happen...

Huh, was getting worried here

seemed 80 degrees

easy???

my sister

Yakang yaka...

So my team conquered all the challenges that came along - rain, muddy and slippery trail, rocks. Name it and they're gonna beat it! Wow, they are such tough individuals with positive outlook. And that's when I started to know the many good sides of them outside work. I have a super model in the team who's genuine humor is contagious, Robert aka Julia or Maegan

Here's this tough woman who's up for outside challenges without complaint, Yumi

This young man who's brave enough to join an unexpected muddy and rocky trek without any complaint, Nino.  

This sweet couple who proves to me that life is more beautiful when you walk through its journey with someone to hold on to, Ivan and Jasper

   

How about Dang and my sister, Eiffer? It's my sister's first climb and I was so worried about her. Before I could get her yes to this adventure, I promised her trek's gonna be easy but I didn't expect rain to come and ruin the easy trail. 

Figuring out which leg to move - left or right

She was not saying a thing, and that worried me a lot. But by the looks on her face, she was having fun

sisiw ba?

And Dang? She's having fun too..

Trek seemed to be endless. We're losing energy and we couldn't tell if we're closer to the campsite or not. The excitement started to disappear. We were all tired and we hadn't reached the mountain top just yet. 

As we moved along, we met different group of mountaineers who would warn us how difficult the trail ahead and the thick fog at the top. Some of them said they were unable to get through the summit due to zero visibility. I was getting disappointed because it seemed that we're not gonna see the mesmerizing beauty of Pico de Loro, one thing that I wanted to show off to my sister and the team. Anyway, trek must go on. 


I wasn't sure of the trek anymore and I'm not sure if it's because of the muddy and slippery trail due to staggering rain or my memory just simply failed me. Trail had been so endless. We passed through the bamboos and we're still not there yet, until I heard Jasper and Nino shouting in excitement. I was behind them so I didn't know what they'd seen but I felt it, we're on the top! Few more minutes of ascent and yes we were on the top! Yey, finally! But, yikes! the mountain top was indeed covered by thick fog and we couldn't see the rocks, the grasses on both sides of the mountain, even the "torreng bato" or rocky tower.

While on top, we rested for an hour, waited for the wind to blow the fog away and clear the top. I really wanted them to see what I had seen years back. They're gonna love it. Little by little, fog had gone away. And there! I couldn't wait to take photos. I tried to capture as many lovely photos I could but fog had frequently showed up as if it's telling us to come back some other day. Duh, I'm not gonna do that again. Nope, I guess not.

 

Anyway, we had so much fun in the rain. Everybody loved it, despite the very cold weather at the top. I'm not sure if everybody felt it but with these two, we could tell: 

This day was one of the million meaningful days I am very thankful with, and it's time for me to say a little prayer for all the bountiful blessings I received - a man to love and love me back even if we're ocean apart, a very nice job to take care of my (and my family's) monetary needs and shelter and food, wonderful people I meet, opportunities I grabbed that showed me how lovely life has been, my mom who's been my hero(ine), my dad who took care of me, my sister Eiffer who's been my fan since childhood, my best friend Weng, the hardship/trials that I surpassed, and many more... so I say a prayer of gratitude...

Thank you, Lord for all the beautiful things that you have been giving me. Now I'm completely setting myself free of all the guilt about mom's death, and completely understand her decision of sending me to college over her medication. I'm my mom's daughter. I can't waver. I stand up and live that simple, happy, kind of life she ever wanted. It's my freedom climb!

So I'd say no one's gonna stop a brave soul from dreaming, like most of these people who chased adventure in the woods the first time!

Ma Cristina "Clue"
June 22, 2014