Philippines: Most Difficult Mountains/Climbs

Most Difficult Mountains/Climbs
in the Philippines

        The highest peak in the Philippines, Mt Apo has lost its allure as a difficult mountain. Well-mentained trails make its summit doubly accessible and hawkers find their way up on a high camp in Venado Lake, defeating some cardinal virtues of mountaineering - isolation and self-reliance. Like most of the sizable peaks in the country, Mt Apo is within a National Park, where, as the usual fare, the mandatory use of local guides is being implemented.
            After two decades of tropical climbing by mountaineering clubs since the early 1970's, climbing in the Philippines has degenerated into "rehashed climbing", loosing the appeal of exploration enjoyed by the old-timers. Rehashed climbing makes use of fixed routes and, oftentimes, relies on the services of local guides, giving less room for planning. Moreover, it is wanting in oppurtunities to encounter surprises and complications, where real adventure is.
            The Annual Climbs of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, Inc. (MFPI), despite of its accomplishments and good intentions, could be considered more as a big social gathering participated by hundreds, at times thousands, of backpackers from around the country.
            To disabuse the mind of dissenters, the aforementioned undertakings are legitimate mountaineering activities. They are worthy of their merits yet relegated to their 'level' in terms of risks and challenge. At any rate, the climbs (more than mere mountains) in this compilation are of a different mold - exceptional for each of their difficulty, risk, independence, audacity, passion and/or drama.

                                      "The Saga of Mt Baloy"

      Mt Baloy (7,049ft) or Baloy-Daku (the Greater) straddles over three provinces in Panay Island - Iloilo, Capiz and Antique. Two major factors - isolation and dense forest cover - contribute to make up for its moderate elevation to gain the status of a very difficult peak in the Philippines.
      The two attempts (the second was in 1994) by the Antique Mountaineering Society (then led by an old-timer and stalwart, Baby Gallego)in the west or Antique side failed due to the depletion of water supply, a very scarce commodity in that side. Struggling in Karatagan in the east or Iloilo side, the Iloilo Mountaineering Club led by Fred Tayo (another stalwart and old-timer) had to make also two attempts to be able to finally scale its summit which is reputed to have a tiny lagoon. Likely done in the early 1990's, one of these attempts lasted for seven days. On the same side, according to a Karatagan villager, a four-man American party climbed Baloy for a week to no avail. With the knowledge of route at hand, the IMC's later climbs are successful, most are traverses from Iloilo to Antique.
      Brgy. Karatagan is accessible solely by means of foot from Supanga, the last point accessible to transportation. Leaving Calinog town in Iloilo province, a vehicle offers public trasport to Supanga for a fare amounting to Php90.00. The Calinog-Supanga road is in bad condition. In the rainy season, it deteriorates further and becomes impassable.

              Based on Interviews Conducted by Dennis S. Ella (dennis5033@yahoo.com)

                                "Mt Madja-as, Climbed at Last"

       Mt Madja-as (6,822ft) in Culasi, Antique figured prominently in 1981 as the second site of the MFPI Annual Congress and Climb. Despite of its prominence, however, its true summit was not climbed until November 1997 when a large party led by Baby Gallego of Antique Mountaineering Society came to climbed it.
       Composed of 20 members including the 4 guide-porters, the party was provisioned for nine days for a climb that involves a record-setting traverse from Alojipan to Flores. Among the obstacles it had to face are: 1.) coping with the searing heat of the sun in the initial stage along the cogonal sections; 2.) portaging a very heavy supply; 3.) hacking a trail in the untracked sections of the summit-ridge; 4.) coping with the physical and psychological stress of the long duration of the climb; and, 5.) coming to grips with the thought of encountering the fabled talonanon, a wild, hairy Stone Age man living in the remote regions of the Madja-as forest.
       Eventually, some members suffered from near-dehydration early in the ascent. By the third day, a large cache of provisions were left behind to minimize load and cope with difficulty of the uphill climb. By the fifth day, the party comprised of robust young mountaineers and weakening old-timers, had to race for a water-source past the summit to resupply their depleted packed water. By the sixth day, an old-timer who suffered from foot-blisters was carried on a hammock until the party reached the barrio in Flores on the seventh day.

                  Based on the account of Jeffrey Legaspi, Climb Party Member

                               "The Third Attempt of Mt Silay"

      Mt Silay (5,032 ft) is a relatively low Philippine mountain surrounded by a strip of virgin forest engulfing its summit-proper. It had remained as one of the unclimbed peaks in the Northern Negros Forest Reserve until a small nonguided party of the Singarong Backpackers set out to climb it for the third time on a five-day venture in August 1999. Naathagan Buttress in the South Face, a forbidding wall, thickly forested, rising to about 3,500 ft above the base (accessible in almost two days from Borrio Gawahon) was the chosen route of ascent - the second attempt on the Face.
      The Buttress was thick with growth, only a few section has extant but decaying trails, and is peppered with rock-boulders, one of which required a modicum of technical climbing. By the second day, the party was forced to bivouac on the buttress-ridge, depleting to a critical level its water supply. At about 11:00 a.m. on the third day, August 29, 1999, the party touched its targeted pinnacle (that proved to be a false summit). With very little water left for lunch, the party left the attempt for the true summit and opted instead to climb down immediately, hoping to find a water-source before nightfall.
       As two members abhorred the thought of backtracking on the difficult ascent-route, the party went east to look for another route. This decision enabled them to discover a tiny brook in a col (named by the party as Nagabusay) but left them stranded on an adjacent pinnacle (it took two more Silay attempts and 1 1/2 years for the SB to realize that it is the summit-proper of Mt. Silay.)
       By the fourth day, the party, unable to find a South Ridge for the southern base, went on a northeast detour. Unfortunately, the detour proved to the greater part of the challenge to the party, providing them with the challenge of negotiating down the untracked high valley region, the remotest section of the NNFR. It forced them on a 24-hour first traverse (including a night bivouac) across a 4-km span of narrow ridge covered by bariw and the ascent of the South Ridge of Sewahon (an unclimbed mountain). By the time the members arrived home, it was already the seventh day.

                  More details in http://www.oocities.com/siba_ph/FASewahon.html

SINGARONG BACKPACKERS HOMEPAGE

                               "Mount Apo in the 1800s"

      Don Jose Oyanguren, a Basque and governor of Nueva Guipzcoa, led a party of 67 men (1 army lieutenant, 1 naval officer, 30 soldiers, 20 penal exiles, 13 Bagobos, 2 Christian civilians) in 1852 for the first recorded attempt to climb Mount Apo. In the absence of any road, his expedition approached from the coast and, from the mouth of Tagulaya River, walked upstream. Encountering fierce jungles and hardships, the party retreated in failure and 20 members died from exhaustion and, perhaps, malarial disease after their return.
      In 1870, the second expedition composed of 31 men led by Real, approached by way of Tabon. Like the former expedition, it was defeated although it had no casualty.
      Don Joaquin Rajal together with Fr. Mateo Gisbert S.J. and Dr. Joseph Montano (a Frenchman who published his account in Paris) fit the third expedition. With the help of Datu Manig (a Bagobo chieftain) and 18 of his men who acted as armed escorts, not porters, the party started on October 6, 1880 in Davao and reached the summit in October 10, 1880. Very likely, it is the first ascent not only of a Westerner but of man. While the Bagobos had been inhabiting the lower slopes of Apo since time immemorial, they were prevailed upon not to climb the summit by Mandaragan, the viscious god of the mountain to whom a human sacrifice is not spared for its appeasement. In fact, it was with great trepidations that the Bagobos in the expedition followed the Christians when they were about to summit.
      The Germans, Alex Schandenberg and Otto Koch, earned the second ascent in February 1882. Actually conducted for the 6-month study of the flora of Apo, this expedition started from Sibulan, crossed Balacio River, passed Tagudaya and forded Vaigmainit River (with sulfuric water). It encountered trees more than 100ft tall and vines 30ft long, several solfataras and discovered Rafflesia Schadenbergia Greppert (largest flower in the world?).
      The Jesuit Expedition of 1888 succeeded with the third ascent. In the party, Fr. Martin San Juan S.J (Spaniard) and Fr. John Doyle S.J. (Irishman) conducted magnetic measurements. This party started by banca on May 8, 1888 and through the mouth of Tagulaya River went to the moro village in Darong. Through forests and cogon fields, it proceeded to the home of Datu Manig and later to Tagudaya. Among its difficulties is getting mired neck-deep in dense growth.
      In 1892, Fr. Eusebio Barrado S.J. made an 11-day journey from Kabacan (Cotabato) to Davao across the mountains and over the northern flanks of Apo, on an elevation around 2000ft above sea level. Although the Jesuit and explorer was not able to climb the summit, his expedition proved that an approach of Apo from the NW is possible. (The Gutierrez-Bruns expedition set the first ascent of Apo from Cotabato in 1928).

                    Main source - "The 'Snows' on Mount Apo" by Miguel A. Bernad S.J.