Jing's posts with tag: mountaineering
Featured on January 16, 2008 at Blogger. MOUNT PANGASUGAN (5,650 feet above sea level) is the first adventure  trek which I had with the Cebu Mountaineering Society or CeMS. At that time, I was not yet a member but trying out to be one and on July 31, 1992 we left Pier 3, Cebu Harbor on board M/V “Pink Rose” for Baybay, Leyte at 8:00 in the evening to achieve one of the many requirements for membership with a major climb at Mt. Pangasugan, with or without a typhoon.
My rag-tag gear then were composed of a cheap day pack, which I hurriedly bought for this trip, a borrowed A-type tent, a borrowed “Mickey Mouse” sleeping bag for kids and a borrowed pair of work boots resoled with threaded tire. (You know what, that shoe really held its own against expensive and branded trek boots in the treacherous terrain of Pangasugan.)
Stuffed inside my pack and within its four different pockets were the tent, twelve assorted canned goods, four t-shirts, a pair of shorts, a pair of jogging pants, 2-1/2 kilos of uncooked rice, a kilo of cooked rice, a sweatshirt, a Minolta 110 camera, a loaf of bread, 2 one-liter bottled water, a plate, a cup, fork and spoon, three noodle packs, packets of coffee, sugar and powdered juice, a small Eveready flashlight with two AA batteries and a pair of flip-flops.
The sleeping bag I fastened above and outside of the cover flap of my pack in a Boy Scout manner. Man, it was heavy and I thought that the shoulder straps would give way, but, thanks to God, it held fast for the duration of the climb. I carried a plastic insulated 500 ml. water drinking jug which I slung around my neck which was quite heavy and moved like a pendulum as I walked. I looked goofy with my gear and I stood out among my peers, who carried or wore branded backpacks, gears and equipment all suited for the sport of mountaineering.
 We arrived at dawn of August 1 at the quay of Baybay and proceeded by bus for the Visayas State College of Agriculture (VISCA – now the Leyte State University) from whence Mt. Pangasugan is within its exclusive administrative domain. We started off by 8:00 in the morning and what was an otherwise a promising and golden sunrise turned later into a gloomy state as dark stormy clouds generated by an oncoming tropical depression began to appear on the horizon.
With mixed feelings, I trudged on along the upward jungle trail following the long line of seventeen members of CeMS and fourteen from the VISCA Outdoors & Recreation Group (VORG), led by Mr. Toto Antopina. Our guide then was Manoy Berting, a former CAFGU, a para-military civilian-volunteer component of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) tasked to fight communist insurgents. (Mind you, the area that we will intrude into is not yet cleared of armed communist fighters and a week before that an encounter between CAFGUs and these red fighters resulted in casualties on both sides.)
After an hour and a half of walking, I and Manoy Berting reached a rare clearing in an area otherwise abundant of very thick foliage of diptherocarps and undergrowths. This clearing is criss-crossed by several giant fallen old logs and some old giants stood by to give shade with their high branches. We both rested here and then others arrived and did likewise.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a fully-grown Philippine great eagle 
appeared from below these branches gliding. So majestic it came to my direction and I noticed the ground where I sat dimmed as he neared, whose spread wings I estimated, could be seven feet, more or less. So near I could almost touch his talons and as he passed by me he left a lone feather that fell exactly where my hand was. It was so perfect and I was so awed and so shocked that I was not able to scramble and draw out my camera from my bag in time! Looking up to see where the eagle has gone to, I never knew where it went. It just went pffft!...gone!...disappeared!
The presence of my eagle only affirms the rich bio-diversity of the area in and around Pangasugan. Calls by a multitude number of hornbills echoed and reverberated on the mountainsides like a running machine and have added to the staccato of countless other bird and insect sounds and bleats of wild deer. Amid that cacophony of pleasant noise there were fresh droppings of deer and wild boar, as well as, molted skins of all sorts of scaly creatures like monitor lizards and snakes.
Carrying my prized feather in my bonnet we trekked on higher ground and, by noon, we reached a grassy clearing on the top of Mount Guintangisan and stopped by for a quick lunch. I passed by three resting CeMS guys: Bebut Estillore, Tony Cabigon the CeMS president and Patrick Ng; and one of them requested me to carry an extra luggage – two Tanduay Rhum 375 ml. bottles – to my already bursting day pack, to ease Patrick from some load, who appeared to be greatly fatigued.
We then traversed a saddle and up a ridge then down to a brook where we pitched our tents for the night. I, however, never used my borrowed tent because there was no ground for the tent's stakes to be pierced into and, mostly, I'm a bit embarrassed seeing others owning tents with names like The North Face, REI, Marmot, and so forth. Miraculously, it never rained on that day and on that night, as well!
It seems, on my first day I passed my self-evaluation by consuming only a liter of water, two canned goods and a kilo of the cooked rice; trekking, more or less, 10 kilometers of slippery and precipitous trail and despite the weight on my back which, I doubted, only a few grams had been shed. (Or added. Remember the 2 rum bottles?) How's that for a newbie?
The second day of our trek was hard. The guide lost the trail. He had to hack away at the thick foliage to create one. It was hard work trailblazing. What made it harder is that the vegetation is a lot wilder and thornier and there were no water source. Rattan vines and other thorny thickets abound on the route we created, our clothes and packs got snagged each time a thorn clung and it hurts when your own hide got stuck to it. By this time, people started to complain of thirst, of fatigue, of pain.
There was a breakdown of poise and self-control as the single line became spread out thinly and scattered in groups instead of one continuous line. (It was old-growth jungle and visibility is good only for five meters or less.) Some forgot to take their daytime meals afraid that they might be passed over by others and be left behind. I lunched on my loaf of bread and a canned food and canned juice, happy to relieve of the unwanted weight, but, overdone it by offering one full bottled water to a beautiful lady. Gentleman's habits die hard, don't they?
I was following the guide and thought I had a good head start and took my siesta near a rock overhang, but, I overslept and when I awoken I could hear no more movement or some rustle of vegetation. I called out and I heard a distant reply way, way down below. Getting rattled now as the sun was nearing four in the afternoon, I decided to risk danger by sliding down the mountainside that is overly grown with thick vegetation, including that pesky thorny rattan vines! (I lost my treasured feather here.)
Whew, that was a race that ended in luck for me as I landed in front of Dennis Legaspi, just missing a cliff by a few meters but got tagged with several superficial wounds and scratches on my skin instead. Tough luck! Winded of my travail I almost gulped empty my only remaining bottled water.
After an hour of crawling pace, we ran out of water and some could not move forward anymore due to extreme fatigue caused by dehydration. Luckily, Manoy Berting came back just before sundown for us and carried bottles of “fresh” water to relieve and quench our thirsty throats! I drank a half bottle and shared what's left to others. By that time, it was already dark and I decided to make camp just by my lone self above the trail cradled by a curled root of a giant tree twenty meters behind the forward camp. I ate supper on two canned goods without rice and without water. Lucky me, it had not rained that night.
Feeling refreshed the following day I moved up to the forward camp and, to my dismay, that “fresh” water we drank last night was just a puddle of stagnant, wriggler-infested and debris-filled water in a rock hewn out by spring run-off that went dry. Anyway, it saved my butt and those of others, as well. Hehehe!!!
We were now just a few hundred meters below Mt. Pangasugan's crest and separated by an impenetrable wall of thick vegetation. But, then again, seeing the condition of our companions, we decided to divert our goal – which is Pangasugan's peak – and try to reach for Guinatanguisan river, about two-and-a-half kilometers distant below us, and abundant water! In almost two hours we reached the headwaters of the Guintanguisan and followed it downriver for VISCA and civilization. But, it wasn't easy sailing for us.
Guintanguisan (in Waray dialect it meant “teardrops of pain”) refused to let us go without first negotiating two very high falls having an elevation of around 50 feet, more or less; and five (5) lesser falls having drops of between 20 to 30 feet! In this trek where we never ran out of good fortune: the two highest waterfalls we discovered have the same passages underneath their headrock and both have similar caverns under, or behind, the waterfall itself like that scene of that movie, The Last of the Mohicans!
The five minor falls we either jumped far below (the girls started it) or by rappelling down. Here, Sir Menmen Paredes almost got drowned when the rope he was rappelling with got swirled by the current so hard that the rope coiled and got entangled around his legs and his body leading me and Etche Bongbong to rescue him in time.
We arrived at VISCA at around 3:00 in the afternoon and we rested at its sandy beachfront whiling away time finishing the two bottles of rum (which I carried up in the mountains and back from whence it came!) with Bebut, Patrick, Dennis and Tony; joined now and then by Ben Lao, Matt Lao, Etche, Sir Joe Avellanosa (+), Daddy Frank Cabigon, Dr. Abe Manlawe, Sir Rex Vecina and Sir Menmen and by the ladies: Arlene Lee, Joy Yap, Lilibeth Initan, Ann-ann Ragaza, Anne Vidal and Cla-cla Abrahan.
That misadventure we experienced at the fastness of Mount Pangasugan closely bonded us so well that in the following months that I get to know more of my climbing companions they became almost like family to me, be it huddling inside tents of some bleak and cold campsite or at 16 Kabahar Street, Guadalupe, Cebu City – the CeMS unofficial headquarters then and meeting place and, sometimes, our watering hole.
We slept soundly that night at VISCA and the following day we spent another whole day at the campus nursing our bruises, scratches and minor wounds, leech marks, muscle pains and all other body aches. By 4:00 P.M. we left VISCA for the pier of Baybay to board our boat for Cebu (and home at last!) that will leave Leyte at 6:00 in the evening. In the meantime, I got marked absent for two days in my work. Well, that's okay. It was worth it.
Self Assessment:
THE TREK AT Mount Pangasugan has given me good insights of how to improve on the following areas where I find it most wanting:
-
Better Gears. It doesn't have to be branded or imported and, therefore, expensive; but, rather, it should be sturdy, durable and dependable. But, mostly, cost does have its advantages over cheap gears and that brings me back to square one – the branded and imported ones. -
Big Backpack. The day pack I used, it seemed, is not suited for a multi-day climbing activity. It's just too small and too frail for my frame and pace. I would replace it right away with something big that would accommodate all my gears inside and strong enough to withstand the weight and sudden jerky movements. -
Waterproofing. So far I have been lucky on that climb at Mt. Pangasugan: that it didn't rain for the whole duration of the trek or that the water level in rivers where we trekked have not swelled higher and are not deep enough (crotch level). I have not had the slightest idea about keeping all my cargoes dry by insulating it against water by stowing them inside a large plastic bag that's thick enough to withstand force and pressure. -
Portable Stove. What if I got separated from the group? How would I prepare and cook my own food? This one's a priority. -
Earth Pad. A camping accessory that should not be ignored also. -
Racing Mentality. I kept looking over my back who is following me and too eager also to overtake somebody who's in front of me. I have to teach myself all over again that this is not a race and everybody crosses the finish line as equals, irregardless of who's first or who's last. -
Accountability. Sleeping beside the trail speaks of an irresponsible demeanor. I have never had the idea that the group would be held accountable if ever I would be found missing. I am accountable, not only to myself, but, to the whole group as well.
Document done in OpenOffice 2.1 Writer, Trebuchet MS font, size 12.
|  | My mountaineering adventures from 1992 to present. History captured by images. |
 I HAVE CLIMBED Mount Manunggal six times. First on September 26, 1992. The last on July 14, 2005. While climbing Manunggal is very hard as it is quite steep, what made it harder is it has no forest cover along its trail. Deforestation is quite obvious as lands which used to abound with forests are now utilized to grow ginger, garlic, onions, cabbage, eggplants, etc., etc.
They say that this part of the area is called the Central Cebu National Park, but, I say, it is the Central Cebu National Farm. Slash-and-burn farming left its mark on the earth as stumps of burnt-out trees are left like tombstones to remind us of man's indifference to his environment.
As always, we start down from Tagba-o in Barangay Tabunan, where we crossed a river that divides Cebu City from the town of Balamban whence Mt. Manunggal is a part of. From the river it was steep climbing all the way. Although Manunggal is only 3,009 feet above sea level, my club, the Cebu Mountaineering Society (CeMS), considered and rated it to be a major climb.
The heat of the sun made it harder for want of trees and the trail is slippery and wet caused by the ever-present dew brought in by fogs. With a heavy backpack you can negotiate Manunggal from the river up to the campsite in about four to seven hours, depending upon your physical fitness and area familiarity.
Returning to Tagba-o is quite easy: you could walk or run downhill (provided you have strong and arthritic-free knees) and with a lighter pack it's over in two hours. In all, Manunggal is a good training site to prepare for harder major climbs outside Cebu.
Mount Manunggal is known for being the crash site of the presidential plane, Pinatubo, which crashed on its shoulder killing instantly the dear President Ramon Magsaysay and eighteen others on March 17, 1957. A monument honoring Pres. Magsaysay stands at the crash site, which, incidentally, is the present main camping area for mountaineers. A shrine was also made to house the relic of the Pinatubo – the plane's main engine block.
Later, a chapel was built by the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) for their outreach project. One good reason why Manunggal is attractive to climbers is the presence of a very cool spring which never falters in water volume, come drought or El Niño.
On my second climb on March 1993, many mountaineers converged there on the occasion of Pres. Magsaysay's death anniversary and I felt in high spirits due to a show of solidarity and presence of the same kindred souls like I do. I got to know and made friends with climbers from other clubs. We lit a big bonfire as different groups presented different entertainment presentations. It was very memorable.
A year later, we climbed Manunggal in the dead of night knowing that by day the trails will be full of people and very muddy and slippery caused by too many stomping feet. Familiarity with the trails of Manunggal had given us an advantage in doing a night trek. But by day, we observed, too many people had climbed up and many people are still coming. It was an unusual crowd and an air of a fiesta lent the air as people not belonging to any mountaineering group began to destroy vegetation they see, throwing at will plastic and other garbage around. What made it worse is that a lot of plastic were carried off by the breeze and scattered in different directions!
I saw many hogs, goats and hens being brought up to be slaughtered later, but, one pig I saw escaped from its leash and ran downhill so fast leaving its caretakers stumbling in its wake. Amused but disgusted at the same time, we folded our tents after lunch and went downhill for home to protest against the organizers who were promoting that year's climb. Never again that I and CeMS would participate in any activity that would destroy or neglect the beauty of our mountains.
All my other climbs at Manunggal were done not on the occasion of the Pres. Magsaysay death anniversary anymore and, once, on December 27, 1995 I made a solo ascent there and I felt peace with myself and the world. My last climb was with a group of unarmed policemen on training. We started from the trans-central highway in Barangay Gaas, Balamban where we passed by Pingis waterfall, then a boulder-filled river before climbing up. I saw now a different Manunggal.
The monument, the relic and the chapel are still there, but, they have “neighbors” now. Shanties have sprouted selling their wares. The ever-flowing spring is now boxed inside a concrete and water pipes protrude like an octopus' arms to irrigate the farms below. Oh, a row of outhouses are built near the spring. Too many structures built have despoiled the sanctity that is Manunggal.
On the other side of the mountain's shoulder, a DENR (Department of Natural & Environment Resources) station, a visitor's lodge and several huts were erected for purposes of maintaining the government's reforestation project and to house VIPs every time the commemoration of Pres. Magsaysay's death is held every year. It is also that time the mountain's ecosystem croaked and groaned through many agonizing moments as a sheer number of ecologically-impaired people converge to make fun of the environment leaving piles of uncollected garbage and bending and distorting every blade of grass or leaf and branch.
A road now connects Mount Manunggal (making it more accessible to these kind of people) from the trans-central highway and it is all of twelve kilometers or so in length, one-third of which is concreted. We exited through this road and I bade goodbye to my dear old Mount Manunggal one last time praying that the government's reforestation effort would cover all of the unabated intrusions, the shameless activities and unrestricted development that we have effected upon one of the homes of the rare and endemic bird – the Cebu flowerpecker.
Nearby is Mount Mauyog, almost equal or higher in altitude, but still unspoilt. Very few have camped there and that will be my future camping destination. On my way to Mauyog I will pass by Manunggal and, maybe, give her a kiss accorded to that of a mother. An ailing mother. I will be still around to watch over her concerns and complaints and give her a voice for all the world to hear.
Epilogue:
YET despite man's indifference towards his environment there is always a thin ray of light that gives hope to protect the  environment from wanton exploitation and nerve-numbing development. A few voices will start that fire and ignites them into something productive. It takes only a few bold steps to make it roll against a brick wall of dissent coming from people having interests in that area of concern.
I salute the Honorable Eduardo R. Gullas, Cebu 1st District Representative, for doing something to protect our watershed (of which Mount Manunggal is part of) by sponsoring a bill known as the “Central Cebu Protected Landscape” in the Philippine House of Congress which was then enacted into a law. It shall now be unlawful to develop Cebu's watershed area composing the Central Cebu National Park, the Sudlon National Park, the Kotkot-Lusaran-Mananga river system, the Buhisan, Mananga and Lusaran watershed.
Although it doesn't bar people from coming to an fro in sheer numbers that create an ecological impact on Cebu's mountain areas, especially in the Central Cebu Mountain Range, but it does put a stop to all those development that is now starting at its fringes. At least, in this lifetime I lived to see something that ensures the survival of our children and their children's children.
SAVE MOUNT MANUNGGAL Upheaved from the crust of the earth, Rising immense and towering above all Of Cebu's peaks, all north and south; A mountain of a rock called Manunggal.
Where now have your creatures fled? Your rivers dammed and re-channeled, Forests logged in the name of progress; Destruction unleashed without remorse.
Mount Manunggal, mecca of mountaineers! Spread before us your once lush valleys, Satiate us with your once cool rivers, Leave us something to celebrate and enjoy.
Mount Manunggal – graveyard of airplanes! Where the great Magsaysay met his end. Shrines now rose and adorn your skyline, Whose twilight dimmed now by a setting sun.
- Poem done on September 29, 1992.
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This document is done in OpenOffice 2.1 Writer using Trebuchet MS font with size #12.
| Start: | Mar 16, '07 01:00a | | End: | Mar 18, '07 | | Location: | Barangay Magsaysay, Mt. Manunggal. Cebu, Philippines. |
Anniversary of the crash site of the presidential plane, "Mt. Pinatubo", where then Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 20 of his aides died on March 17, 1957. Crash site is located atop Mt. Manunggal where shrines were erected to commemorate the said event. Rising 3,009 feet above sea level it has and exhilirating and commanding view of Negros, Bohol and Camotes islands and sorrounding areas as seen from above. Very cool weather. Abundant supply of water from a spring nearby and lots of cave if you know how to look. Climb will start from either in Tabunan and Tagba-o in Cebu City or in Enad, between the boundaries of Toledo City, Balamban and Cebu City. There will be wreath-laying activities and other programs scheduled thereat.
 150925 March 2007:
"Curiosity killed the cat." Yes? No! Not with this cat. In fact, curiosity did give life to this site at Multiply on a boring Tuesday afternoon of 13 March 2007 while tinkering with the Cebu City government forum site where, one thing leads to another and, voila!, Here it is: I have my own site now. A blog (kuno) of some sort. Hope you don't mind. Heh...heh.
I manipulated and customized my site to some theme to suit to my tastes and upload a picture of one ancestor of mine - an Apache warrior - which I used as my avatar. I then scheduled on my events calendar the holding of a Basic Mountaineering Course which falls on March 22-25, 2007 at Mount Manunggal, Balamban, Cebu, Philippines ditto with the Mt. Manunggal Anniversary Climb which falls on March 16-18, 2007 on the same venue/site.
Mind you, I'm a mountaineer myself and have scaled some of the most rugged mountains here in the Philippines - which I will give some discourse on another time - and it is just fair that I give space to such activities like this on my blog or whatever you may call this thing.
I will be blogging from now on and any interesting subjects, ideas, events, or whatever, that needs to be explained, expressed, expiated, expunged or expelled would find print on an irregular basis here depending on my writing urges, moods, and availability of resources and time. That's a promise. Good day to all and God bless you.
| Start: | Mar 22, '07 01:00a | | End: | Mar 25, '07 | | Location: | Mt. Manunggal, Balamban, Cebu, Philippines |
An orientation to would-be mountaineers on the ethics and responsibilities of a mountaineer to his environment. Handled by veteran mountaineer Ramon Vidal, this course would also touch on basic first aid, rope and knot tying techniques and other subjects related to mountaineering. Inquire at Habagat Outdoor Shop or you may send your queries to paniktrek@yahoo.com
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