Mt. Pulag climbed! the last part

And so it was, we where ready for our first night at the top (sort of) of the mountain. I changed into my evening clothes: thick wool socks, thermal underwear, tie-die pants, an old pair of jogging pants, thin long sleeved shirt, thick long sleeved shirt, sport hoodie jacket, TNF (The North Face) rain outer jacket, and boonie. It was quite ok, my feet were a little cold but should be fine with the malong. Or so I thought...

Somehow my malong was damp, probably got wet when I was setting up the tent. And I had to get up and out of the tent to take a piss and for Verchie to get settled in. So I got wet, our bags where damp, some of our clothes was damp and Verchie was wet (he went in and out of the tent from time to time).

Despite all that, we somehow managed to get through the night fairly well. Our tent did not get as much water as the others, and I stayed warm by eating beef jerky from time to time. I also wrapped my legs in a plastic bag to trap the heat as my socks where already wet from going outside for dinner and stuff. Verchie and I also brought out our secret weapons in the early mornings. A candle and trioxane for some hot soup and chocolate drink.



Soon after that we assaulted the peak of Mt. Pulag. I didn't bother changing to my hiking pants, I figured I would be fine. I was wrong again. The rain didn't quite let off and I was soaking wet when we came back. And it was probably a good 3 hours (?) before we arrived back in Camp 2. It was pretty surreal at the beginning as it was still dark and we couldn't see much with the fog. Until I realized some of the places we where walking through was a long ways drop off the mountain! It was pretty cool though to see glimpses of the rolling grassland of Mt. Pulag. It was still nice with the fog and rain... only when I decide not to hunker down from the rain and cold hehehe. I could only imagine how nice it would've looked in broad daylight.

After getting back to camp and drying off (to some extent), we had a quick breakfast of hotdog and peanut butter sandwiches (FTW!). I was hoping for it to stop raining completely but it was still drizzling a bit when we finally broke camp. Verchie, Benny, Katja, Trinka, Narod and I decided to head down ahead of the group as we where all geared up and just about ready to head home. As usual I started to lag behind a bit and found myself trekking somewhat on my own although there where a few times I was with a group. The descent was pretty fast actually, the weather somewhat cleared a bit and showed us bits of beauty of trekking Mt. Pulag.

Unfortunately I had no pictures as my batteries (2 of them) ran out... stupid me failed to fully charge them before leaving for the trip. Luckily I got my Holga out and took a few snapshots. Hopefully I get them developed soon.

It was quite uneventful heading back to Manila though. We got cleaned up in the DENR visitor center and had a late but wonderfully lunch. A 4 hour jeepney ride to Baguio, probably a 6 hour wait for the bus and another 6 hour bus ride home. It was fun. And I can actually say that despite not seeing how beautiful Mt. Pulag can be, climbing it was fun in itself. This is probably one of the best climbs I've done (not that I've done a lot). Would I go back? Sure why not, this time I want to get a chance to see the grasslands, the view from the peak and take more pictures.

The end. (But watch out for a post climb post... pun intended)