Hiking Adventures #49: Bakun Trio - 11th Open Climb 2017

This is my third visit in the beautiful town of Bakun. I don't know the exact reason why I keep on coming back.

Hiking Adventures #48: Mt. Amuyao (Barlig-Barlig) - 9th Open Climb 2017

This 9th Open Climb was supposed to be in Mt. Dulang-Dulang-Kitanglad or popularly known as "D2K". However, my pal and our batch's Batch Coordinator, Atty. JP Anthony Cunada reached out to a tourism officer for D2K and said that our climb dates was already booked by other groups and there were no slots left. So we decided to choose other mountain to replace D2K, and we chose Mt. Amuyao again but this time it will be a traverse.

JP was supposed to be the Team Leader for this climb, but since he was undergone deep brain surgery because of X-linked Parkinsonism Dystonia which manifested during the training season, I volunteered to take his place with the help of our batchmate, Cyrus David which assigned to be the Asst. Team Leader.

Hiking Adventures #47: Mt. Ugo Traverse - 5th Open Climb 2017

Two years after my first ascend in Mt. Ugo, I went back again and personally dubbed this climb as my "Revenge Climb".

Hiking Adventures #46: Mt. 387 Traverse Aloha Falls - 3rd MMS Open Climb 2017

Mt. 387 is located in Brgy. Puncan, Carrangalan, Nueva Ecija. This is one of the newly opened mountains in North Luzon along with Mt. Sawi in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija. This was the first visit of MMS in the mountain and I was assigned to be the team leader.

Hiking Adventures #45: Mt. Talamitam - 1st MMS Open Climb 2017

"Open climbs" is a set of scheduled climbs prepared by Metropolitan Mountaineering Society as part of their yearly calendar which is open to all. It occurs between July to December of the year. The primary objective of this Open climbs season is to recruit our joiners or guests to be part of our growing community.

Mt. Talamitam. Photo by Abbie Giron

Hiking Adventures #44: Mt. Kalawitan - 2nd Major Training Climb for MMS BMC

Almost a month after our 1st major training climb in Mt. Amuyao, we headed to Mountain Province again for our 2nd major training climb in Mt. Kalawitan. This is one of my unforgettable climbs because of the struggles we experienced. Almost all of us was very vocal about not going back to the mountain. However, this climb taught us lessons that would make us better as mountaineers.

Mt. Kalawitan Summit

Hiking Adventures #43: Mt. Amuyao - 1st Major Training Climb for MMS-BMC 2017

MMS Batch 17

Hiking Adventures #41: Mt. Halcon - The Dream Climb

After climbing Mt. Guiting-Guiting last May 2016, our team composed of Eduardo Velasquez, Ken Esguerra, JP Anthony Cunada, Jhed Munoz, Darwin Alcantara, Lei Tabones, Tayn Nivera, Chester Nick Gonzales, Bryan Allayban, Jayson Jogno and Allen Ellana next eyed Mt. Halcon as part of our journey in conquering the Knife Edge Trilogy. This Knife Edge Trilogy (consisting of Mt. Guiting-Guiting, Mt. Mantalingajan, and of course, Mt. Halcon) is one of the goals of every voracious Filipino hiker.

Mt. Halcon Knife Edge

Hiking Adventures #40: Mt. Makiling Traverse Dayhike

After the 1st training climb of MMS' Basic Mountaineering Course which happened in Mt. Daguldol, the next minor training climb would be in Mt. Iglit. Mt. Iglit is considered a minor climb in MMS because of its elevation, however, the difficulty climbing this mountain makes it a Major climb in Philippine Mountaineering. Our batch's BC(Batch Coordinator), Atty. JP Cunada have already climbed Iglit and he knows how difficult climbing the mountain. So he insisted to set a Makiling traverse dayhike as training climb for Iglit. I'm not supposed to join in Iglit climb because of my Halcon climb, but I did join to this event as tune-up climb for Halcon.

Hiking Adventures #38: Mt. Daguldol - First Minor Training Climb for MMS-BMC 2017

Part of the curriculum of Metropolitan Mountaineering Society's BMC are climbing 4 mountains, 2 minor climbs and 2 major climbs. After the BMC Proper which happened last January 21, 2017, next is the 1st Minor Training Climb. This was not just an ordinary climb, we had a cookfest on the campsite.

Mt. Daguldol Campsite