Mt. Apo: The Grandfather of Philippine Mountains - Davao

Being a mountaineer, reaching the highest has always been the reason which lures us into getting on the challenge.  On November the 7th 2012, along with my office mates, we took on the challenge of reaching the highest peak in the country, with an elevation of 2,956 meters above sea level, Mt. Apo stands mightily over 2 provinces south of the Philippines. 

From afar, with its enormity, you would actually think that the mountain is just a couple of hours drive from the airport when its not, it took us nearly half the day just by getting to the jump off. We took the Kapatagan-Kidapawan trail which starts at Davao del Sur then decent on the Cotabato side. 

The trip begins after our contact/guide picked us up from Davao International Airport then off to the market for buying stuff and items for the climb. After securing all the stuff needed, we went ahead and travel via a van for nearly 3hrs to get to Digos, in Brgy Paradise where the jump off is located. It is somewhat similar to that of Mt. Pulag where the jump off point is already at a very high altitude. We needed to stay at the jumpoff for the night.
      
             

We started trekking at around 7am after breakfast the following day. The trail begins with an uphill terrain of farmlands with some small community along the way then off to the forest. Fallen logs along the trail made the experience much more challenging not to mention the load we are carrying nearly half our weight. After trekking for nearly 4-5 hours, we took our lunch at Gody-gody camp site along the trail and rest for an hour. 

Group picture during take5 at the forest trail.

 

Lots of fallen logs along the trail.

Take5 at the "Baroring", local dialect for "stream".

This sight marks the end of the forest as you enter the boulders.

After passing through the forest of dense vegetation, grown trees and some streams, you will reach the boulders side of the mountain where you'll find sulfur vents all over the place. This part of the trail gets too technical where one has to be using both hands and feet to negotiate the very rocky terrain, and when i say rocky,  i mean boulders as big as a TV sets or up to size of a car. That, accompanied by the unpleasant smell of sulfur all around us, made this one unforgiving. 

After about 2 hours of scrambling, you will reach the "bedrock" where one can camp for the night before the summit bid. We pushed thru to the higher campsite planning to summit early the following day for sunrise viewing. And also, there  is no water source in the area based on our guide so we really need to push to the next camp site.  

Upon reaching the "bedrock", you will be greeted by a wall standing nearly 90 degrees, as if separating you from the summit itself, which took us nearly 30 mins to traverse reaching Peak 4. We took a 5 mins rest at Peak 4 then went on ahead to reach the camp site which is another 15-20 mins trek downhill between the towering peaks of the majestic mountain.

"Bedrock" is the small clearing on the top right part of this image.

We reached the campsite all knackered at around 6pm, immediately pitched camp and settled all cramped inside the tent due to extreme cold. No one even managed to prepare and take a single meal for dinner. 

At around 5 am, we took off for summit bid just in time for the sunrise. Peak1 which is the highest point is about 20 mins uphill from the camp. We've reached the highest point just before the first ray of the sun hit our eyes. We've had just the best weather that day, with the sun on the horizon, clouds below us, cool breeze kissing our face and the vast blue sky overhead. 

We stayed there for about an hour, taking all the photos we can.

At the highest point (Peak1)

As the saying goes, "the summit is only half of the way". We still need to get down and traverse to the other side (Cotabato side) using Kidapawan trail. First part of the decent is  the trek towards Venado Lake. 

View of Lake Venado on the way down.

Statistics show that most fatality in climbing mountains occurred during decent and Kidapawan trail is known notorious for being dangerous in that using this trail entail mountaineers crossing rivers. There are several reported incidents of climbers being stranded due to swelling of the Marbel river and had to be rescued by local authorities. Even the calm Venado Lake is said to have claimed a life of a mountaineer before. 

We were given 2 hours to descent to Venado Lake from the camp site then we'll take our lunch there. We needed to hustle up to avoid crossing the river in the dark. And also we need to take advantage of the good weather. Our guide told us the Marbel river over flows with just a quick rain fall.

We were told about river crossing, but no one informed us about the rapids we are yet to cross over at the Marbel River. The water current nearly swept us up. We sometimes needed to hold each other's hand before getting a stable foothold. If I remember it right, we crossed the river more or less 10 times going from one side to the other, and at least 3-4 of them has a makeshift bridge made of either a bamboo or a log, the rest, we braved into the water and through the rapids, some knee-deep high and some are up to our waist.
It took a good 6 hours trek from Lake Venado down to reach our target destination that day, the Lake Agco Resort, where we stayed for the night before going back to Davao.   It was already dark when we reached the road leading to the resort. Its a laid-back resort ran by the locals (as far as I know). There's no perfect way to end the day after 8 hours of trekking but to soak in their hot spring pool to soothe the aching muscles and tired body. We ended the day looking forward to our "Samal Island Undertaking" the next day as a sidetrip to our Mt. Apo climb. 

***Photo Credits: Francis Gimenez and Ronnel Carmen