Surviving a Sunrise-less, Freezing Mt. Pulag on Safety Shoes

(and the birth of Ms. Jelly Ace)

Ms. Jelly Ace, at your service.

We started the day at 3:00 AM. Our team was consistent on being the first. We were the first to get up, and found that everyone else was still asleep (because they "socialized" the previous night).

getting prepared for the night trek

freezing cold, apparently

Though we were the first to wake up and the first in line on the trail, in the end, I was the last person in the group to reach Mt. Pulag's summit, and it took two sweepers and a friend to accompany me. The difficulty in this part could not be foreseen from the first day's trail. It was steep, muddy, life threatening (trekking in the dark making sure to maintain balance or else you'd go rolling down the steep landscape), and a challenge to breathe, given the altitude. Adding to my sluggishness was the blisters on both feet (Ako na ang pasaway na nag-safety shoes sa trek!)

I have to thank these people from Vagabond Pinas

No matter how I hated the blisters in my feet, I loved wearing safety shoes on the trail because never did I slip for a moment. I so loved its soles and how it helped an imbalanced me. If not only for the metal toes, I would willingly use it to trek again.

Despite this trail, I never slipped even once. Thanks to my safety shoes.

Because of the difficulty in this part, I had tantrums. Yes. I stopped at points and asked the sweepers if I could just stay there and wait for them to come back, telling them I could also see the sunrise from there. They coined me "Ms. Jelly Ace" because jelly ace was my source of comfort during that time. Like a child, they used false encouragements to keep me going. One told me, "200 meters na lang oh", and I regained energy. Later on when my mind has decided to rejoin my physical being, I realized that "Heck. The 200 meters was altitude, not trail distance". Regardless, it worked, and no matter how late I was, I reached the summit!

It was a long journey. This was taken during the backtrail.

My two monster mountaineer girl friends were already on the summit and have already positioned themselves in the comfort of the dwarf bamboos - the only source of warmth on the summit. It was really foggy when we arrived at Mt. Pulag's summit, and I had a weird feeling that we will not see the sunrise and my much sought after sea of clouds. Yes, the sunrise view accentuated with the sea of clouds was the reason why my friends were able to encourage a weakling me to climb Mt. Pulag, Luzon's highest peak (aside from the fact that I was expecting someone to propose to me at the summit! What the heck, I didn't even have a boyfriend  then. Such an ambitious, ambitious woman!).

ninjas on Mt. Pulag's summit

We waited, and when the time for sunrise arrived, there was no clearing at all. We still placed our hopes that Mt. Pulag would not fail us, but after staying at the summit for a while and tolerating the -4 degrees Celsius just to see the sought-after sunrise, we finally decided to let it be and accept that the sunrise at Mt. Pulag's summit was an epic fail. We had to go down, else we wanted to freeze in the -4 degrees Celsius temperature.

My Mt. Pulag Summit Photo

Going down was easy because we could see the path clearly. We went down, ate breakfast (of course teasing me once settled down was inevitable), and broke camp. The easy trail from the camp back to the registration area transformed into a torture for me and my swollen, blistered feet. Yet, we were still among the first people to arrive back at the registration area where we had our lunch.

going down, we could see how steep were the slopes that we trekked during the night

It was just too foggy and a bad timing. Imagine a freezing temperature.

the terrain of Mt. Pulag could have been picturesque if the weather cooperated

The trail from Camp 2 to Badabak Ranger Station was this easy.

enjoying our last moment in Mt. Pulag

We went back to the registration area and got cleaned up, waited for the certificates, and bought our "I survived Mt. Pulag" shirts. Truly, I survived Mt. Pulag, on a -4 degrees Celsius summit, and on safety shoes! Perfect! Well I wanna see the sunrise and the sea of clouds next time (and accept a marriage proposal perhaps, hahaha)! :D

excitedly filling out the form to claim our hard-earned certificates

happily waiting for the certificates to be released

Yey! Here it is!

This is the second (and last) part of our 2011 Mt. Pulag journey. The foggy trail photos are from Vagabond Pinas. Read the first part of our journey here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This climb was done during the time when it has been reported that crops have been dying due to the intense cold last January 2011. Even the tour organizer warned us, but the slots were already reserved and we were already excited for it so, "Bahala nang maginaw!"

a reminder from our tour organizer

UPDATE: Though I didn't get my dream marriage proposal in Mt. Pulag this time, later on in the year, God gave me something better when I met the love of my life in Mt. Apo. Yes, ours was a love story created on the top of the Philippines. Read about it here.