Mt. Cristobal Training Climb

Ooppss, I almost forgot about this.

We had our first major training climb at Mt. Cristobal last October 4-5, 2008. We were around 20 in the group. Urrrggghh! I can’t remember all the details anymore huhu. Here are some:

• This time, our food was not centralized. Finally! Hehehe. We were divided into smaller groups and each group was responsible for their own food and whatever. For the previous climbs, we always had centralized food so there were always problems on load assignment, etc. etc.
• The campsite is not at the summit. You’ll pass by the summit, and then you need to go down to the campsite.
• There are no indications of the summit. If you reach the part where you’ll be “romancing with the boulder” (term ni Troy :p), then that’s it. But you won’t really have time to appreciate the summit because you’re more focused on the challenge of how you’ll cross the boulder hehehe. As in mag-isa ko nung nadito ako sa part na ‘to. And being short-legged, di ko maabot ung other side na safe nang apakan. I had to remove my bag first then cross.
• The trek started with a road until we reached Boy Motelibano’s place. After that, it was mostly assault until the summit. It was forested so even though it was hot at times, the path is shaded by trees. Personally, it was not a hard trek. Mt. Tarak was harder for me.
• Along the way, we planted the Narra that we were supposed to plant last August. We had to plant 5 each. Hopefully those trees will survive. :)
• It rained a bit on Saturday but it was tolerable. It also rained on Sunday. This time, it was stronger. Fortunately for some of us, we reached our destinations before the strong rains poured hehe.
• We had to be quieter on this climb. Mt. Cristobal is said to be the dark mountain so we had to restrain our boisterous selves just to be on the safe side hehehe. I think it was also only on this climb that we prayed as a group hahaha. But we should really do that in all of our climbs.
• It was nice to be bonding with old acquaintances and getting to know them better.
• Our group (minus 1 member whom we lost to another group along the trail wahahaha) reached the campsite first. Well, there were two others actually (the guide and 1 other from another group) but we were the first group hehehe.
• There were rats in the area iwww hahaha.

Hmm..wala na akong matandaan hehe. Yan na lang muna. See previous post for our IT.