MY CLIMBS FOR 2012 PART 1

I mentioned in one of my shout outs in Facebook that I would update my blog more often this year with my travels and adventures. I would like to start today but I don't really know what to write as I haven't been anywhere yet in the first 12 days of 2013. I wanted to hike earlier and write an account about it after but with a tropical depression lurking around, I decided that it would be best to just stay at home and just bum around. I am not a fan of rainy days and to maximize this gloomy weather, I forced myself to log into the computer and I am trying to squeeze my brain cells now on what to write as a an opener for my blog this year. 

I paused for several minutes before I could start this paragraph and had decided that I would want to recap all my climbs for 2012.

MT BATULAO 

In reference to my previous blog, I have mentioned that Mt. Batulao is my playground. 2012 is a testimony to that as I welcomed last year with a climb on that mountain. I logged in a total of 5 climbs last year with different group of people with each visit. Further, I decided to end the year with a climb on the same mountain but taking a traverse from Old to New Trail.

MT MACULOT

A tie to Mt Batulao in terms of the number of visits last year would be Mt. Maculot. The accessibility of this mountain from my home explains it. Also, the commanding views of the lake and the rockies always take my breath away. I would also like to point out that in several occasions, I had the chance to meet new friends on this mountain who share the same passion for outdoors as I do. Thats why I would like to dubbed this mountain as a friendship mountain for me. 

PICO DE LORO

 

Runner up to Mt. Batulao and Mt. Maculot would be Pico De Loro with three visits last year. What I love about this mountain is the view of the parrot's beak from the summit. It also offers a different adrenaline rush to the courageous ones who would like to scale its beak which I experienced when I first scaled it way back 2008. I would like to be on top of it again but I guess I would need to rebuild the courage I once had. It's waterfalls is a perfect sidetrip when you just want to take a dip and cool down.

MT. MANABU

Completing the top three would be Mt. Manabu with two visits last year. The cross on  the summit is the famous landmark of this mountain. Everytime I scale this mountain, I am always reminded of how I started mountaineering because its neighboring mountain which is Mt. Malipunyo was my first mountain and can be seen from Mt. Manabu. What i enojoyed the most though on climbing this mountain is the free coffee from Mang Pirying which showed the warmth hospitality of the locals in this mountain. 

MT. TALAMITAM

  

This neighbor of Mt.Batulao is also a good choice for dayhike but it is recommended that you do the climb very early in the morning so that you dont feel the scorching heat of the sun. Last year, I scaled this mountain but it was the first destination of our double dayhike with Mt. Batulao. Although it also offers picturesque views , the only holdback that I have in revisiting this mountain are the rules and regulations of the locals at foot of the mountain that somehow have a negative impact on the mountaineers and visitors. 

For 2012, I was also able to do 2 double dayhikes. The first one was Talamitam- Batulao. It was my warm up and training climb for my Mt. Apo Climb last year. The second one was Maculot-Manabu. I shared it with new friends that even though they are newbies to the mountaineering, they proved to be the next generation of "halimaws"

There are still 9 more mountains in the list but I would like to highlight them in the part 2 of my climbs for 2012. Aside from the fact that my computer seems to have latency, I need to prepare first for my date later on.