Mt. Apo via Kapatagan

On May of 2004, the Social Climbers 79 climbed Mt. Apo via the Kapatagan trail. Kapatagan is a barrio in Davao del Sur at the foot of Mt. Apo. From Davao City, it is an hour's drive to Digos City where you turn right to Kapatagan. From that junction, its another hour to Kapatagan itself. It is mostly farmland although lately, it has been encroached by banana plantations. Good for business but not so good for the environment. This photo was taken on the highway leading to Kapatagan with majestic Apo as our background.

There is a checkpoint just before entering Kapatagan, where climbers are required to register and pay a minimal fee. In return, you get a certificate that says you have successfully climbed Mt. Apo via the Kapatagan trail. Nice.

Once in Kapatagan, we went directly to sitio Marawer  where we parked our vehicles and met up with our porters. We had prior arrangements with them, so we had no problems at all. Safety and convenience is of paramount importance to us, so we got 1 porter each. Aside from the fact that we each brought a ton of things.

From Marawer, we still had a 15 minute trip to sitio Mainit where we were to begin our trek. Only 4x4 vehicles could make the trip because of the muddy road conditions. Doc Fred skillfully brought us to Mainit on his Pajero, although along the way, a habal habal driver panicked and tipped on its side. That is Nong Besmanos assisting the poor driver.

It was past 11AM when we reached Mainit and we were getting worried if we could make it to Camp Goodie before dusk. Meanwhile, rain clouds gathered at the peak.

The first hour of our trek was relatively easy as we passed by vegetable farms. It began to drizzle and our hiking boots soon gathered enough mud that it began to weigh like a ton. The portable ponchos we brought with us didn't last 10 minutes and soon we were drenched. So much for logistics.

As soon as we entered Mt. Apo's jungle, the trek took on another character. This was personally my first time inside a "kabugagnan".

We reached Camp Goodie at about 7pm. We were so tired we simply pitched our tents, had a quick dinner and prepared to turn in. It rained the whole night, we were so miserable. One of the tents leaked, and one could hear grumblings and plans about turning back tomorrow. The next morning, Camp Goodie was bathed in sunlight and sheaths of light managed to penetrate the canopy. What a wonderfull day to go mountain climbing!

We resumed our trek at about 7:30 am after the usual rituals of middle aged men. After two hours, we rached the area known as "boulders". If you are from Davao, on a clear day, you can see a white sliver near the peak. Thats the area where the boulders are at. Presumably, they came from a past explosion. There were also sulfur vents in the area that added to the other-world-feeling of the place.

I should tell you about the 80 degree wall, which was the final assault before reaching the peak. But I guess we were too terrified to take pictures. The picture above is of the crater lake, after that final assault. Rest assured, that if and when we do get to Mt. Apo via the Kapatagan trail, we will have those pictures. The cool crystal clear waters did miracles to our aching muscles.

We reached the peak at about 3pm. that is Mt. Talomo behind us, and further back, Davao City. We just had enough time to take sunset pictures, set up camp, dinner and a little ethanol ingestion to celebrate a successful climb. Unknown to us, a storm was brewing east of Mindanao. We had to pack up by 5am because the winds were getting real strong. Our Mt. Apo sunrise would have to wait for the next climb.

We did climb Mt. Apo again, last February 23, 2008, unfortunately, we missed our Apo sunrise again. But that is another story.