Mt. Maculot New Trail

I can now confirm that a new trail has been created in Mt. Maculot. The existence of the old traditional trail, which had been there for decades or maybe ever since the mountain had been open to the public....was no more. The reason according to the locals, was that landslides had occurred making the old traditional trail very dangerous. An fatal accident almost happened last week in one of the climbers, this prompted the local government  to act swiftly and create a new one. The new trail is very fresh and was shy of two weeks old. 



The trail per my assesment is not suitable for beginners, at least for now. We learned this the hard way last weekend when we brought a bunch of newbies. Its a good thing me and my group went via traverse trail, the other half of the group was not so lucky. 

Hopefully as time passes by, and more climbers use this trail. Will make it more sturdy and not loose as is it is now.

How it is now (sorry I dont have pic of the old  one)

Nevertheless the view is always mesmerizing

Mt. Batulao (Unplanned)

Every end of the year the sun sets around the peaks of Mt. Batulao. This creates a grand illusion of rocks lighting up. The locals calls it "Bato sa Ilaw" (Rocks within Light), which later became Batulao.

A climb friend who was vacationing from Canada asked us to organize a climb for him. Since he was on tight schedule we decided to go to Mt. Batulao on a day hike. Just a recap, the jumpoff to this mountain starts at Evercrest Golf course, upon proceeding you past by Barangay roads which is dusty in summer and muddy in the rainy season. The reason for this is that the locals also use this road for their livestock (cows, horse etc). We even saw several transporstation horses carrying several sackloads of indian mangoes. After this road next is the rolling trails that leads to the fork of the new and old trail. There are a few huts along this route that I believe sells buko during the peak climbing season (theres none during our climb). We initially planned to take the traditional trail going up and then the new trail going down. But since time is not on our side, we decided to take take the faster route (new trail which is the right side) The new trail has several stations markers that I recall numbers 1-10, with 10 as the campsite. The trail is also rolling but are steeper than the ones before the fork. Something new also is that a new trail had been created going to the summit. Its now shorter and easier, you dont have to go to the forested part. To use the new trail, right after the campsite there is another fork, you need to take the left side trail. These goes around the shorter peaks of the mountain.

My friend havent lost his touch in messing up our IT like in our past climbs with him (peace pre he he). But for some reason it turned out to be a good thing and on our advantage (same as in our past climbs too). We started trekking late, but this made us escape the scorching heat of the sun. We were already in the campsites hut when it drizzled for a few minutes. On the summit, theres was clearing, in contrast the last time I was here. And right after we arrived back at the jumpoff thats the time it started to rain 
hard. I call it Luck points.

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G2 like Jagged Edges




Summit View (Small specs are tents on the campsite)
Climb Buddies


Summit