My Hiking Stories: Scaling One of the Philippines' Toughest Mountain - Mount Guiting-Guiting (PART 2)

Previously, on Part 1:

We had an awesome start and nearly ended up in pain. We arrived at the campsite quite late. There were civet cats / musang around the campsite waiting for food opportunities, and set our camps in the forest.

the civet cat! -pic from wikidpedia

You can check out my last post here:
https://steemit.com/blog/@jamiz/my-hiking-stories-scaling-the-tough-mount-guiting-guiting-part-1

Day 2: Another Day in the Wilderness

We were lucky It did not rain last night and the forest area is not that cold. I was sleeping on the ground with a ground sheet and a tarp above me. So far, there are no Civet Cats sleeping next to me. We have to break camp at around 5:30 am and have our breakfast so we can cross the “KNIFE EDGE” part of the trail. Ohhhh.. so excited.. But first, we have to wait for the clouds to recede before taking our first step on the thin rocky ridge trail.

The peak on the other side

The Knife Edge trail was very steep and below is the void. I can’t even see whats below there since it was covered in fog/clouds. The pace was slow because the other team ahead are busy doing selfie and the guy in front of me is afraid of heights but later on managed to overcome it.. lol

The Knife Edge Trail towards the Peak

The Trail Behind

After an hour of trekking, we now enter the realm of the “Camel Back”, another larger part of the ridge with I think around 60-70 degrees of climb. The vegetation up there is very different compared to the ones below. Most of the trees were dwarf. Probably due to the altitude and yeah, it is still wet.

Up The Camelback

Do not fall

Now, onto the rocky part of the trek. The trail was on the mountain side with a sheer drop. Our path is just a little foot trail just enough to fit one person and below was another void.. lol.. And then, there is a path that you have to stick your whole body to the wall or you fall.. and die.. lol.. They call it the “Kiss the Wall”. A fun way to call their trail, but it’s true.. You have to really kiss the wall… “You can kiss but never ever Fall”.

Its a long way down

A video Clip of the Kiss the Wall

Enough of the kissing scene, we noticed another huge bouldery trail. And the green vegetation was replaced with brown boring rocky and very foggy trail. It’s like in the movies where in any minute, some wild deranged animal will attack you. But it was quiet.. We were the only ones making noise.

Almost zero visibility

Water Source! Marbel Spring! It a small spring on the trail. Some of the guys were already there having a break. We joined them, shared some snacks and rested for quite a bit for we have to again climb another 70 degrees of rocky trail. I then took my water bottles and filled it up with the sweet mountain spring water.

Crawl up!

After the 70 degree climb, our next stop was the peak (around 2100++ meters above se level). We cannot see it from where we stand because of the cloud covering. We can only see a few feet in front of us. We thought the climbing part was over until we saw the “90 Degree” rock climb. It was only a few feet maybe 10-20 feet at least. It was steep but lots of hand/foot holds. I managed to climb it with a 12 kilos of load in my back…

Awesome!

up the 90 degree!

We were then greeted with a flat area full of dwarf plants! It’s like the lost world. And in front of us, the peak greeted us! The cloud covering receded and we can see the whole area even the view below us. We were on top of Sibuyan Island! We arrived at noon but we still have to wait for the slower members of our group. The peak only has a few vegetations and some dwarf plants, it was very hot. I managed to find some bushes and hid inside while waiting for the others. I slept, I woke up.. They were still not here yet.. It was almost 2pm when they arrived. We had an obligatory photoshoot and decided to eat our lunch late since the porter who carried our food is nowhere to be seen. lol..

Obligatory Peak Shot

We just headed on without our lunch. I only ate a snicker bar & some sweet sweet water from the Marbel Spring and some beef jerky my group mate has. We have to find the porter or else we die of hunger.

On our way down from the peak towards another campsite below, the scenery again changed. Very nice and weird rock formations greeted us. Its like nature was carving these rocks. And it was a very good hiding place from the sun. We now found our porter later on and cooked some of our lunch and ate because it is going to get dark soon. It was already 4 in the afternoon when we found our porter. At 4:30 we started our descend onto the “Crash Site” where an airplane crashed there a few years back. You can still see the plane debris such as the engine or the wheel.

Vew while eating lunch. Check out the rock formations

On the Way Down

We were on the other side of the island of Sibuyan and the sun is setting very fast. We were very far from our next campsite the “Olango Camp”. The trail got boring after the sunset. Temperature dropped and we are still on the trail. From the rocky peak, to the grasslands, now we are back in the forest area.

Sunset (Its getting dark so the camera is getting weirder)

A video Clip of the Otherside

At 7pm, we arrived at our campsite. Immediately, we tried to find some good camping spot and set our tarp, ground sheet and a sleeping bag. I really wished I brought my hammock with me because of the very limited space. We then cooked our dinner, ate, drank, and off to bed. And by the way, next to where we set our tarp was a sheer drop a very sheer drop.. We only noticed it the next day.

That's the cliff

Cooking our breakfast

Well, that ended the Part 2 of my Guiting Guiting Experience. It was fun and tiring, I witnessed a harsh trail, fun trek, and a beautiful view from the peak!

Check out the Part 1 of my experience:

https://steemit.com/blog/@jamiz/my-hiking-stories-scaling-the-tough-mount-guiting-guiting-part-1

Also check out my other blogs:

Tattooed by a APO Whang-OD, the oldest tattoo artist in the Philippines!

Part 1:

https://steemit.com/travel/@jamiz/jamiz-travelblog-tattooed-by-the-oldest-tattoo-artist-in-the-philippines-part-1

Part 2:

https://steemit.com/travel/@jamiz/jamiz-travelblog-tattooed-by-the-oldest-tattoo-artist-in-the-philippines-part-2

All photos / videos were taken using a Xiaomi Yi Action Camera.

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