The Slopes of Batulao

March 17-19, 2012
Nasugbu, Batangas

Mt. Batulao has been associated recently by the death of first-time hiker Ms. Diana Fajardo who accidentally fell at Peak 8 while taking a picture. Because of that, this mountain gained lots of interests and fear by locals and mountaineers.

After 2 cancelled climbs, our hike finally went on. We decided tomake it a night trek. Upon reaching Evercrest Golf Course, which is the jump-off point, and packing up our things, we’re ready to go. We did not take a guide so our supposed to be 2-day stay has added one more when we got lost at the beginning of our trek when we mistakenly thought the first fork of 3 trails was the fork referred in the websites we look at. We took the left, downward trail thinking its the old trail so we wandered in the nearby mountain instead. It was already 1AM when we finally stopped searching for the trail to the campsite. Around 6Am, we backtracked our way and returned to the last kubo we reached last night. After eating our breakfast, we began our real ascent to Mt. Batulao, finally.

Seeing this mountain on a broad daylight is really dramatic. All throughout the trail, you can see cogon grass swaying with the refreshing summer breeze. The trails are straightforward and easy to follow. However, most of the times it’s very steep and slippery meaning one missed step could be your last so vigilance is highly important. I personally climbed Peak 8 where Diana met her tragic fate and found it really steep to climb and slippery to descent. At the start of Peak 9. you will reach 3 trails: a) left grassy trail, b) middle upward trail leading to the rocky Peak 9 (closed), and c) right, downward trail going to the forested area of the mountain. We took the forested trail to find a new view. The trail was a series of up and down having trees at the right side and huge boulders at the other. The endpoint of this trail was a small opening between two huge rocks that strongly reminded me of James Franco’s movie 127 Hours. We took a picture mimicking his pose at the poster and I felt like a canyoneer for a short time.

The road before the summit (Peak 10) was a series of rocky trails. Though there’s a trail below with less danger, we took the rocky one to have a better view. One final 45 degree assault and we’re at the top! We’ve reached the summit and it’s truly worth the sweat and the danger! The view was astounding. We looked back and saw how dangerous the trail really was [sigh]. You can see 360 degree the whole mountain ranges of Nasugbu including its neighbor Mt. Talamitam. While at the other side is the beautiful Batangas bay. Awesome! Watching the sun come down is another thing. It’s as if God opened up the sky while His angels fly around Him. It was pure contentment and joy we felt up there. Truly amazing.

Aside from the mountain, the people living there are hospitable and courteous. There we met Tatay Ricardo and Nanay Cita where we cleaned ourselves. They provide unlimited water supply for mountaineers for just P20.00! They even let us sleep in their house when we missed the last trip back home – without asking anything in return. I will be happy to go there and give them a big thanks when we return.

Our journey in Batulao was truly unforgettable. Trails were good. Scenes were great. And people were kind. I just hope both locals and mountaineers would help hand in hand to give proper awareness on its growing problem – GARBAGE.

ITINERARY

Day 1 ——————–

1500 Call time at Target Mall, Balibago Complex, Sta. Rosa, Laguna
1630 ETA Tagaytay Market. Buy food.
1815 ETA Evercrest Golf Course
1830 Start trek. Reached Janet’s kubo. Took the left downward trail in fork of 3 trails. Got lost by this time.
0100 Sleep and decided to backtrack the day after.

Day 2 ——————–

0500 Wake up. Eat breakfast
0700 Backtrack
0900 Reached Janet’s kubo. Eat breakfast.
1030 ETD to jump-off
1430 ETA peak 9. Late lunch.
1615 Resume ascent
1630 ETA summit
1730 Start descent
1745 ETA peak 9. Pack up
1900 Jump-off
1945 Evercrest. Last pack up at Tay Ricardo’s place.
2230 Left by last trip. Sleep at Tay Ricardo’s place.

Day 3 ——————–

0400 Wake up
0600 ETD to Tagaytay Market

EXPENSES

Fare:
P40.00 – Complex to Tagaytay market (jeepney)
P8.00 – To Olivares (jeepney)
P33.00 – To Evercrest (jeepney)
P100.00/one way – To near Batulao

Misc:
P20 – Registration fee (old trail) Add P10 for overnight. Max. of P50 for an overnight traverse.
P300 – Guide (recommended). We did not take a guide

Our Pictures

View all our photos in http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3303770486208.139923.1626374803&type=1&l=dcaa6a7f25