Papong climbs Mt. Fansipan in Vietnam

Being in hunt to scale mountains outside the Philippines, LOGSAC’s Danrev Bronola has climbed Mt. Fansipan in Vietnam last October 27-28, 2012, adding another roll of mountain into his personal climbing portfolio.  Papong reached the summit of Fansipan on October 28 using the Manila-Hanoi-LaoCao itinerary that took him almost two days of travel before getting into the jump off area. The entire climb was only two days, shorter than the usual itinerary.  

Located in Lao Cai province, Fansipan is the highest peak of Indochina with the height of 3,143 meters above sea level. It is being dubbed as the "roof of Indochina", and has been considered one of the very few eco-tourism sites of Vietnam. Records also have it that Fansipan is home to about 2,024 floral varieties and 327 faunal species.

Like Mt. Apo and any other tropical mountains, Fansipan is characterized by wet and steamy climatic conditions. Montane rainforest is a usual scenery in the first day of trekking.

The ascent going to the summit is just a 2-4 average hike through wild bushes, rock structures and some vertical drops.

According to Papong, climbing Fansipan is almost the same with Mt. Apo. There is a need to prepare physically. "It's basically just like Mt. Apo only that they have several bamboo plants located along the trail. But everything that is there is quite similar to our Mt. Apo."