Mt Guiting-Guiting’s successful climb sets new milestone for LOGSAC

More mountaineering groups and individuals nowadays attempted to scale difficult mountains to which for me has become a mandatory part of the evolution of mountaineering in the Philippines. We always look at how tough those mountains are and we try hard to scale them one by one.

In our pursuit to climb highly-technical mountains in the Philippines, LOGSAC power duo Noel Bartolome (Pawiks) and Henry Gapula (Pagong) successfully scaled Mt. Guiting-Guiting in Romblon last April 11-13, 2015; making yet another history to the already-checkered existence of this mountaineering club. This climb was a conclusion to a failed summit attempt of the same mountain last year by Pawiks, Irvin Joy Alcoriza and Danrev Broñola.

“We were blessed with a good weather condition this time, that’s why we climbed all the way to the summit with our given itinerary,” said Pagong. G2, as fondly called by the mountaineering community, has its own character to which mountain climbers should adopt. The assault to the summit via the dangerous knife edge entails a vigorous physical and mental strength. Others even said that climbing G2 is only for the braves. The long boat trip from Batangas to Sibuyan Island is another chapter of the expedition to endure.

Mt. Guiting-Guiting forms part of the country’s knife edge trilogy, the other two being Mt. Halcon in Mindoro Oriental and Mt. Mantalingajan of Palawan. These are the very mountains also that are considered the most difficult mountains to climb as there are portions where a 90-degree assault have to be done and a mandatory mountain hugging through that “face-the-wall” track should be surmounted.

When asked about his experience of the knife edge, Pagong echoed without hesitation, “if you are careless you will die, that is how difficult this mountain is,” referring to the high cliffs visible down opposite the rock formations prior to reaching G2’s summit.

In the 8 year history of LOGSAC, I can safely say that this is perhaps one of the most ambitious climb ever done by two of our veteran members. It also sets a new milestone of our young club that will always be remembered by the rest of the group members. My only note is that no matter how difficult a mountain is to be climbed, it can always be done easily through proper planning, hiring of competent guide and coupled with a good weather.