facing the challenge...

there were three things that motivated me personally in conquering Malipunyo:

1. DAMN IF I'LL BIVOUAC..

2. I WILL NOT USE HEADLAMP WHILE STILL ON THE TRAIL

3. GL NHEIL WILL TREAT US IF WE REACH CAMP AND WASH AREA BEFORE SUNDOWN

our group was pretty tight.. which actually made us all proud specially with the fact that our original GL met us only twice and finally declined to go with us because he had the Habagat race. Nheil our supposed AGL stepped up to the responsibility.. the other member ryan also declined a week beofre the climb claiming injury...

zaza, adonnis marc and i really felt lost at first.. we even kidded ourselves that we were "orphans". but it never let us down, in fact i think it made us care for each other's wellbeing more.

finally nheil convinced alman to go with us.. (which of course alman had to ask if he was the nth person that nheil texted!! hahaha) and alman took vince with him... so we were finally a complete group.. and we only had one chance of pre-climb as a whole group before the climb..

it was a "rock en roll" planning... but surprisingly given just a few hours of meeting we were able to organize everything.

and so the day came... we rode the bus towards our challenge.. the stories, the lores and the warnings of the members (dramatized, toned-down, or otherwise) were all in our heads..

as group I we were asked to be the first group immediately behind the lead pack.. and all i could think of was.. to never let the lead pack be more than an hour away from us. Again, this was another mental challenge on my part, because admittedly i am not good in the jogging arena.. my groupmates were.. adonnis,marc and zaza... these guys can run without losing steam... whereas i would be wheezing all the way!!

but then again, i recalled all of my other climbs before i came into amci... i fared well even under 43degrees heat.. so i told myself to get a grip and to enjoy everything i see... and i think it worked.

none of us complained... we trekked and climbed and scaled boulders and clawed thru mud and tailed behind the lead pack.. we managed our rest stops well.. even our GL was aghast at our pace! he took the sweeper role and whenever he caught up with us he would say.. "you guys, i saw a clearing a while back, why didn't you stop?" we would of course retort that we want him to treat us thus rests are limited to 1minute or less! so we pushed and pushed and we never lost confidence even if we fell and slid on different terrains..

we of course took time to appreciate the flora and fauna... often pointing to this and that plant life and insect.. zaza was quite amazed at my ability to see little things along the trail.. i guess i do that often even when diving because the point would be lost if we cannot appreciate things that we have never seen before...

nampucha trail was not that hard actually.. probably because it didn't rain that day.. when we caught up with the lead pack on the summit of nampucha i kidded sky that it wasn't really THAT challenging!! his eyes actually gleamed and he said with glee that "ok, since you found it easy, get your compass out and trek from now on using coordinates because we will not be putting up trail signs anymore" wahhhh hahahaha that made me want to kneel in front of him and chant.."i'm not worthy!, i'm not worthy!!"

for most of the trek we never consulted our IT.. only zaza and adonnis brought one.. so everytime someone asked where we were exactly we would take turns guessing.. like hmmmm this is too steep a drop.. this must be John Drop? hahaha but it was fun..

John Drop was named after my friend John Principe because it was where he literally dropped and incurred a huge shiner.. he told me that you have to drop there spectacularly for the trail to be named after you.. and i almost did!!! as alman said, john drop was almost changed to ai drop! that would have been hillarious!!!

we reached camp past 3pm and we were so elated that we were the first complete group who arrived.. imagine that! Alman kept crowing on our feat and it was actually a morale booster.. made us want to be the first group to descend as well..

night fell and still the others did not arrive yet.. i kept asking those who arrived how others were faring along the trail... and i prayed for my friends and for my co-trainees that they be safe all the way to the top.. 9pm and we were finally complete.. NOBODY BIVOUACKED!!! hooray for 2k6!!

the group presentations were scrapped, instead our so-called socials was all about getting around different campsites and drinking.. (i think this was a better idea!) thanks to sir manny we didn't get to humiliate ourselves yet again!

we slept late.. but we woke up early.. earlier even than the lead pack.. when their whistle blew as a wake up call, our rice was already cooking and food was almost ready.. the rain and wind in the morning were never a deterrent for us.. we still continued to cook.. we still packed our things.. everyone moved.. everyone pitched in.. and in less than 2 hrs we were packed and ready to go.. hooray! alman had another chance to chide the leadpack and crow at our feat..

the trek down was muddy and slippery but we still continued on.. again it was another terrain to conquer.. my previous river trekking experience was short.. this one was forever!!! it took all my ounce of willpower not to curse the river... i just shouted "yohooo skyyyyy, i labbb you!!!" hahahaha.. there were times when i lost my confidence in stepping on the stones but my three motivations kept popping in my head so i was able to push and push some more..

after a few hard falls... bruises and poison ivy itch and a wrecked pants, (which i had to change along the trail, since i didn't wear any cycling shorts underneath!) we finally saw civilization!!! i raced thru the mountain in going up.. because it was already quarter to six.. uh-oh sundown was almost near and i didn't want to disappoint my teammates so i ran like crazy until finally i saw bajay and sam and our jeepney with the sun still on the horizon.. yipee..no bivouac..no headlamp..and a treat from our GL!!!

some of our co-trainees began arriving past seven.. and the last one arrived past 11pm.. but thank god nobody was seriously injured and everyone got to go home.. as sir manny said, by 12midnight if some groups were still in the mountain, the GLs will have to bivouac since that was their cutoff time.. no more movement by midnight!! whew! hooray again for 2k6..

we were humbled by the mountain.. our spirits and resolve were tested... our views and our ideas of nature were changed.. it can be gentle and beautiful at times.. but then again it can become hostile.. it sits undisturbed for years.. and when attempted by humans it will either be benevolent enough to allow us passage or unforgiving in its harshness..

once again we survived.. we triumphed.. in our capacity as human beings...