White Peak (Mt Pandadagsaan): Where toughness and beauty are combined.

Considered to be one of the toughest mountain to climb in the Philippines, White Peak is known for its surreal mossy forest, unequal sea of clouds and a spectacular summit views. Mountaineers will surely like the challenge of this mountain because a certainty of a blockbuster climb is on a making when toughness and beauty are combined.

White Peak Summit Campsite

  

1^st Day (Oct 28, 2011): The Night Trek Challenge

Our group arrived at New Bataan, Compostela Valley past 11 in the morning. We then went directly to the municipal tourism office, had our registration and secured all necessary things for the 3 days climb. We headed to the jump-off after our quick lunch via a skylab, a local name for a habal-habal that carries 4 to 5 passengers. The ride was really scary. The road to the jump-off was so rough and rolling but our habal habal just burst its way down  and up dangerously. It is really unsafe but exciting too.

Our transport service (Skylab Habal-Habal)

Our hike started at 2 in the afternoon passing by a coffee plantation, a river trekking for almost one and half hour and then climb up to the muddy trail all the way to the last water source. Everyone loaded for extra water here but then our guide insisted that we set an emergency camp near the water source because it was already too late to push our way up to Camp 1. Our team didn't like the idea so we decided that we continue our trek and strongly asked our guide to push through since it was just 4 in the afternoon. Almost two hours later, our two porters complained that they can’t continue because they didn't have a headlamp. Luckily, two of our astute guys brought extra lamps so everyone were lighted up.

Bamboo Bridge

The river trail

From then on, the trails were all assault, mostly scrambling and a 4x4 climb with a lot of obstacle course. The highlight here was the huge and fresh landslide that we negotiated in the dark. The descent was very steep with a lot of loosed rocks then an equally steep climb upward by just randomly holding on to the firmed rocks. This is the most dangerous part and thanked God everyone were safe. After the landslide, we resumed our climb deep into the forest and close to 8 in the evening, we rested briefly because everyone were already hungry. The whole team and our porters shared some of our trail foods to get enough energy to move forward. Almost an hour later, we arrived at the rappelling section. Here is the part where climbers rappelled one by one upward because of the danger of falling rocks that can seriously hit the next climber below. After this section, it was all assault again with mostly 4x4 climb. Close to ten in the evening, we finally arrived at Camp 1.

White Peak... view along the trail to Camp 1

 

2^nd Day (Oct 29, 2011): Summit Sunset Surprise

We woke up late on our second day because we do not have enough water to cook for our breakfast and of course we slept late. All of us actually shared the foods that were left the other night just to fill our stomach. We started our trek at 8 in the morning with a mostly assault trails... Halfway to Peak 1, there was an opening on the trail… a view deck. We rested here for a while to get a good look at the beautiful views below then resumed our trek inside the jungle were the mosses are getting denser as we get higher. Past 10 in the morning, we arrived at Peak 1. We then cooked our food and stayed here for almost an hour and half.

Camp 1

AF at the view deck

Gecarl at Peak 1

Staying at Peak 1 longer was actually a chilling experience. After we filled our stomach, we commenced our assault and this time we aimed to reach Peak 2 before the sun sets. More than an hour later, our group arrived at the second rappelling section. The rappel here is longer and goes through the side of summit ridge rock face. Only one climber is allowed to rappel at a time for safety. After the rappel section, an opening can be seen from a distance. A few minutes later, we arrived at the mountain's summit ridge. The view? Just simply spectacular! The sea of clouds, the awesome ridge line below and the lower mountain ranges were just so nice to behold. We stayed here a little longer for photo ops and to savor the great panorama.

Summit ridge

Sea of Clouds

White Peak's ridge line trail

We resumed our hike passing by a thick mossy forest. The mosses here are so dense! The place was so unreal! I would say that White Peak mossy forest is the best of them all... Almost 30 minutes after the mossy experience, we arrived at the highest point of Mt Pandadagsaan… but hey! This isn't the Peak 2 yet. We went down to the AVATAR-like mossy forest again wherein every steps we took were like walking on the fantasy land. After the amazing experience inside the forest, Peak 2 came to into full view... As I stepped around the summit, I can’t really explained my feelings… exciting, enjoyable, fulfilling, you name it! White Peak’s famous 360 degrees summit is so beautiful... And mind you, it was just 2 in the afternoon and the sun was still up. We got a lot of time to relax and enjoy.

White Peak's surreal mossy forest

Mossy forest

Peak 2

After fixing our tent and taking a nap, we went up to the summit again for sunset viewing. Our camp site was just 30 meter below within the bonsai forest. It was already 5 in the afternoon. The color of the western horizon slowly turned to flaming red with a mix of orange, white and blue. It was the best sunset that I witness in my hiking career so far. Close to 6pm, a group of four mountaineers could be seen below the summit ridge with their headlamps ON. We were wondering who these people were because we were the only group of mountaineers that were registered on our 1^st day at the tourism office. We found out later that the 3 mountaineers were from Davao plus a porter and they just started their hike around 8 in the morning. It means they climb the mountain in just 1 day while our group had it in 2 days. Nice for them… we’ll do it in our traverse climb next time. I envy you guys!

Summit view

High Conquerors

Gecarl at the summit (Peak 2)

3^rd Day (Oct 30, 2011): A Wet, Misty and Long Descent

I woke up early to cook for our breakfast but our morning wasn't good. It was windy with a mixed of moist and fog… a misty morning actually. A sunrise viewing could have been great but the thick clouds obstructed the views. I still got a chance to capture the morning views as the clouds momentarily clear for a few minutes but most of the time it was windy and misty. After our breakfast, we broke camp then started our descent at 8 in the morning. Everyone were actually expecting a very long 3^rd day since we have to go down to the jump-off in just a day to a trail we climbed for 2 days! We reached Camp 1 before 12 noon, had our lunch in a misty, rainy and chilling environs with a lot of limatiks then continued our descent in a non-stop rain until we reached the river. It was close to 5pm and the rain already stopped. Our porters were ahead of us and it was slowly getting darker. Somewhere along the river trail, one of the porters waited for us… whew, what a sigh of relief. The trail was actually getting unfamiliar and none of us had a hint where to go next! We passed by several farmlands, crossed the bamboo bridge then finally, after a long descent, we arrived at the jump-off at almost 7pm. 

A misty summit

Campsite view as clouds momentarily open

This was supposed to be a double suicide climb which includes Mt Candalaga in our itinerary. But due to the pain caused by the almost unending descent at White Peak, I did not pushed through with our second climb. Congrats to Ian, Jux and Luigi for a successful double suicide climb.

High Conquerors White Peak Climb Participants:

1. Ian Tan- Chief Strategist
2. Gecarl Binongo
3. Krezen Angeles
4. Allan Dela Cruz
5. Jastin Patacsil
6. Luigey Teodoro

More photos:

Into the Avatar-like mossy forest

Seaweed-like mosses

Gecarl... enjoying the mosses

Until my next adventure… GOD Bless!