profound bliss

Victor Joel Ayson, the mountaineer who went up Mt. Maculot on Easter Sunday and went missing, has been found thirteen days after, on the day of his birthday on April 13, 2013. Reports say he left his rucksack at the mountaineers’ stop-over owned by Mang Manuel on March 31 at around 2:30 AM. Then he was seen buying a bottle of mineral water in a store up the mountain around 9:00 AM the same day. Biki, as he was fondly called by family and friends, had just been to a Mt. Guiting-Guiting climb with some of his friends over the Holy Week. They were heading back home on the eve of Easter Sunday, but he had other plans. From the Batangas port, he went to Cuenca, Batangas to do a solo hike of Mt. Maculot. After going up, however, he never went down to claim his bag at the mountaineer’s stop over. His girlfriend, family and friends got alarmed as Biki said he’d be back home by noontime Sunday. It could have been possible since a hike up to the Rockies of the said mountain only takes ab...

Another mountaineer has gone missing. Victor Joel Ayson went on a solo dayhike up Mount Maculot on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013. It was 2:30 AM when he left his bag at Mang Manuel’s store. He successfully reached the Rockies campsite because he was seen buying a bottle of mineral water at the campsite store (which mountaineers fondly call 7-11) around 9:00 AM. After not being in contact until Monday, his friends and family started getting alarmed. Search and rescue operations have been organized since Monday night but all were unsuccessful in finding him. According to Mang Manuel, an experienced Mt. Maculot guide and owner of the Mountaineer’s Stop Over & Store in Barangay Tico, there have really been instances when even the locals would get lost in Mt. Maculot due to engkanto or the entities that we do not see with our naked eyes. I have personally traversed the said mountain twice and has done four solo climbs of the Rockies campsite, and I must say I believe in wh...

I climbed Mt. Maculot every week last December to lose some inches on my tummy. And because not everyone likes to climb the same mountain over and over again, and because I'm really a loner, I climbed those four times alone. The Rockies campsite is safe to climb alone. (I can almost hear my few more experienced mountaineering friends disagreeing with me.) The trail is wide and there are no forks aside from one early in the trail, but there’s an arrow pointing to the right direction so I really don't see how anyone could get lost. My first two weeks were bliss. I was literally alone at the campsite aside from a big tuko on the first and a monkey on the second week. I was able to pray (which I do secretly when there are mountaineers around) for the safe climb, lie down on the tables, close my eyes and savor the quiet sounds of wind on the trees and the idea of being alone 300+ meters above sea level. But was I really alone during those times that I thought I was? I'm...

There’s new tambayan/tindahan at the foot of Mt. Maculot and it’s a good thing for those who hike during the weekends when all these so-called mountaineers’ stop-over get crowded a lot. This one is very near the trail head, way past UWAC but before the fallen milestone with written acknowledgements. The good-mannered, elderly man who owns it told me to just call him Tatay Ed. He actually sells bottled water, soda, and even cooked food during the weekends. Unluckily for me, I climbed on a Thursday so I didn’t get to taste his cooking. Tatay Ed said he’s constructing a toilet for the mountaineers. And we can use it for free. I just hope his free toilet wouldn’t smell. For those who bring vehicles, he also charges nothing for parking within the area of his store. “Bumili lang sa akin ay tama na,” he told me when I said sayang ang parking fees. Anyway, I already saw his store when I climbed the Rockies last June, although I didn’t think it was a store because it didn’t ...

I went back to Mt. Maculot two Saturdays ago (June 9) with a friend who has never climbed a mountain before. It wasn’t planned, actually. I was looking at my mountain climbing photos Friday night and decided I will climb the day after. I logged onto Facebook, checked who’s online and messaged random friends. Diego responded positively and we left a few hours later. We were at the registration in Cuenca by 6:30 AM. I actually intended to get there earlier but I still had to do so much that we were able to leave Taguig at 3 AM. Why I wanted to climb early? Because it was the Freedom Climb weekend. We were the first to register that day, but I was particularly slow due to not having even a minute of sleep (oh, reasons!) and I was with a virgin (it was Diego’s first mountain) so a group of three girls from Team Injury plus a solo hiker from Muntinlupa went past us. LoL! That made me miss my climbing buddy K. He wouldn’t let anyone do that to us, so he’d push me in the mildest po...

Mt. Maculot's campsite, as I mentioned in my recent post titled Mt. Maculot: A Not-So-Pleasant-Surprise , has a big problem on waste management. It wouldn't have reached that point if all of us "mountaineers" are disciplined enough to "Leave No Trace" and if we really care about the environment. Judging by the pile of liquor bottles, I think that some (if not most) of the hikers go up Mt. Maculot just to drink and party. Have the mountains become the new venue of Friday/Saturday/long weekend night-outs? Perhaps some would argue, "What are the registration fees for?" Do you think P10.00 is enough to let the locals chase our garbage in the mountains? To leave behind our water bottles and butanes so our backpacks wouldn't be as bulky when we go down? These mountains were in peace before men learned the sport/hobby of climbing. These mountains didn't invite us to go up and spend our nights in its wilderness for a thrill. But we climb ...

Last week of July, I learned that my young friends in MLQU Stallions Outdoor Club (MSOC) were planning to do a Mt. Maculot hike on the first weekend of August. I get invited to MSOC climbs most of the time so it was kinda automatic (especially with these young members) that I would be joining them on this one. No one among those climbing that time had been to Mt. Maculot before, while I already did a traverse of the mountain September last year with my friend Danilo. So I was immediately appointed as the guide. It was my first time to ever guide a group of climbers in the mountains, but as they say, there's always a first time for everything. My knowledge of the route, though, was Brgy. Pinagkaisahan – Grotto – Summit – Rockies – Brgy. Tiko. They were planning on a night trek to Rockies but I remember the trail as very easy so I agreed. K (who is a member of MSOC himself) and I met the other members of the team around 9 PM at the Buendia bus terminal. We took a Lipa-bound bus...

Mt. Maculot is a favorite destination for new mountaineers. The Rockies, being the most popular point of Mt. Maculot attracts newbie climbers because of its friendly trail and friendlier height (706+ MASL). The summit, though, is a little bit higher (830 MASL) and the difficulty depends on which trail you use. As for adventure-seeking newbies, my friend Danilo and I opted for the more difficult traverse by way of the grotto trail. We set off last September 20, a Monday, leaving the house at 1 am for our much anticipated first climb together. This was his first mountain, and my second - the first being Mt. Romelo in Siniloan, Laguna . We arrived at Cuenca a little past 5 am, starving. Good thing there was one open carinderia offering stuff to warm our tummies. So we had a big serving of Lomi for only 35 pesos each. Asking the store-owner for directions to the local church, we reached St. Isidore Parish just when that morning's mass was about to end. Quite admirably, they ...