Romblon | Sibuyan's Mt Guiting Guiting In Photos

ROMBLON | Sibuyan's Mt Guiting Guiting In Photos

It is an aspiration that needed to be realized so that I can say to myself that I have lived. My hiking adventures were just for fun at the beginning; but as I keep progressing in hiking mountains with beautiful landscape views, I also took on challenging mountain hikes in order. 

 

 On approach to Sibuyan Island from the Sea. The famed Saw-Toothed feature of this mountain can be seen from afar.

Descending to a sloping terrain in Magdiwang Trail, we were greeted with a view of what is ahead before us. A long stretch of diverse grassland and forest stretching towards the open sea.

 A mirage in the landscape kissed by the clouds. The heat of mid afternoon sun is bearing down on us. The Knife Edge trail looks like its just ahead but it had already been a couple of hours of scrambling through rocky terrain and yet we are still on approach only.

It started with a hike in Mt Apo “The Grandfather of Philippine Mountains”; a hike that required training for strength and stamina, it is after all The Rooftop of the Philippines and Mindanao’s crowning glory. Soon it was followed by a challenging hike at Mt Pulag “Playground of the Gods” and Luzon’s rooftop with its difficult trails Tawangan and Akiki. Once I have completed these two, I felt the yearning to add another one on the list, so I took another challenge by hiking Mt Kanlaon “Home of the God Kanlaon” and the Rooftop of the Visayas. By now you should realize the pattern; I’ve already hiked the Highest Mountains from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the three major groups of Islands in the Philippines.

I thought I’ve had enough, those three are hard to come by for an amateur hiker like myself but I soon found myself training for yet another challenging climb and this time it was for Mt Guiting Guiting. I don’t really know what I have gotten myself into, because unlike the first three I mentioned above, Mt Guiting Guiting is considered one of the most difficult climbs in the Philippines. Mt Guiting Guiting or G2 in Sibuyan Island of Romblon is blogged as part of the Knife Edge Trilogy in the Region of MIMAROPA, alongside Mt Halcon in Mindoro Island and Mt Mantalingahan in Palawan Island. These three mountains not only have Knife Edge trails in common but that they are measured as 9/9 in difficulty as per the popular blog pinoymountaineer.com

 

Trekking in strewn rock boulders as big as any SUV's. Some of these sedimentary rocks have sharp edges and its coarse in unprotected hands, they are just despairingly everywhere. I had to wear gloves while trying to suppress the feeling of being overwhelmed by the landscape. A simple slipped may cause a broken bone or even death because of the steep ravines. 

 

 Our every take fives are spent gazing at these creeping clouds and the hills.

 Saw Toothed Mountain Ridges where Mt Guiting Guiting got its Visayan name from.

As of this writing, I had already completed this hike and I am making plans in hiking Mt Halcon and Mt Mantalingahan to complete the Knife Edge Trilogy challenge. I know I have to stop somewhere, lest I become obsessed from hiking not just the challenging mountains, but those considered deadly. I’m afraid, not for the challenge but that I would become too addicted to it. I’ve always told myself that it’s only for the photos and beautiful landscape that I do this, but these mountains I have mentioned have all yielded photographs that I would be glad to show to anyone and G2 by far has the most amazing landscape I had ever seen.

Enchanted is the adjective I’d give for G2. A rocky mountain in steroids and is incomparable to any rocky mountains I’ve climbed. A rocky landscape continuously kissed by the clouds. The photos I brought back doesn’t do it justice, one will have to experience hiking in G2 to understand the gibberish I’m sharing in here. So from here on out, let me share the photos I’ve taken from Mt Guiting Guiting the King of Sibuyan.

Stunted trees are scattered along steeped slopes, this is near camp 3 of Olango trail.

Seeing the jagged Knife Edge trail under the morning sun from Mayo's peak.

The sun is setting on the opposite side, illuminating this mountain feature. Its hard to imagine that we carefully traversed terrain a few hours ago.

Francis Balgos has declared himself a champion of weekend travel warriors, of young professionals who have less time for themselves, he feels everyone of you who has desires to be at two places at the same time, to see the world in their own eyes, to live fully at the best of their years....

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