Pico De Loro - Monolith's Peak

Mt. Palay-Palay - Ternate, Cavite

February 23-24, 2013

Pico de Loro's Monolith

Known for its outstanding and challenging monolith, Pico De Loro is considered as one of the mountains that adventurous people usually dream to hike. Proudly standing with a 664 MASL (meters above sea level) and with 2 to 5 hours of hike, this mountain welcomes lots of visitors from time to time to see the magnificent tower that lies above the mountain.

Pico de Loro can be dayhiked but Team Santelmo decided to have an overnight at the campsite (maybe because of the first timers like me that they have to take care of, hehe, loser:).

  

As a first timer, someone should not be worried, she/he should be prepared for anything worst and expect for something best. Hiking a mountain is not that dangerous or deadly, it is a matter of being responsible, trusting your companions, and following Team Santelmo’s Principles.

Pico De Loro’s jump-off is at Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ where hikers have to pay P20.00 each and log their names (this is to monitor who are the people visiting the mountain and who will stay for the night).

After lunch, the team started to hike and with an estimated time of one hour, reached the second registration area and paid P20.00 each again. This registration booth is also a mini-store that sells drinks and snacks. After taking a rest for a couple of minutes, we started to walk, thus the expedition began.

We pass through the waterfalls to freshen up and experience the scenery. The falls is not actually along the trail, people have to detour in a different trail to visit the place. It is small but is refreshing. And after awhile, we continued the trek.

Waterfalls minus the Team Santelmo's member.

Hiking may be equated to being exhausted, but this kind of tiredness is something that we enjoy and exploration is one of our purposes.

It was a sunny afternoon but the heat was not an additional baggage from the huge bags that we carry. The trees were our friends that shed the trail and provided us enough breezes to feel the comfort of the place. Small plants became our trekking poles that gave us support for our assault. And tree roots became our stepping guides.

Team Santelmo ascending to Pico De Loro's Campsite.

For several hours, we kept on asking if the campsite is already near. But seeing the bamboo trees gave us the positive notion that we were almost there. After a few minutes, campsite appeared to us with lots of tents and a pool of people, but the team still managed to find a proper place and planted their tents.

Pico De Loro's Campsite.

As darkness tried to cover the place, it failed to stop us to be courageous and reach the top of the mountain. Together with the other team members, we bravely ascended, fought against the strong wind that hits our bodies by lying at the ground and triumphantly stepped our feet at the summit.

Grotto near the trail towards the peak.

Still gasping for crawling up, a breath-taking 360 degrees panorama came in front of our bare eyes. We did not really see much because of the darkness, and fear of being thrown away by the wind, but the feeling of being on top and the breeze touching our bodies is such an exceptional experience. Something that we will always look for and we will actually chase.

As the dawn breaks, we went up the summit again together with all the team members. As we usually do, Photo Ops! Smile. :)

Team Santelmo at Pico De Loro's Summit.

Then another challenge arrived. The Monolith.

At first, this stock of huge stones appeared to me as an impossible obstacle but with bragging rights, it was only some of us who braved to climb the almost 90 degrees rocky tower.

Team Santelmo as we strive to climb the great Monolith.

With a buwis-buhay attempt, we started to climb through the rocks. With the help of planted ropes tied between rocks and roots, and the tower itself, as our shield against the ever windy air, (and of course, of my companions) we continuously leaped and victoriously reached the peak of the Monolith.

Team Santelmo member as he walks through the tricky rocks of Monolith.

The Monolith is actually dangerous and requires physical and mental stability for the hikers. And why is that so? First, because of its height, that when you look down, you will not be able to see where you will fall, so you have to be focused and fearless, at least for that moment. Second, it is almost a 90 degrees assault, that if anyone will fall, he will surely fall. And also because of this assault, someone should lift his own body and should not have any body injury. Third, it is windy up there, you have to almost always hold on to the rocks. Fourth, the stones are relatively huge, and the way up is tricky that someone should extend all his body parts to reach the next step and get down again, alive and unharmed.

At the peak, obviously, we could see the other people who decided to stay at the summit and watch us (hehe, yabang lang:). We stayed for awhile and enjoyed the triumph that we pursued. The view is almost the same as what we saw from the summit. But it is the peak where we are stepping that makes the difference.

Team Santelmo at Monolith's Peak

Team Santelmo at Monolith's Peak

After awhile, we decided to go back the summit. Descending was as challenging as climbing up, but we have to go down. The summit and monolith are only near from each other, and to climb the second, you have to pass through the first.

Descending from Monolith

Going back to the DENR jump-off, we took the opportunity of taking a bath and cleaning our body in the Rest Room, provided by the agency with a reasonably priced of P5.00, and tiredly went home.

At the end of the exploration (after my first), we are still looking forward for greater heights that we can reach and other sceneries that we can see.