Remembering Batulao

I came across a news article last Tuesday about a 27-year old, first time, female hiker who was killed in Mt. Batulao after she fell down a cliff while taking pictures at Camp 8. They didn't have a guide with them. Reading about it saddened me; condolences to the people affected, including the hiking community. I cannot imagine the loss and trauma the group is going through because of this. :(

It was my first time, too, when we climbed Mt. Batulao. We were an almost all-girl group; Euge was the only male. We were accompanied by our 17-year old guide, Chris, who knew the terrain by heart. I could remember that he was only wearing rubber slippers back then. We were supposed to stop at Camp 6 of the old trail and head back but there was a group of male bystanders who told us that, even if we tried, it was beyond our capacity to go all the way to the summit. The old trail mandates you to go rock climbing to reach Camps 8 and 9 before reaching the summit at Camp 10. And, solely because of wounded women's pride, we persevered - without enough water to sustain us and without any rope/rappelling gear to see us through.

I remember I was already on auto-pilot mode when we were rock climbing. There were moments when I couldn't move because of sheer fear. I remember asking Euge regularly where I should put my feet, what rock I should hold on to. Wala e, mabablanko ka talaga (Your mind will really go blank.) Nervous laughter helped. It's the same story going down. We traversed to the new trail which proved to be very difficult. We couldn't see the trail when we're standing so we went down on our butts and slid down the dusty trail.

That's why Batulao left a lasting impression on me. Sometimes when we are discussing how we were able to make it back down, we are still amazed. I know some hikers who enjoy hiking up Batulao and I respect that. Every hiker's experience is uniquely his/her own. I'm not saying I did not enjoy the experience because friendships were woven deeper because of that shared experience. It's just that the stress was in equal amounts with the enjoyment I felt. And it was my first mountain so I guess there's a bit of trauma hinged to that experience (I know someone who's first mountain was Pulag and he didn't want to go back there, too). But, hey, as I said to each his own and I'm not saying you shouldn't go to Mt. Batulao. What I'm trying to say, I think, is that this mountain isn't ideal for first-timers.