Mt.Kanlaon

   Mt. Kanlaon has been known to be highest peak in the Visayas and 27th throughout the country. Many climbers had been aiming to climb its peak. Its a three day journey to top with only our backpack complete with what's needed to live in the wild.

   Its name came from Kan-laon (Visayan god). The Supreme ruler and is the name of pre-Historic Visayan diety. It is an active volcano in Negros in the central part of the Philippines. It is the highest peak in central Philippines. It forms as a border dividing Negros into two provinces of Negros occidental and Negros Oriental. It is also one of the six most active volcanoes in the Philippines. It had erupted 26 times since 1886 and last volcanic activity was noted june 03 - july  2006. On august 1996, mt kanlaon erupted without warning killing a british and 2 pinoy who were among the 24 climbers who were trapped near the summit. A belgian  from another group of mountaineers said  she and her group were about to leave from the crater when the eruption begun ejecting ash and stones and saw her friends being hit by falling stones.The lifting of alert level 1 status open mt.Kanlaon for climbing since march 28, 2008.

  The volcano has 3 Hot Springs on its slopes Mambucal, Bucalan and Bungol.

Deforestation

   Mt.kanlaon has a diverse trees and mossy forest but as time passes by, the place has been threatened of deforestation. Manifestations are seen even at the foot of the mountain. Illegal logging, kaingin etc. People has gathered the products of nature with greediness in mind. Many mountaineers are making their moves to help control people making nature their money chest without even thinking of the impact of what they had been doing. In the future, if this vast deforestation is left unattended then it would threaten the whole animal kingdom pushing wildlife to the verge of extinction, intensified global warming effects and Increased soil erosion as well.

 

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Climbing Mt. Kanlaon..


I was fortunate to had climb this mountain. With its diverse forest and ecosystem. An experience well remembered. We had climb its summit together with my 5 friends with 2 guides. Its been a three day climb with very steep slopes specialy on the first day going to makawiwili peak. One of our companion even got sick on the night of our trek. On day 0  we stayed overnight at the jump-off at sitio mapot and spend the night with tanduay.


Mt. Kanlaon (Mapot-masulog Trail)
Entry point: Sitio Mapot, Brgy. Maiba, Canlaon City
Exit Point: Sitio Mananawin, Brgy. Masulog Canlaon City

Itinerary followed during our climb

Day 0
1600 arrival at canlaon city by bus, buy supplies
1700 arrange transpo to drop-off
1800 eta @ drop off at sitio mapot, spend the night

Day 1
0630 Wake up call
0800 Start ascent to Makawiwili Peak
1100 Lunch on trail
1230 Resume ascent
1600 Arrival at Makawiwili Peak, Set up camp (gets very cold at night)
1700 Explore area
0600 Dinner / socials

Day 2
0500 Wake up call
0530 Prepare breakfast and packed lunch
0630 Break camp
0730 Start trek to PMS lagoon (water source available)
1100 Lunch PMS
1230 resume trek to pagatpat ridge
1400 Start descent to Margaja Valley
1530 ETA Margaja Valley, explore the area and relax (has water during rainy days and is also called margaja lake)
1600 start ascend to shoulder
1700 ETA at shoulder, pitch tent
(shoulder is highly expose to strong winds so its advisable to pitch tent @ margaja valley)
- Assault to crater-summit for sunset view
1830 prepare dinner/socials

Day 3
0500 Wake up call
0600 Prepare breakfast and packed lunch
0630 Break camp
0700 - Assault to crater-summit for sunrise view
0730 ETA @ crater-summit
0830 Start descent to mananawin
1200 head to Canlaon City or side trip if any



The Trek



We started the trek 6:00 am had lunch along the way and travel our way out of the rainforest out to the makawiwili peak.

Kanlaon Summit at the Background
(taken from makawiwili peak)

Reaching Makawiwili Peak

The view was exhilarating easing our tiring body. The peak gives us 360 view of the surrounding and specially give us the best view to look at Mt. Kanlaon.

Makawiwili Peak

Picture Taken at makawiwili peak during sunset. Noticeably we could see a wooden stick form a cross behind me. Our guide told us that there had been an incident of a foreigner that died on that site. Makawiwili peak is very dangerous. Its because right behind me is a cliff, knife edge facing the Kanlaon peak.Grasses covered the edge and so the foreigner might have not notice it causing him to fall right into it.

•  campsite expose to strong winds, gets very cold at night
•  very dangerous since it has an overhang cliff, knife edge  

  

Mt.Kanlaon taken from makawiwili peak

PMS lagoon

On the following day we was supposed to take sunrise pictures at makawiwili peak but unfortunately thick fog sorrounded us. With this we  started the trek to PMS lagoon. From makawiwili we trailed through unestablished trail going to PMS lagoon which our guide said only few had knew. We reach the area by 11am and had our lunch and had our tents dry under the suns heat. The place was beautiful, the watersource was not so clean as its was stagnant water but we had no choice. But then, it still taste good..haha..

Margaja Valley / Margaja Lake

Margaja Valley
We had arrive at this point by 3:30 pm.
 Here we rested for a while. Some climbers would spend their night in this place since it is sorounded by peaks.
This place is also called Margaja lake since during rainy season its water level rises.The place is so wide that in my opinion it could contain four football fields.


Right behind me you could see the cliff part of makawiwili peak. From this point we see how deep it is. No one would surely survived if someone would accidentally fall.

Margaja Valley with the Crater Summit at the Background

Behind the pic you could see the Shoulder part of the Summit.

Start of trek to Shoulder to pitch our tent

View at the shoulder

Trek to summit for Sunset View

The distance from the shoulder to the summit seems so near. What we thought was near lasted for almost 30mins of steep ascend. We thought it would only be a 10min trek or less.

at the background you could see the shoulder
(shoulder is where we had pitch our tent))

Sand & Stones @ the highest point of Mt.Kanlaon
(makawiwili peak at the background)

Crater + Summit

Am I in Heaven?
Kanlaon Summit + Kanlaon Crater

Am I in Heaven?
This what comes in my mind whenever i see this pic of us during our climb. Were surrounded with vast sea of clouds. Its like Heaven on Earth experience. Eversince my highschool days this was my long time dream, going outdoors & getting to the highest point.

Reference:
http://www.vulkaner.no/n/asia/canlaon-np.html
http://www.silent-gardens.com/philippines-volcanoes.php
http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=33737