On the 31st of January 2013, a group mountaineers from Nature Explorers of Tarlac (NEXT) made an great journey to the highest point of the Philippines.
This group of Forteen (14) young at heart professionals are from the Catholic Church,Engineering, Archetectural , Medical, Info. Tech and Business field based in Tarlac who loves the outdoors and spearheaded by Engr. Ed Tañedo.
The climb took 3 days and 2 nights using Sta. Cruz Trail and utilizes Tinikaran Camp 1 as their Base camp which they arrive in the afternoon on Day 1 after an enduring farm and narrow jungle trail. On the 2nd day the group reach the summit of Mt. Apo around noon time which gives them the majestic view of the boulders and whats below it which makes the whole group became emotional for they could not believe that they have fulfilled their long dream which is to stand on the highest point in the Philippines(every Filipino Mountaineers Dream) and then tears of joy starts to flow on their cheeks showing an unimaginable happiness after two days of endurance.
After few minutes Father Jess Gragasin offered a Prayer thanking God for the success and safety of the whole group then we head to the old crater for lunch and proceed back to the camp site and continue descending to the jump-off area on the 3rd day and back in Davao City safely.
During this climb , the group also accomplished discovering Mt. Apo’s lowest summit, the Melvin’s Summit( 2,589 MASL) named after one member of the group who manage to reach that point passing Butoy’s Ridge given with his physical condition.
Here are some photos taken on this Climb,,,
