“fun” climb at Mt. Hugom, San Juan, Batangas

so the previous weekend was my first fun climb with Utrek! i was looking forward to a chill and fun climb but none of that happened :))) but with good friends, majestic sceneries and beaches, everything just seemed perfect.

so read on below about the fun on our climb at Mt. Hugom, San Juan, Batangas!

okay! so this climb is our batch’s first organized event since getting inducted. tho we were already informed that we need to organize a fun climb for this year, we haven’t really finalized where or when it will be. but then the officers told us that we need to do it the past long weekend, we instantly crammed and ended up doing it the next weekend since we were not fully prepared. we have a loooong line of choices on which mountain to climb but we ended up with Mt. Hugom since that’s the only one we did a recon climb for lol (or actually, loren, ken and jonel did ;p)

obviously, i wasn’t as active as i should be during planning since i was bombarded with school works and house chores (and ang lapit ko kasi talaga sa manila eh no? huhu). they had nightly meetings to which obviously i can’t go to so i told them i’ll be handling whatever they ask me to (and nasobrahan naman guyth?! haha pero kebs lang haha)

so when we finalized the details and everything was kinda set already, we put up teasers and invited as much people as we can within 2 weeks and here, i was glad that a lot of people showed interest to our event when i posted it on facebook. a lot of people were asking when and how and a lot more details and i was expecting more and more friends to climb with us, but then *sigh* (yan kasi, madami talaga puro interest lang, walang gawa talaga. paaasahin ka pero wala naman talaga silang balak char ano ba haha) so luckily, two friends were there, ready to climb and join me on this event (well actually, sapilitan pa!! pero sige hindi na ako magrereklamo haha)

of course, days before the climb, fafa bry and ate juli were asking me again what my plans are and how i would go to the assembly venue because usually i’d be coming with them and staying over the night before the climb. they told me that they are climbing along and will drive instead of joining the others on commuting. so tatanggi pa ba ako sa grasya ng libreng pamasahe? haha so it was set that reg and i will be riding along. i asked out my pabebe friend jai if he would also want to join in on the fun, but of course, kailan ba sya um-oo sakin, and so he tagged along with the others commuting (sabay nagreklamo sya sa dulo na bakit konti lang binayaran namin haha enebe)

 

alright! day before the climb, of course i have classes so funny enough i brought along a tall pack to school (na pinagkaguluhan ng sambayanan, mukha daw akong may binitbit na tao sa bag ko) though it wasn’t heavy kasi damit lang naman ang laman nun. after my last class at 8pm, ate juli fetched me from school (ibuh effort ni ate wooo thank youuu! <3) and also fetched reg from her classes. oh school kids haha we had take outs at burger king for dinner and went straight to kuya bry’s place to do last minute pack ups and some shut eye.

early morning at 5am and sadly ate juli couldn’t tag along due to work so kuya bry, nikko boy, reg and i were on our way to batangas. we fetched jason along the way and waited for ms. linda along the express way and we convoyed to the jump off. while on the road, we were looking for refilling stations and fish markets for kuya bry’s dinner.

we arrived at around 8:30am and i hurriedly wrote down names at the registration area and got ready for the climb. not so surprisingly, i led the stretchings and warm ups but did an easy one due to consistent public demand :)) (ayaw na nila ng dynamic stretchings sad. :p)

at 9:10am, off we (reg, jai, nikko and i) go to the mountains together with my groupmates yel, jen and jaime! with kuya guide, kuya eloy??

funny enough, at the start of the trek, it definitely reminded us of Mt. Tapulao, ang sarap na agad magbackout HAHAHAHA

but of course, it was more curse-worthy as we went on. no words for this but, as i’ve said a countless times to kuya guide, “kuya wala na bang itataas yan?? kulang pa sige itarik niyo pa!” and funny enough, we ended up with another group already and sadly our group got separated (nagulat na lang ako na sina loren na ang inaasar ko sa trail hahaha)

with take 5-15s every before steep ascends, those breaks were just filled with a lot of chikas and catching ups. i definitely missed climbing with everyone. <3

akyat pa more after a few more minutes until we reached the talahib interlude and i was soooo ecstatic to hear that there’s 1/4 left of the trail.

pero bakit nga ba ako naniniwala sa mga guide, THAT WAS STILL A HOAX. gravity sobrang haba naman ng latter half non leche haha though i was sure that the talahib area was halfway to the summit.

so we just savoured the moments and helped ourselves by taking pictures of the grand view.

and still a grueling, non-stop ascend, i could hear everyone heaving, i can clearly hear my heartbeat. and then steepest of the steepest happened, ropes appeared and until at around 11:20 am..

yay finally! seeing the spectacular view from above! blue waters made me sooo giddy to go back down and run to the beach.

best friends at the summit! hi nikko boy :))

yay for the 2nd summit photo!

so our group got reunited at the summit and we took our sweet time getting to know each other and nagpaplastikan char haha we were ahead of the IT by almost 2 hours i guess so some of us took naps and just watched the splendor of the view. for lunch, we had a shared meal of adobo and rice, thanks a lot jen for preparing food! :)

at 1:30pm, jonel has informed everyone of our descent so i deliberately prayed for my life again. as what they say, what goes up must come down so i’ll be meeting again those slopey steep-ey ascents as bitchy sliding descents. whew

simula pa lang, parang gusto ko na lang tumira sa summit. che.

and then down down down, i kept on swinging on the trees like a monkey just to keep myself from sliding down and smushing my face on the ground. and when we reached the talahib interlude again where all the gruesome steeps end, yel and i went for a stroll in the park chika pace and made our exit from the beautiful Mt. Hugom with final bloopers lol

and while everyone was struggling, someone was already done with it and decided to do something worthwhile.

yehess phone niya eh ano hahaha but thank you for waiting for us though feeling namin bored ka lang sa jump off kasi wala kang kasama! haha

and one by one, our matey’s have reached the jump off but there was a liiittle problem towards the end. our sweeper and EL decided to leave the last climbers due to their request. but contrary to our beliefs, no one gets left behind. i know everyone’s excited to hit the beach but of course, we should ensure everyone’s safety and condition so loren and i decided to stay and wait for ms. linda even if it’s against their request lol and so we arrived at the beach camp at around 6:30pm, a little short from the original IT.

we hurriedly prepped our dinner and thankfully our tent has been pitched already. u da best fafa bry <3 we had a few problems with the stove, it seemed to have a leak but thankfully max and sam were nice enough to lend their extra stove. we had dinner at around 8pm; sinigang and rice as the menu and the buko pie and espasol desert was already done with at the jump off. (may langgam na kumain sobrang laki, pangalan jai.)

fafa bry and nikko decided to not stay on camp since they live nearby so they left at night so i was expecting some lie low socials kasi si kuya bry talaga ang promotor ng lahat ng kakulitan pag ganon hehe

tho of course, yel is unstoppable. he called out our group and had our own socials lol we have no ground sheet so we spread over an unused tent and hammock on the sand. aww feels good! though there was no milky way galaxy scenery at the middle of the night </3 and we were not complete since jaime decided to go back to manila when he ended earlier than the expected eta.

after a few moments, everyone huddled around our group and that’s where our group’s socials became the entire camp’s socials lol though it was sad that only a few participated (guess everyone hit the sack way too early) there’s only few alcohol available but since not many people were drinking, the ones who were left suffered lol (oo na tinamaan ako nakanang paka-demonyo kasi magtagay ni raymond haha efficient but deadly)

so raymond, jai and i ended up sleeping on the sand with the view of the stars (though nung patulog na ako, there were no stars around anymore :(

 

up up at 6am, well actually no one wanted to wake up at 6am with me!! i don’t really know why i woke up that easily pero alam ko pagod na ako haha prepped up the area for breakfast and reg finally got up and helped with the preparations and we had macaroni soup for breakfast. ang init ng panahon pero sopas, sarap! :p

we had a quick game after breakfast, pokemon hunting and i was so hesitant to give away the prizes since those stuffies are so adorable! good idea jonel and congratulations to the winners! (arbor ko dapat yung pikachu nung isa dyan eh -.-)

we had our free time at the beach after that and we enjoyed the rock formations at the side of the beach. lakas makaemotera :))

there were lots of tiny fishies and shells on the water and on the rocks and the water was soooo clear hihi

and the pictorial for cover photo and profile picture started.

we were too lazy to swim and change kahit ang sarap maligo dun sa beach (naubusan pa ng water sa resort huhu) so we stayed over at a nearby store and gulped down some cold drinks and jelly juice to quench the heat. haha

at around 11:30am we prepped lunch and cooked everything we see on the table lol definitely a feast; we had our left over sinigang, spam fries, salted eggs, fried marinated liempo (supposed to be grilled pero nagkatamaran na) and we fried our rice and added eggs wee!

at around 1:30am we started clearing out stuff, and washed the dishes (nag igib kami ng tubig sa dagat just to wash lels) dismantling tents and were ready to leave awww minutes after 2pm we finalized some problems with payments and sweeped the area and then that ends our fun climb for the weekend. we all left the resort at 2:45pm and were on to our separate paths.

so some side chika:

Mt. Hugom is really a good mountain that offers great views pero definitely a challenge for the beginners. define non-stop ascends. no water source but is quite covered.

ang saya sa beach huhu cold waters but the sand is quite shallow? i don’t know, it’s not pure sand all the way down. beach is quite rocky

though it’s good since it’s all filled with tiny animals like huge hermit crabs and such.

it was sad too that they forgot to refill the tank, we ran out of water. sobrang init din nung araw na yun.

reg and i also got locked out in the restroom lol good thing we decided na sabay kami maliligo para mabilis and kasama namin si jen sa other cubicle so when we couldn’t open it from inside, fortunately it worked when jen opened it from outside.

beaches and climbs are a perfect getaway to destress on a weekend. may hangover nga lang the next day hahaha

 

thank you so much batchmates! congratulations on our first organized activity! putangina wala tayong pichur mga bwiset hahaha can’t wait for our next climb together!

as usual thank you, utrek! titas and mars, ang saya niyo lagi kasama! mga tanders sir jerick HAHAHA raymond magbago ka na please haha chos and to all the members yay!

to the invites, sorry it was a challenge but we’re so proud and amazed that you have achieved it gracefully, your (probably first?) mountain was a success! to more mountains!

to my invites, jai and reg, thank youuu! finally nakasama ko na kayo sa climb haha sobrang saya pero ang pa-hard to get niyo pa leche haha sana nagenjoy kayo sa fun climb, hoping next time, sasama na lang kayo at hindi na kayo magpapapilit pag nagpaclimb ulit lels yay for memories and as always, u two da best :* (credits to jai for all the pictures haha the best kang photographer beh char patutorials ka naman para may hustisya shots mo haha)

and hopefully this encourages everyone to try out this fresh, not so famous mountain, near manila. the small but terrible, mt. hugom!

til next challenge! :)