MT. CRISTOBAL (a.k.a. Devil's Mountain)

May 11 & 12, 2013

DEVIL'S MOUNTAIN

 

(Our traditional summit circle cult pose)

Why do they call it the Devil's mountain? They say that the mountain is enchanted. Some people advised to take extra pre-caution when trekking here. There were events that happened which cannot be explained. I don't believe in ghosts and supernatural beings since I've never seen one. When we came here, it was perfect. Everything just fall into place. I didn't encountered anything supernatural same goes with my colleagues.

If you want to try Mt. Cristobal I have a short itinerary that you can use. You can just ride a Lucena Lines Bus going to San Pablo, Laguna. Buses were arriving every 30 minutes. The terminal is located near Ali Mall, Cubao. It is more visible if you will be dropping by at Savemore. Our bus left Cubao around 9:00 am and our ETA to San Pablo, Laguna was 11:30 am. Afterwards, we had our lunch and bought plenty of water source. We rented a jeep going to Dolores. Dolores will be the jump off to Mt. Cristobal.  We started at 3:00pm from jump off and reached the summit at 7:00 pm. There were locals at the jump off that will offer to guide you to reach the summit (of course, not for free).

Check out the pictures we took from the jump off going to the registration site.

Dolores jump off

L-R (Joel, Karen, Macel, Me, Jenny & Andrew)

Going to the registration site

L-R: (Karen, Me & Andrew)

Registration site before our trekking starts

By the way, make sure to bring plenty of water since there will be no source of water at the summit. It was a good climb and the weather was awesome. The air was cold so we didn't sweat a lot. It's really a nice thing when the temperature is not humid. 

You can see our hiking trails going to summit. It's a bit steep so you really need to grasp a lot. I noticed that the tree's roots were huge and it's very reliable to hold unto them especially when I encountered the steep parts of the mountain. 

 

That's Jenny holding the rope while climbing. I have to admit that I had difficulty climbing at this part. But, I managed to pass this spot so kudos for me. It's always an advantage when you're tall.

 

I'm posting another picture of our trail. That's Jenny, Macel, me, Karen,  Xoy and Drew.

 

Hmmm...I look like a lost kid!

This was our trail to summit. 

That's our dinner. Good thing that we bought plenty of rice because we're so hungry.

There were lot of mountaineers camping especially on weekend. We were not able to setup our tent near the summit because we arrived late and there's no spot left. We setup near the crater.

Our fun climb for this month.

I took the liberty of taking a picture of this mushroom. I haven't seen something like this before.

 

Here's our picture at Mt. Cristobal's crater.

L-R: (Karen, Macel & me)

Our summit pictures below:

After our almost endless picture taking, we packed our tents and bags to go to our next itinerary. Our next place was Kinabuhayan river followed by Mabato Spring Resort. I'll be making a separate blog for our Kinabuhayan and Mabato get-away.

By the way, we were able to meet new friends. We met Mark, Jepoy, Kevin and Gamy. We're very thankful that they gave us a ride going to Mabato spring resort. They're really nice. I just hope that we'll be able to climb with them once again. Adios! Until our next climb.

- Liz Lagasca -