Mt. Napulak Climb
Feb 5-6, 2011 – After a few months of mountain abstinence, this is the 1st opportunity I got from a quick vacation back home. This is my first-time climbing a mountain from my hometown, “OK, I accept, dayuhan sa sariling bayan ako.” Hehe! Located at the town of Igbarras in Iloilo City; Mt. Napulak stands at 1,200 MASL, and with a crowning rock face on top, which from afar resembles a breast, it is fondly called the “Nipple Mountain”. Sounds girly eh? Together with my Petix MC buddies, we arrived at Igbarras around noon. Our guide Tay Murot, gave us 2 options; the longer slow ride Brgy. Bagay trail and the short but “sweet” Tigbanaba trail. Pressed for time, we decided to take the shorter but steeper Tigbanaba trail– and yes it is! There is nothing girly about this trail, because, MAN it was steep!! Memories of Mt. Sumagaya came flooding back. Trudging through this trail is very exhausting, as 85% of the trail is all uphill and uphill, now this is climbing! Initially we passed by an exposed part of the trail, with very little cover from the scorching 1 PM sun. The views where beautifully overwhelming, and as soon as I took a few shots from my trusty Casio Z110, I noticed that it is F*#KED! The images were blurry, maybe from the months of idle time, anyway nothing much I can do about it. My 1st time climbing without an eye. Back on the trail, the ground is loose, as it’s obvious that it hasn’t been drenched for days. 2.5 hours unto the climb and whala!! Rain started to pelt us, unfortunately the water source was all murky up by the rain. So we had to get water Bear Grylls style. After about an hour climb from the rain-shelter rock, we finally got to see the beauty of the surrounding ranges. Darn, I forgot ask the names, but It was BEAUTIFUL!!! Mt. Taripis and Mt. Opao or Upao or Upaw is starring right across us. The ridges cutting across the ranges, it almost looks like a knife edge, I wonder if it is. Fast forward, and a total of 6 hours on trail, we finally hit the summit campsite, camped for the night, food and drinks then dozed off. I guess everyone was a bit tired to get stoopid that night. Hehe!! Morning came – then it is clear to me that my tent was a little bit closer to the cliff’s edge as I would like. My tent is about 6 meters away from 100 feet drop of a cliff. Anyway.. after a quick breakfast of corned beef and sisig mixture. We went for a little rock scrambling on top to the “Nipple”, and oh yeah! We were treated with a 360 degree view of the mountain ranges, the Igbarras valley, and some areas of Antique, and a river snaking through, it was breath taking!! Photo-ops and low batteries ensued. After breaking camp, we traversed through the Bagay trail. The altitude loss is quite fast so it took us about four hours to each the trail-end. On trail we passed by the Rafflesia arnoldii, and a few water source, while walking through the water irrigation system. Unfortunately we had to rush back to the city to catch their flights, nevertheless we had an awesome trekking experience to Igbarras’ famed Nipple Mountain!! Thanks to bert and jai2x ,bart, bossing, darlene, eduard, elbert, JM, MJ, andoy, john, sa sunod napud! Mag Madjaas ta! Hehe! All photos are grabbed! hehe! Enjoytheveiw. Ü