Since my childhood years, I have always seen Mt. Apo in an unreachable distance. Living at the foothills of Mt. Kalatungan, while working in our farm, I would be thankful to clear mornings unleashing the majesty of the country's highest summit entouraged by Mt. Matutum (South Cotabato) and Mt. Pianggayungan (Lanao del Sur). Back then, never in my dreams would I summit any of them. It never came to my mind.
All of the sudden, I became a mountaineer. I just love mountains!
Mt. Apo, the father of Philippine mountains, now reopens. The Philippines' highest mountain was closed early 2016 due to fire incident that damaged about 400 hectares forests. The fire allegedly started at the camp of irresponsible climbers. The 2015-2016 El Niño phenomenon caused drying up of grasses and other mountain vegetation which also resulted to damaging fire incidents in some other mountains like Mt. Kitanglad, Mt. Kalatungan and more.
