Bud Bongao, Tawi-Tawi's Overwatch and Sacred Peak

Tawi-Tawi is composed of 107 highlands and is known for its numerous sandbars that are spread along the shallow waters of the northernmost extremities of Celebes Sea. A mountain, in solitude, towers at 342 meters above sea level amidst the flat island of Bongao. It is a masterpiece of nature as it shows its prowess with vertical limestone rocks and lush forests. Bud Bongao stands as the sacred mountain of the land.

Mount Madjaas Mapping Expedition

Rivaled as by Nangtud as the tallest mountain of Panay Island in the Visayas, situated at Culasi, Antique, Mount Madjaas is one of the difficult climbs in the country yet provides one of the best views at its summit. Probably with its romantic scenery, this mapping expedition turned to a romantic twist which will forever be a memory to behold and to re-live.

Dwarf Cloud Rat of Mount Pulag

First discovered at the end of the 19th century, the Dwarf Cloud Rat only exists in the mountains of the Cordilleras exceeding 2,300 meters above sea level. Believed to be already extinct by the 20th century, hopes have been renewed as researchers have re-discovered the species last 2008.

Mt. Pulag - Sleeping among the clouds. Ambangeg Mapping Expedition

December 27-30, 2014
As a child, we seldom get the dream of sleeping on a puff of cloud among the moon and the stars at night. As we attain that dream and make it to reality, we scale and map the highest peak of the island of Luzon and the Philippines' third highest peak. Towering over the other mountains of the country's largest island and overseeing its whole landmass. Mt. Pulag makes all of this childhood dream come true. Standing over at 2,926 meters above sea level, the view is breathtaking and the memory shall remain as long as we live.

Mount Batulao, a Gateway to a Mountaineer's Heart

August 25, 2014

Mount Batulao has remained to be one of my favorite climbs and has never failed me a single time on freezing in awe with the scenery it offers from jump-off to summit. A mountain that is a hundred percent laden with grass which captivates every climber who walks along its path and traverses each of its peaks and camps.

Mount Pico De Loro: A Third Time and the Monolith Attempt

December 15, 2013
Every climb is a different experience. And that happens no matter how many times you climb the same mountain. It was the third time we climbed Mount Pico De Loro and the second time for this year. We have done it this time with friends who are first-time climbers. Though this is not the first, this makes it the first time for myself to become a mountain guide and the first time to scale the Parrot's Beak or also known as the monolith.

Chased by a Lightning - Conquering Mount Marami

August 17-18, 2013

Mount Marami is located at Maragondon, Cavite to which the jump-off starts at Magallanes, a neighboring town of the same province. Marami is actually a cliff-area of Mount Mataas na Gulod to which its elevation is 510 633 MASL as compared to its real summit at around 622 642 MASL. The feature of the hike would be crossing 2 major rivers and mountains before you can reach the summit. This is an account of Schadow1's solo attempt of scaling Marami and its mapping expedition as typhoon Maring (intl. Trami) looms.

Windows Photo Viewer Icon and the Philippines

Are you using Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system on your computers? More likely you have used the default photo viewer of these operating systems, which is the Microsoft Photo Viewer. I was working on an 8-year-old DVD archive of my photo shoots last night and my DVD-ROM could hardly read the DVD and so the images' thumbnails were not yet loaded as I look at them at the windows file explorer. And so the default Photo Viewer icon is shown.  The program's icon kept me thinking. I think I saw this before. Have you?

No To Stairs To Apo

Kidapawan - Kapatagan Trail
(Apo Traverse)

Mt. Apo is a national treasure. Having tagged as the highest peak in the Philippines, towering at 2,954 MASL, this mountain is not only a symbol for the people of Davao and Cotabato but of the whole country and its countrymen.
Recently there is a plan to construct a 16,620-step stairway to its summit and here is Schadow1 Expeditions' official stand on this move.

Mt. Vulcan Trail 580 MASL

February 27, 2013

Mt. Vulcan

Mt. Vulcan is a volcano that erupted furiously during the 19th century and has dramatically changed the land feature of western Camiguin Island. Before the eruption, the area was one of the thriving settlement during its Spanish colonization not until it was completely buried and is a part of the Bonbon town of Camiguin presently.  Schadow1 Expeditions went out for about an hour trek to map the path of this 580 MASL inactive volcano.

Conquering Hibok-Hibok Volcano 1337 MASL

February 28, 2013

Camiguin is known as the island born of fire as it is an island formed due to volcanic eruptions of its 7 volcanoes. The latest activity of which is from Mt. Hibok-Hibok that erupted 1951 that shaped one of its local attraction, the Sunken Cemetery. Schadow1 Expeditions climbed this volcano to map the Yumbing trail and extend it for a traverse trail to Ardent Hotsprings. A total of 14.7-kilometer traverse hike. The following is the account of climbing this 1337 MASL volcano... the H2 Traverse.

Conquering Mt. Cristobal 1470+ MASL

February 16-17, 2013

Mt. Cristobal is one of the towering mountains of Quezon, bordered by two provinces namely Laguna and Quezon. It is a dormant volcano and is known to be one of the challenging climbs in the Philippines due its forested trails, continuous 9-kilometer assault varying from 60 to 90 degrees inclination. And this climb happened to be the first major climb of Schadow1 Expeditions for its mapping advocacy.

Conquering Mt. Talamitam 630+MASL

December 26, 2012

Our climb to Talamitam is actually a side trip and is unexpected. Talamitam is just about 12 kilometers away from Batulao as we were actually at Mt. Batulao in Nasugbu, Batangas for the second time and the main purpose was to give away donations to the youth of Mt. Batulao. As it happened, then December 26 became a twin day-hike climbing both Batulao and Talamitam.

Conquering Pico De Loro 664+MASL

August 19-20, 2012

Pico De Loro

Another long weekend. It was 24 years ago since I last climbed a mountain. I was 8 years old back then. Having this scar on my lower left leg reminds me of my first ever climb in Mt. Banahaw and since then, my instinct has been telling me to get back to who really I am... to unite with nature and feel the grandeur of setting foot to elevations not meant for a regular man to take foot often and enjoy the peace and fresh air at this altitude. It is the right time to re-unite with the mountains and conquer Mt. Pico De Loro.

Conquering the Malepunyo Mountain Range (1002+MASL)

Malepunyo Mountain Range Climb (1002+MASL)

November 30 - December 2, 2012

The Malepenyo Mountain Range is comprised of two major mountains: The tallest in Batangas, Mt. Malipunyo, standing at a massive 1002MASL which is situated at Lipa city, Batangas and Mt. Manabu (755MASL) at Sto. Tomas, Batangas. Upon knowing that a traverse trail between the two mountains is possible however, seldom trekked. I decided to put an end to this anxiety and decided forward to trace this path.

Mt. Maculot Rockies 705MASL

Mt. Maculot "Rockies" Climb at 705MASL

November 17-18, 2012

 It was Saturday dawn, and I was intrigued by this mountain called Maculot as they say it is one of the fun climbs in Batangas. And it was a regular weekend so I ought to try it just for the heck of it. So we went up to Tagaytay and prepared things over at our usual stay over place at McDonalds Taal Vista. We planned and plotted our trek.

Coron Island Hopping Day 1

Calamian Group of Islands Beach Bumming (Coron) July, 25-28, 2012

Day 1 - Coron

Calamianes Group of Islands

It is Wednesday and a low pressure area is brewing near Davao. We are hoping hard that we still have an ample window to be able to enjoy our Coron Trip as we are trying hard to get hold of Cebu Pacific's P488 fare to and from coron. It is still hot and sunny in Manila and the tropical disturbance is still in the southern tip of General Santos City in Mindanao. All indications are still favorable.

Conquering Mt. Batulao at 811+MASL

November 3, 2012 - Conquering 12 peaks of Mt. Batulao

Coming from a 2-night stay at the cemetery for my departed mom last November 1-2, my wife and I decided to go and climb Mt. Batulao and check out the view from this 811+ MASL summit and grandeur the view around. Being a new climber who haven't tried a night climb ever,  we decided to head to Tagaytay and hang out at Starbucks Summit Ridge for a while and plan ahead our climb with Garmin Basecamp. After checking out the trails and virtualizing the degree of inclination of our climb, we decided that we will go ahead for a Batulao climb. It was already 12AM of November 3 so we decided to sleep for a while in our vehicle while parked at McDonalds - Taal Vista (our favorite temporary sleep-over/stop-over place at Tagaytay).