Conquering Mt. Pinatubo -1

A 2-day trek through lahar country, and a swim in a crater lake

It was almost 10 years ago when Mount Pinatubo erupted. Its wrath destroyed

livelihoods, towns and lives. By now, towns have already been re-built, lahar

hardened and the crater calmed down. Calm enough for humans to jump in it

and swim.

That’s exactly what I did about a year ago when my adventurous spirit was awakened

by an interview with a man driven by his passion for the Aeta community, the original

inhabitants of Mount Pinatubo. I don’t share the same sentiments, but I was willing to

break my bones to reach its crater.

Pre-Pinatubo preparations

By the time I nailed some dates for the trek, there were about 10 others who wanted

to join me. I gathered the group for a preclimb meeting. Plans included the things we

were to bring, tentative itinerary, what clothes to wear and bring, meeting time, food

and transportation. At our second pre-climb meeting, our number grew to sixteen plus

the guides totaling to 22. More and more people got interested and adventurous.

Plans and guidelines were finalized. The itinerary: Manila — Pampanga — Tarlac —

edge of Mt. Pinatubo - crater of Mt. Pinatubo - and back.

First Day of Trek

The ungodly time of 1:00 a.m. was our call time. By 3:30 a.m., more people arrived

than we expected. The group grew larger to 22 people, excluding guides. Each person

packed four liters of water, pain relievers, and canned goods. Transportation included

a 4x4 truck and an open-bed 8-wheeler truck for 30 people.

At 5:00 a.m., we were already at Dau, Pampanga to meet our guide, Guy Hilbero and

his troop of eight porters, three of which are Aetas.

From Pampanga, we left for Tarlac. As we entered

lahar land, houses and roads began to disappear. An

hour later, the road finally came to an end. This

marked the beginning of our trek.

After putting on our backpacks and settled parking

arrangements, we were set to go. We had no clear

sight of Mt. Pinatubo, yet. We started walking on an

long, empty stretch of land with a path that leads to

ashfall-filled mountain ranges. There was no turning

back.

The first water break was at 9 a.m. As we were

having a snack and looking at our surroundings, I

noticed that lahar mountains looked like huge

dwellings of termites. We came across Aeta families

on carabao-driven carriages. They greeted us with

knowing stares. Unlike them, we did not know what

lay ahead of us. Later on, we walked at our own pace

and started to disperse into smaller groups.

After four hours of trekking, we hardly talked to each

other. We began to feel the heat of the sun and the

weight of our backpacks. Our hiking boots were

getting heavier as we walked over a stream bed

coming from the crater. The land formations became more complicated and there were

trails that required us to rappel. At that point, Guy thought it best to have a break

because some of our members were already too far behind us. While we waited, I was

able to fit in lunch, rest my legs and take a short nap.

When the others arrived, we continued walking. Gradually, the stretches of lahar

shortened and there were more signs of life — greener mountains and small insects.

Our trail became more difficult with rocky pathways. By early afternoon, the long

hours of walking caused my right leg to cramp, showing how physically unprepared I

was for this trip. Our water breaks also became more frequent.

Finally, we got a view of the crater by 3:30 pm. We were stood on the crater edge

and had a full view of the lake. I was barely walking, but the view made me forget my

limp. The view from the crater was breathtaking. The lake was turquoise-colored,

surrounded by the ice-cap-looking mountain ranges.

Guy said that prior to the eruption, the

mountaintop was solid and filled with trees. The

eruption took the top part off and time

eventually turned it into a beautiful crater lake.

Some parts of the lake were spewing gaseous

emissions caused by the combination of dissolved

oxygen in the water and the sulfur from the

volcanic debris. The mountain range was actually

capped with ashfall and hardened volcanic

debris. Mountain walls had stripes of sulfur. The

sky appeared low over the rim as if I could

actually touch it. Not even a postcard could

capture the beauty I was seeing. It was

unbelievably ironic how something as beautiful as

this caused so many livelihoods to cease, homes to crumble and lives to perish.

It took us another 30 minutes to scramble down the cliff to the beach. The beach

was filled with boulders and sand as fine as Boracay’s. The air breeze was cool, a

perfect weather for a nap especially after eight exhausting hours. Another hour and it

was freezing cold. When my friends woke me for dinner, everybody was all bundled up

and geared with gloves, bonnets and jackets.

Dinner consisted of usual camping food: instant noodles, rice, corned beef, vienna

sausage and pineapple tidbits. We celebrated our victorious journey to Mt. Pinatubo

by drinking down champagne and wine. The sky was so clear and the lake so calm, it

reflected the heavenly bodies from above.

Overfatigue, despite the nap earlier, caught up with me and I was asleep again by 8

p.m. The rest of the group was sleeping inside their own tents. Some without tents

had to do with sleeping bags and struggled the cold front. In no time at all the night

wind and sky ushered us to dreamland.