{"id":956,"date":"2009-05-14T04:03:14","date_gmt":"2009-05-13T12:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/05\/14\/mt-pinatubo\/"},"modified":"2017-02-11T08:15:58","modified_gmt":"2017-02-11T08:15:58","slug":"mt-pinatubo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2009\/05\/14\/mt-pinatubo","title":{"rendered":"Mt. Pinatubo"},"content":{"rendered":"

We went trekking in Mt. Pinatubo last Monday (May 11th). And we finished it with a bang; we’ve got bragging rights which so far, no one has matched (until they try it themselves).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Click for more pictures<\/div>\n\n\n

Details and Experience<\/h1>\n

For those who are familiar with the paths, there are two ways once you reach the jump off point: the “Old Way”<\/em> and the “Skyway”.<\/em> Actually now that I mention it, everything apparently changes over time; the details of the trek\/ride in this [my] post greatly differ from another traveler’s<\/a> experience.<\/p>\n

From what I know (and what the guide had told us) the government has a contract with the military to literally carve a new Skyway route whenever the rain messes with the terrain. So the “Skyway,” as it were, is ever-changing. As of our visit, the Skyway’s length according to Vic’s GPS, was about 25km – which makes it much longer<\/em> than the previous blogger’s claim at the time he and his companions used it. What was once a 20-40 minute walk\/trek,<\/strong> was now a 20 minute 4×4 ride from the jump-off point – which was not designed to be traversed on foot.<\/p>\n

The Old Way<\/em> on the other hand, would take a totally different [shorter] path to some point where the “trek” up the mountain would begin<\/a> – a good couple of hours before you reach roughly the same place<\/a> where the Skyway<\/em> 4×4 ride would end.<\/p>\n

Both ways would have an initial 4×4 ride<\/a> to get to from the Spa<\/a> to their respective jump off points.<\/p>\n

So what happened was we got to the top via the Old Way as planned. But when we were done and ready to go back, it started raining<\/a>… we then contemplated of once again, taking the Old Way going back – as the 4x4s couldn’t get to us via the Skyway as it was too slippery for the vehicles.<\/p>\n

Then it started raining even harder<\/em> (complete with thunder) which made the Old Way really dangerous.<\/strong> Fortunately, the time we had to re-evaluate our options was right at the part where we could go up to the Skyway 1 <\/sup><\/a>A path which by the way, made Maarat inclines look like childs play<\/span><\/span>