Last month, I went on my first climb for 2017. It was on Mt. Batulao, which I already climbed and blogged about last year. Mt. Batulao (811+ masl) was easily one of my favorite mountains because of the breathtaking 360° view surrounding its trails.

During my first time there, I traversed from the new trail to the old one. This time, I did it the other way around. I took the old trail on the ascent and traversed to the new trail on the descent. And to be honest, the old trail is much more challenging, which I liked. The ascents were steeper. There were parts where I had to use my hands to climb or hoist myself up. I especially loved the part where we have to rappel in order to climb. I was looking forward to it, but since there were lots of people climbing that day and there was a long queue on the rope, I decided to do a bit of rock-climbing, sans the safety harness. It thrilled me how dangerous it was and I was so pleased with myself for being able to do it.

Here are more photos during the climb.
the steep ascents going to the summit
 photos on the summit
 new trail going back to the jump off

For the directions on how to get there and for the expenses, just check out the first post here. However, there were a bit of changes in the expenses as there were a couple of registrations points added. So instead of Php60 total, I ended up paying Php100 for the registration fees. I just hope that this is all going to the maintenance of the mountains and the environment surround it, and not in the personal pockets of local government officials.  

Although there were a lot of hikers that day, my second time at Mt. Batulao was definitely more fun than my first. And this won't be my last climb here.
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