Ultralight Backpacking and Minimalism

We’ve been hearing a lot of fuss about ultralight backpacking lately. And I am a bit annoyed when the weight of each item in your pack is detailed to the last 0.001 gram. But that’s just me.

However, I just want to point out that I am concerned that the focus of the naive audience may be confined in the issue of weight alone. It’s not totally bad. I go for minimum weight myself. But minimal weight is not really an end in itself. In my case, it is just a by-product of an ultimate goal. And my ultimate goal is MINIMALISM. Minimalism should not be confused with ultralight backpacking. Minimalism is the pursuit of achieving something with minimum or zero aid. The ultimate goal really is to rely on your body alone. It wouldn’t be minimalism to carry a proud 5-kg load that includes an ultralight sleeping pad, an ultralight camping chair, and an ultralight power bank.

Some say I was irresponsible trekking for ninety days on my own without safety equipment such as a rope, a first-aid kit, or even a compass. But I was just being me. And [ME]= [my body, wits and spirit] not my compass and other gear. 

This recent fuss about ultralight backpacking seems to be shifting the goal to how smart you could get at improvising stuff or how rich you are by being able to buy expensive ultralight gear. I'm sure this is not the intention of the proponents of ultralight backpacking but the admonition to be FIT and EXPERIENCED has been accidentally relegated.

Again, it’s not wrong to pursue minimal weight on the load you carry. I just suggest that on top of your mission to keep the weight of your load to the minimum, it would be great to keep training—to keep honing your skills—to reach the maximum potential of your body—so that ultimately, you won’t have to rely on a lot of gear, so that in the end you can rightfully say ‘I did it!’ and not ‘My ultralight gear did it!’

Yuji Hirayama, a three-time record holder for the fastest ascent on El Capitan's The Nose, echoes two of my main guiding principles in trekking:

1. Rely on your body more than your gear.
2. Travel only with thy betters or thy equals. If there are none, travel alone.

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MOUNTAINEERING, HIKING and TREKKING

Many of us have been wondering what the difference is among the terms HIKING, MOUNTAINEERING and TREKKING. I was in the dark for quite a while. I simplistically thought that because the name of the destination has the word 'Mount / Mt' in it, then it is already mountaineering. I later realized that many of the journeys we consider as 'mountaineering' in the Philippines are hikes. Many alpinists might probably not consider any journey in the Philippines as 'mountaineering'.

Many have wanted to establish the delineation among these terms but decided not to put it in writing either for fear of criticism or because of the confusing nature of some journeys that could be considered both mountaineering and hiking; or trekking and mountaineering; or all three of them.

The eagerness to criticize a certain set of standards or definitions usually springs from ego. Many Filipino outdoor enthusiasts have come to regard mountaineering as a superior activity to hiking and trekking (even before knowing the meaning of the terms). So when someone tells us that our 'Mt Maculot climb is a hike and not mountaineering', we often volunteer to hear 'It's JUST a hike' and we feel less 'astig'.  The truth is, they are apples and oranges. Would you think basketball is superior to baseball?

With that note, I hope the readers keep both a critical and an open mind, when reading my own definitions of HIKING, MOUNTAINEERING and TREKKING.

All three (HIKING, TREKKING and MOUNTAINEERING) are done outdoors and all three are done as a sport or a recreation. This means that a local, even if he traverses three peaks just to get to his home, is still not trekking or doing mountaineering. He's just going home or he has just bought some soy sauce.

Hiking is a journey amid beautiful scenery.

Trekking is a long* journey amid beautiful scenery.

Mountaineering is a quest for the summit.

*One may ask 'How long is long?'. Well, that would be at least 2 days under normal conditions.

** One might say, 'I struggled at the roped segment in Mt Batulao, is that a quest?' NO. Try Mt Halcon or Mt Baloy, you'll know what I mean by 'quest'. A quest for the summit (in the Philippines) should involve extreme physical struggle. You may be journeying for days in rugged conditions, with occasional rock scrambling, bush whacking, roped ascent/descent, river crossings, rattan spikes, and no guarantee for beautiful scenery or abundant water. The summit itself doesn't have to be picturesque. What's to be photographed at the summit of Mt Baloy or Alto Peak? All you have in mind is to get to the summit.

In both trekking and hiking, the goal is beautiful scenery. In mountaineering, the goal is the summit. With this difference, we can easily remove those journeys that don't involve the quest for the summit from the 'mountaineering' list.

Be warned, however, that not all journeys that involve summits are mountaineering. Treks and hikes can include summits as long as there is beautiful scenery in the journey.

In like manner, a mountaineering activity can also include beautiful scenery but it is not the goal, it is just a bonus.

Immersion is typically involved in a trek

While hiking and trekking seem similar, they differ in some elements other than the distance and the physical demand of the activity (which are vague parameters). One of these elements is that trekking typically involves immersion in remote communities and learning about their culture and practices. Another factor is that if the journey can be done comfortably within a day, it is not a trek, it is a hike. But a hike can also be a two-day journey. It just doesn't have to involve immersion.

With this simplistic set of definitions and differentiation, we can now classify many popular journeys accordingly. But, of course, there are still gray areas.

The list will always be subjective. You can make the list longer.

HIKES

Pulag (Amba-Amba)

Ulap

Osmena Peak

Mt Batulao
Mt Maculot
Pico de Loro
Mt Romelo 

Basically all climbable hills in the Calabarzon and Bulacan area except, Banahaw, Makiling and Cristobal

TREKS

Batad-Pula-Cambulo-Banaue

Kibungan Cross-country
Amburayan to Camp Utopia

MOUNTAINEERING

Mt Guiting-Guiting

Mt Mantalingajan

Mt Halcon

Mt Apo

Mt Namandiraan

Mt Sicapoo
Mt Baloy
Mt Madja-as
Mt Mt Nangtud

GRAY AREA

Mt Makiling

Mt Mariveles

Mt Tapulao

Mt Cristobal

Mt Ugo

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A Weekend with Asao Shimura

his first time to guide someone in the rain

After a two-hour ride from La Trinidad I finally arrive in Sitio Poking. It is a little hamlet of around a hundred houses that seem to be racing upwards on the slopes of a ridge that overlooks the sprawling undulating terrain of rice paddies liberally sprinkled with bamboo groves and clusters of subtropical trees. In one of these houses lives the family of Asao Shimura, a paper artist from Japan who decided to trade the convenience and exuberance of Tokyo with the humdrum and isolation of Kapangan.

Tracing Iraynon-Bukidnon Trails (TIBT) Race Report

Rewind 2008, Kevin Jauod was just an avid reader of my blog lagataw.com. I met him when he joined me in a trek on Mt Arayat. Then during the Salomon X-trail 2011, I introduced him to my friend Koi Grey who organized him and his friends into Team Mountain Stride!

March, 2017, two months before the event day, the race director Kevin Jauod summoned all his courage to launch the first mountain race in Antique—Tracing Iraynon-Bukidnon Trails (TIBT). It was too late, in my opinion. I was thinking ‘lalangawin lang ang event mo Tito Kev!’ It was obviously a tremendous resolve for the race director.

I had my share of tough decisions to make. I was pondering whether to quit my job and relocate to Visayas again or stay and see my projects in Benguet prosper. Monday (May 22^nd) I booked my ticket to Caticlan and an exit ticket to Cebu. I had finally decided to leave Benguet which had become my second hometown.

May 26^th Koi and Kevin picked me up at the terminal in San Jose, Antique. It was a reunion of sorts. Y’see our unorthodox ways of living make it difficult for us to be in one place at the same time. And now we were all going to be part of the first ever mountain race in the whole province of Antique, home to three of the toughest mountains in the country—Kevin had requested that I take charge of the race briefing. In the evening when we got to the race venue, I was surprised by the preparation that the local community had done. The stage was elaborately designed; the local dancers were doing their final rehearsals; the program included a list of names of notable government officials and organizations. What I had previously considered as another ordinary low-profile race was going to be a big event in the province of Antique. I was utterly impressed by the effort and involvement of the local officials particularly the Punong Barangay of Barrio Maria in Laua-an, Mr Dongdong Alonsagay. He treated TIBT as his own. He put a lot of heart into it. And this dedication was evidently contagious among his constituents.

May 27^th (Day 0) 0400 hours, I reconnoitered the whole 21-km route covering the towns of Laua-an and Bugasong together with the very dedicated course setter Jonathan Sulit and another volunteer. Jonathan remained at Aid Station 2 to conduct a final meeting with the marshals and local volunteers. I returned to the start line 2 hours before the race briefing—all panicky and pissed. Taking the perspective of a novice, I decided that the course was too tough. I strongly recommended the omission of the vertical ascent section but Koi opposed it pointing out the traffic that would result from an out-and-back route. Tito Val, who had been in Antique for two months to support Tito Kevin in his first big project, quickly took the role of an umpire saying ‘Madali lang yan Tito Adonis! Tatabasin namin mamaya yang mga talahib na yan at tatadtarin namin ng trail markings yung sinasabi mong nakakaligaw na part!’ The pabebe perspective had made me forget that I was with the Titos, who are made of heart, passion and grit. My mind and body cooled down after a quick shower. We had decided to keep the original course.  It was time for my very first race briefing.    

May 28^th (Race Day) 0400 hours. It was my 36^th sleepless hour (probably 48^th for Kevin and his girlfriend Kara). The 21km runners left the start line at 0430hrs, the 11km runners at 0500hrs. While Kara and Kevin felt a bit relieved when all the runners had left the start line, this day proved to be very stressful for me and Tito Ed who were left at the registration table. I could see the very tired Kap Dodong carelessly sprawling on the couch in the barangay hall. Hans, the very energetic master of ceremonies during the pre-race activities went off to document the event on the field. Tito Val and Tito Jonathan were on the aid stations with most of the volunteer marshals from the Organization of Simsiman Mountaineers most of whom came from Iloilo. Tito Reyn and Tito Koi were running the 21km distance. Tito Ed and I had no choice but to take charge of the finish line activities. Tito Ed took care of the timing system which Tito Reyn (of Grit Multisport) prepared while I was on the radio with the MDRRMC of Laua-an monitoring the runners for the two distances.  Tito Ed and I both handle people in our respective professions so we were not very open to each other’s opinion and suggestions. It was not very easy for the two of us to collaborate in an emergency assignment. But we found a way to pull it off in the name of the achievement and success another tito.

As one runner crossed the finish line after another, I was overwhelmed by the positive remarks I would get from them. I was expecting they’d comment about the heat and the toughness of the course but all I got were ‘nami’ and ‘namit’. It turned, out none of the fifty-six runners were pabebe. Except for three racers who decided to opt out of the race due to physical discomfort, all of them crossed the finish line within the set cut-off time.  And much to our satisfaction, no one strayed off course. The podium finishers were shockers. A 54- year-old local farmer crossed the finish line in his boxer shorts just 4 minutes behind the champion of the 11km category (who was the champion of the Salomon X-trail 32km race in 2016). The champion of the 21-km category crossed the finish line ahead of the 3^rd finisher for the 11km category! He was also the champion of the Salomon Xtrail 24km distance. Koi settled for 3^rd in the 21km distance. Among the six female podium finishers, four were first timers on the trail. Two of them (from the Boracay dragonboat rowing team) were just persuaded to register on site. I cannot not mention one notable runner who refused to receive the finisher’s medal. He maintained that he was able to finish a tough vertical race this year but the 11km course of the TIBT proved tougher for him. He resolved to come back for the second edition and rightfully earn the medal. When the last runner crossed the finish line Kevin, Kara and I gave each other a tight hug, signaling that it was the end of all the stress!

Looking back, TIBT was an overwhelming success in spite of it being a perfect candidate for a disaster. Kevin isn’t your ideal race director. He hates the microphone and he sucks at organizing. However, apart from his efforts to knock on doors of the many benevolent sponsors on very short notice,  Kevin exceled at surrounding himself with the most dynamic and proactive of people. Whatever incompetence he has at organization is buffered by Kara’s OCD. While there was so much lack of preparation, Kap Dongdong and Hans came to the rescue.  And thanks to the exemplary efforts of the MDRRMC (Laua-an) and the different mountaineering groups that comprise the Organization of Simsiman Mountaineers, and the unwavering support of the Titos, the runners were kept safe and all went home with a painfully sweet experience and a strong resolve to come back for another TIBT!

The overall satisfaction of the guests and participants was enough to compensate for the sacrifices, the exhaustion and the financial loss that the local officials and the rest of the organizers and volunteers had made.

The success of the TIBT can serve as an inspiration to everyone that despite all the odds, you can still succeed if you just put your heart, passion and grit to whatever you want to achieve!

We all deserved to celebrate the success of the event on the remote and very beautiful Seco Island.

Life's a Decision

exactly 2 years ago

Exactly two years ago, I started my ultimate journey. I had just finished working at a construction site in La Trinidad and I had just secured a letter of introduction from the office of the governor. And here's what I had to write on my journal*.

I leave La Trinidad for Tublay today. I feel apprehensive and hesitant. Perhaps because LT has become my comfort zone. I feel secure, comfortable, and certain here. But perhaps I'm just feeling the way everybody else would. Only, I'm more open to changes. I don't resist change as much as ordinary people do. This is nothing new to me. I've felt this when I decided to quit my job in 2011 to try farming in my hometown (but my boss called me up again after a few weeks and gave me an irresistible offer so...). It was repeated when I quit the same job in 2014 to try the BPO industry; and once again when I left that industry after 3 months to embark on this journey.