What a climb that was!

It’s been a week since we hiked Pulag, but my head is still in the clouds, and my heart is still in the mountains. First off, I’m unbelievably proud of my sons. Here’s Aralt (age 5) and Caolan (age 7) on the summit of Pulag, the second highest peak in the Philippines, on a bright glorious day (it had been raining miserably the day before, on our way up to camp).

The sunshine was a big and pleasant surprise! The views were awesome. It was Caolan’s third time up, and the previous two times it was raining horribly.

It was quite an accomplishment for Aralt, who can be really quite fragile. Here he is, scratching his hand on some talahib at 9T feet. Buti lang, kasama ang nanay!

But we made it! And here we are clowning around on our way back to camp:

This was a very well planned operation, and I think several factors contributed to Aralt’s success:

- Those boots that were made for walking! (in knee deep water). Dry feet mean no blisters on long hikes, and these waterproof boots (purchased online from Land’s End) did the job magnificently!

- A huge Eureka Kahuna tent. You don’t realize it, but kids as young as Aralt can quickly get claustrophobic in a small tent. When the weather’s damp, miserable, and freezing, you have no choice but to keep the kids indoors. A huge tent gives them room to clown around and play in, keeping spirits up for the summit hike.

- Good fleece jackets, and good sleeping bags! The equipment sold locally isn’t made for Pulag temperatures. You need winter clothes. Let me repeat that - you NEED winter clothes! The thermostat may not read zero degrees Centigrade, but the wind chill is awesome, and it feels more like 15 degrees Farenheit.

One final note:

Those Sealskinz gore-tex socks were major winners! It kept my feet dry for 8 hours on the first day, but it finally gave in after 3 hours of hiking on the 2nd day (they didn’t dry out overnight as the humidity was too high inside the tent; it rained all night)..