Philippines: Mt. Pinatubo Trek

My mate Luis was over visiting for a long weekend late April. It's hard to believe that it was a year ago when he last was here. Time passes so quickly.

Having had a great time last year with whale shark spotting, lots of diving and trekking the rice terraces at Banaue, it was hard to think of something to match the level of interest and excitement.

One of the things we'd planned to do last year was the trek to the Mt. Pinatubo volcano but we just run out of time and so it seemed the logical thing to do this time around. I booked the trip through a local tour agency (Pinaykeypoint) and we were all signed up to go on the Sunday. Having done the exhausting Mt. Kanlaon trek I was expecting the worst but I also knew that Pinatubo was considerably lower at only 1,485m at the peak (Kanlaon is 2,435m) so was hoping that it wasn't going to be quite so demanding. Anyone arriving at Clark/Angeles City or Subic will be disappointed in learning that the volcano isn't actually visible from either of these places as it sits behind other mountains and doesn't dominate the skyline like a Mt. Mayon, Kilimanjaro or Fuji, which is surprising as when it erupted in 1991 it was the second largest recorded eruption of the 20th century.

Here's an interesting video recorded by the Americans at Clark Air Base:

The starting point for the trek was to be Tarlac, or so we thought. Due to it being an early start, we set off the night before to find the meet up place and stay over night. Having driven to Tarlac following some very vague directions, and making a large number of futile queries for directions at the roadside we eventually ended halfway back at Angeles City, which is much nearer to where we set off from.

We ended up staying in a motel that we were told was only a kilometre away but must have been at least 6 km away. At least it was reasonably cheap and clean, although the aircon was a bit asthmatic so it was a bit of a sweaty night.

What also makes the trek easier is the fact that you are actually driven halfway to the volcano along the lahar flow in an old jalopy. We were up early for breakfast and joined the Jeep at 4:30am and headed off.

That plastic bottle under the bonnet is actually the fuel tank.

Apparently, the Americans were conducting war games in the area so access to the route along the lahar was restricted (and delayed) by them as they were using it to do their target practice - and you don't want to be anywhere near the US military when they're firing weapons.

The ride up the lahar was uneventful, if a little bumpy and uncomfortable. It was interesting to see how the lahar went from being spread out far and wide to a slowly narrowing canyon. When you read about the volume of material ejected from the volcano when it erupted it's kind of hard to imagine but when you see the towering cliffs cut through the ash by the river, you begin to get an appreciation.

Jeep Ride

Depth of the Deposited Ash

The hike was easy enough. I was expecting it to be like Mt. Kinabalu or Kanlaon but because it is a relatively low rise mountain getting to the lake is not particularly strenuous.

Once at the lake, which apparently is the 6th deepest in the world (Wikipedia) at 2,600 feet deep we had a swim in it to cool off. Apparently it doesn't support any fish life due to it's high acidity.

Help! I Can't Touch the Bottom.

Other than the swim, there really wasn't too much else to do (except plant a tree for the ecology) but it was an enjoyable day nonetheless and an opportunity to take some photos.