Mt. Apo, one step at a time....

The University of the East Mountaineers Team Apo (UEM Team Apo) majority composed of alumni members of UEM and Guests.

The Organizing Team is primarily composed of  Paolo de Jesus taking the helm as Expedition Leader, Kenneth Agsaway the Team Leader/Training Officer and Mark Villacorta as Assistant EL/TL and Team Coordinator with Sasa as Team Scribe but the team is still missing a Team/Group Medic (GMe) for this major major climb.

We have acquired the services of Mr. Ranran as Guide with the help of Sir Joper Balbuena's recommendations that this guys is the best to guide us. There will be another Guide hired for the ratio of a guide versus the hikers are 1:6 and because of the supplies and team equipment needed to feed 17 or so participants we have also acquired the services of 2 porters with a maximum load of 25kilos per man as Mr.Ranran has said earlier during the planning stage.

The 1st ever meeting of the team was at the crowded and noisy Megamall at Sbarro pizza and then there we plotted the future preparations of the team like the itinerary, equipment needed for the team, meal plan and the training and training climbs.

Fast Forward>>>>>

It has been 5 months, 3 Meetings, 1 Pre-Climb, 1 Training Day, 1 TC Dayhike Balagbag, 1 TC Major Tapulao and many KKB jogs/ramps not to mention a quickie on the thread mills LOL.

The team will be arriving in Davao starting Feb.23 Thursday and they will pave the way for the supply acquisition, then Friday night to the last one on the first flight out of Manila on the 25th. By that time all our supplies and Pre-Cooked meal will be handed over to our porters so as to expedite the pacing we are required especially the first day. Overall, the porter will be hauling 15+ kilos of uncooked rice, 8++ kilos of pre-cooked meat, group equipment and 4-6liters of water for camp usage.

The Weather will be the deciding factor of everything. So as the saying goes,

"Mag-alay ng itlog para umaraw" or as the trending last Sunday was is do the Sarah G "Sun Dance"


As the representatives of UEM, UEM Team Apo will make the org and the university proud we started so by taking that one baby step 5 months ago until we scale the grand daddy of all Philippine mountains up to the time the team will be back in Manila.

UEM Team APO's official itinerary for the Apo climb Feb2012:

• • • • • Feb.25 Start of Climb Proper pero some of us will be there as early as Feb.23 and Feb.24 for preparations etc

• • • • • Feb.27 Davao City ng gabi if all goes well and by the 28th yung majority ng team is already arriving in Manila and the rest on the 29th.


We will be updating our status as often as we can.


So Wish us Luck and Pray that everything will be fine or when challenges arises we will be headstrong as a team to conquer it...


May the Force be with Us all!

Team Apo, Team Manila and Team Natib (as of 2.20.12)