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“We warriors of light must be prepared to have patience in difficult times and to know that the Universe is conspiring in our favor, even though we may not understand how… Because once we have overcome the defeats—and we always do—we are filled by a greater sense of euphoria and confidence. In silence of our hearts, we know that we are proving ourselves worthy of the miracle of life. Each day, each hour, is part of the good fight.” -The alchemist, Paulo Coehlo There’s something about the clouds that amazes me. It assembles into a certain shape which can convey the type of weather that would come about that moment, talked about the four types of clouds. It occupies space, floats on air, and goes along with its flow. What does it feel to be standing above it? Maybe that’s what being in cloud nine (nine feet above the clouds) literally mean, in euphoria, feels like floating on air (feeling high ba?!). However, in every goal you want to achieve entails hardwork. The desire to achieve it is not enough. Mental and physical preparedness should coincide to bear the long walks, withstand the coldness, and the unexpected conditions that awaited you. I climbed the second highest mountain in the Philippines with my SMberks last November 25-27, 2011, but I didn’t meet Mr. cloudy that time. I didn’t reach the summit, but the climb pushed me to my limits, built my patience, tested my faith and placed me in front of myself to face some realizations I’m going through in my life. The experience during the journey was worth to treasure rather than the destination. The lucky 13, which consists of me with my SMberks, s’Jim with M’Lot, s’Mel with m’Sam, s’Leo with m’Do, m’Arisse, m’andrea, m’Riz, m’odhie, s’Jovy and s’Mike, met and departed at Victory liner in Pasay around 11:55 p.m. I couldn’t explain my feelings that time, but what I’m sure about was that includes palpitations, which may be due to excitement, fears, or anxiety. I was not worried about the climb, but I was more worried about the cold. “Gaano ba kalamig ang lamig???” Thank God I’m paranoid, because I brought a lot of personal effects to protect me from the unanticipated coldness. It was a 5-6 hour travel going to Baguio. We arrived at the terminal around 6 am and fetched by the rented jeepney. Along our 4-hour jeepney ride was a fair but cold weather. I saw big and tall pine trees as we travel on a zigzag lane beside the mountains which made me nauseated and dizzy. We also had a stopover at ambuklao lake to have some group pictures and jump shots, stopped at Pingkan ni Jo eatery, and then, continued our travel going to the DENR station. While on the road, we saw dark clouds at the peak of the mountain, “Mukhang bumabagyo sa taas.” We reached the DENR station, where we had some seminar about the mountain and LNT. We could already experience an alternating rainshowers, and fair weather at DENR. Then, after the registration, we ate our lunch and continued travelling by jeepney up to the ranger station. However, under a sunny blue sky, we were already travelling through a muddy to dusty, rough roads where we looked like a juggled, bouncing, balls inside the jeepney. In which, we needed to hold the hand rails both hands to go against its flow. There was a time that the jeepney could not pass through an ascent, but thanks to Ate Gina that she already anticipated that it could happen at that moment. There was a second jeepney which waited and helped pulled our jeepney up to the place where it could already proceed. The muddy, rough roads continued about two hours until The rain and the strong wind continued as we started to trek from the ranger station up to the campsite 2 with Ma’am Ines as our guide. We took the ambangeg-ambangeg trail, which was about a three hour long walk through a watery, muddy, and slippery trails, on a mossy forests with some slopes, peaks and troughs. 
Ambluklao Dam L-R (standing): Sam, Lot, Lenzi, Odhie, Riz, Dorothy; (sitting): Arisse, Andrea 
L-R (standing): Melskie, Jim, Leo; (sitting): Jovy, MikeA When we arrived at the campsite 1, we had some rest at a shed, put down our bags to have some stretch, and ate our trail foods. We also met other mountaineers there, who were so wet and chilling. I heard one of them saying while stuttering due to coldness, “Grrrabbbe ang lllammmiggg sssaaa gggrassllllanddd!” Then we proceeded walking and met a female guide on our opposite way. We asked her, “Mam gaano pa po kalayo hanggang camp 2?” she answered, “Malapit na mga 20 minutes na lang.” We were so comfortable walking when I noticed that I was already tired saying, “Parang 40 minutes na tayong naglalakad parang ang layo pa rin?” I just realized that guides and porters walked very fast as if they were just walking on a plane surface as compared to my pace. We arrived at the campsite 2 after an HOUR, but the camp at the lower part was already full, so we needed to go higher at the grassland to pitch our tents. Looking upwards, I couldn’t see anything but rains, and fogs. It was zero visibility and temperature at that time was already recorded at 10 degrees Celsius. I told myself, “Gulp! Diyan talaga tayo magcacamp???” But there’s no time for turning back. I needed to pitch the tent and resist the coldness to have a shelter the whole night. I didn’t know how to fix and pitch the tent because it wasn't mine, but I had to do it immediately, and not to wait for someone else to help us. I and Arisse had a hard time to pitch the tent due to the strong winds but thankful that s’Jim and s’Leo helped us, and we immediately went inside the tent. The floor of the tent was already moist so I became worried that the water may seep through it and get wet later on. What we did was we placed a garbage bag on the floor topped with my poncho, then placed our aluminum earthpad. I changed my clothes to prepare myself for a temperature drop at midnight. On my upper body, I wore a knitted long-sleeve topped with a thick-cotton sweater, and knitted gloves then, on my lower body, I wore leggings topped with a thick-cotton jogging pants, and dry thick socks. I felt warm already, but my feet although dry with socks was still cold, so I went inside my sleeping bag. We never went outside after that, everyone was waiting for the following day. I and Arisse had our own socials, while eating taquitos.  Upper part of Camp 2 in near-zero visibility It was the longest night ever. I couldn’t sleep not because of the cold, but because of the nonstop rain and strong winds. I tried to sleep at around 8 pm, my feet was still cold, so I placed my fleece blanket inside the sleeping bag, and while I was waiting for myself to sleep, it seemed like I was talking face to face with God that I made some realizations… - I’m not afraid to die but I’m not yet ready to die because I still have a lot of unfinished business. - I love my family more than anyone else. I missed my parents, my brother, and my pamangkin’s. - I still have to marry my future husband and have four kids - I still have a lot of patients to meet, to heal, to have some quality talks, to give my precious time, to inspire… - During hard times, you’ll only depend on yourself and to the man above - I still have a lot of mountains to climb as long as my knees and feet can. - I’m so blessed everyday, that I have a soft bed and air-conditioned room when I sleep, I ate 5 times a day with chocolates and sometimes ice cream, I don’t worry to get wet during stormy weather because I have a shelter to protect me, and mostly, I have my mom who will get mad at me when I come home late at night because she can’t sleep and so worried about me. - There are my three makukulit na pamangkins who always disturb me during my resting time because they wanted to play with me. - There are tormentors everyday that surround me, that build my patience, and make me a stronger person each day. That despite everything they did, I still did not give up my dreams which I thought was seemed so far but now, it’s already within my grasp. - I’m surrounded with people who care and love me so much, though they come and go, the lessons they taught are always within me. Then I almost woke up every hour and looked at my watch. It was 9:30 pm, then 12 am, 1:30 am, 4 am, 5 am, and thanked God it was already 7 am, but still the weather didn’t change. s’Jim boiled some water, so I had the most delicious, hot instant-noodle breakfast that time. My bladder was full, so I attempted to go outside the tent several times, as in SEVERAL TIMES (with emphasis, he he) and on my seventh attempt, I pushed myself to go outside and urinate for about a minute. There was still no clearing. We fixed our things and had our breakcamp at 8:30 am. It was another time to go outside and bear the coldness. I felt I was in a freezer and my sweat was already iced, but I needed to move and went down from the grassland. My backpack was heavier due to some wet clothes, I got tired from time to time that I ate chocolates and sipped some water, I still felt some coldness on the peripheral parts of my body, but I walked continuously as I could. I endured everything above, but what’s in my mind was it is best to simply enjoy what I’m seeing rather than run to get out of that place, because no matter how bad the storm was, I knew it would eventually pass. I arrived at the ranger station at around 11 am, and took a bath. It was a quick freezing bath, in which I only took about six tabos of water he he (Ligo pa ba ang tawag don?). Then we were again fetched by the rented jeepney to have lunch at ate Gina’s place, where we had an eat-all-you-can pinikpikang manok with brown rice, and get-all-you-can lemons. We proceeded to go back to the DENR station, and again went through the rough roads for about two hours. Due to the missed socials the night before, led by sir Jovy, we had socials and drinking session inside the jeepney where we looked like being mixed in a blender. The socials was sssooooo……HHHHOOOOOTTTTT!!! that it outdid the coldness outside. It was another story which I would leave to Arisse, because she was the one on the “HOT” seat haha. At 7:45 pm, we went back to Victory liner at baguio, and while going up the bus, I looked back and thankful… - That I didn’t chill and went to hypothermia - Our tent was dry the whole night - I slipped through that muddy trail but I didn’t have a sprain ankle - My trekking shoes did not give up too - I and all my SMberks went home safe - Though I didn’t eat dinner at the camp, we ate an eat-all-you can pinikpikang manok at lunch, ate Andok’s chicken at dinner (kulang na lang tubuan ako ng pakpak…) and took home a get-all-you-can lemons. I have witnessed a lot of storms in my life but despite everything that happened, I won’t still give up to pursue my dreams to stand above the clouds, “I shall return!”  The Author - Doc Lenzi
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