Mt. San Cristobal Northern Trail

Experience trekking its unfrequented northern trail. 6 hours of mostly ridgeline pursuits. Advised to bring packed lunch and lots of trail food (power bars preferred). Suggests bringing 2 pcs of 5-6 meters abaca rope for the ever challenging “panuyuan” assault.

From the jumpoff to “kalabaw Saddle” is a rather easy smooth ascend where you get to pass a clean watersource of sitio Sto. Nino. Several hundred meters to your right after the watersource is the inviting Tayak Hill. After several short stiff-but-easy ascends is the “kalabaw Saddle”. Anyone taking this route should be by the saddle before lunchtime to assure summit arrival before dusk.

The summit assault slopes is long and quite tiring. But the forest lines that shades the area makes it easy for anyone to scale it. Weather oftentimes is unpredictable. So have your shower protection handy. But be thankful when it rains before approaching the summit (emptied water bottles refilled. hurray!).

So you want to camp near the summit? If the weather is good, you can try watching the stars and the spectacular night views of Batangas, Laguna and Rizal Provinces.

The trail is good but why unfrequented?

As mentioned, the northern trail doesn’t have much visitors as the traditional Montelibano trail because it is not known by most of the climbers. The unveiling of the northern trail to the general mountaineering population only happened year 2005 when it was initially used by a popular mountaineering group to be their suitable training venue. MonteAlto was with them during their kick-off climb. Vegetation in this particular area is assertive due to its peculiar weather patterns. And the strong winds during nightfalls and early dawns perhaps makes the previous trailmarks untraceable overtime. Due to this, it is not advised to trek by this trail if uncertain or one might end up seeking for direction until night time. “Teka-teka” and Poison ivy plants are almost everywhere too! Good thing though that wild strawberries are abundant during summertime.

How to get there?

Take the Lucena bound bus at Buendia Bus Terminal. Get off at Chowking San Pablo Medical Center where there will be jeepneys waiting (upon arrangement) to take you all the way to Brgy Tala, Rizal.

You can try these numbers:

Mang Jerry Sanez’ for jeepney service: 09273887491

MonteAlto Trekking: 09179488362