And to cap off the life-changing year of travels, I go up north- to the mountains of the Cordilleras for a year-end hike organized by my friend Gideon Lasco of Pinoy Mountaineer. We went exploring Bokod, Benguet and trekking Mt. Purgatory Traverse, passing along Mt. Pack, Mt. Purgatory (which is not really a mountain) and Kom-Kompol Viewpoint which is an overload of pine trees and mossy rainforest trails.
I know that my blogger friends will talk about the hike details and itinerary so I would just be showing you a simple edit of how the hike went out.
Not contented with the vid? Try skirming my 20 chosen photos during the hike: Mt. Purgatory Traverse in Photos
Shout out to Sir Gideon for inviting me in this climb. Hello to my new outdoor friends Coby, Koi, Miki, Daniel, Steve, Ralph and Wilmer. Of course, to my fellow PTB Christine and Ivan, we finally see each other on the trails. Until our next major climb!
More blogs about this hike:
Pinoy Mountaineer’s Hiking Matters #317
Jovial Wanderer’s Year-End Hike: Mt. Purgatory Traverse
JourneyingJames’ Mt. Purgatory Traverse in Photos
Here’s the map locals made that will be of help to mountaineering groups:

Mt. Purgatory Traverse

I’ve been planning to climb this mountain since mid this year and obviously di ko nagawa. Hahaha! Hopefully next year!
this year it is! go go missy, i know you will see this too
astig! anong camera ginamit mo dito James? dami palang mossy forest na dinaan sa trail.
GoPro HD hero 2 and panasonic lx5. yep, overload ng mossy forest! haha
Happy New Year sir!
thanks a lot kulapitot!
Mossy Forest ftw! Love the video James 😀
haha! indeed, so refreshing to be seing preserved mossy forest like that
We did trek the route from BOKOD municipality. Jump off at Brgy. Karao where we met our Guide. We did the reverse trail as we expect that Mt. Purgatory is just near. But it end up a lot of uphill considering we were first timers. We were not able to reach Mt. Purgatory as our guide said it will take 2 more days for us to go there (considered as first timers). So we went down the other day to Ekip to Karao falls. Passing by a community where our guide resides and then back to Bokod Municipal Hall. The guide told us that the jump off where we start(brgy Karao) is harder than starting in Japas. But he said that there are a lot to see from Mt. Komkompol compared to Mt.Purgatory.
We were just three man team on who did the hike.
thanks for sharing your experience mark.