8th Visayas Mountain Festival starts

CEBU, Philippines - “Pack your gears and experience real “higher education” meant to underscore that Cebu is more than the Sinulog festivity and beaches.” This is the message being laid out by the organizers of the 8th Visayas Mountain Festival set to open today on Cebu City’s mountain barangay of Taptap.

The four-day gathering of an estimated 150 mountaineering enthusiasts seeks to reinforce responsibility and safety in the great outdoors, encourage camaraderie among outdoor practitioners in the Visayas and nearby areas; as well as to promote solidarity and advancement of outdoor skills; and to highlight new and potential sites for adventure tourism in Cebu City’s mountain barangays.

After successfully putting up this event in Baybay (Leyte), Mt. Talinis (Valencia, Negros Oriental), Silay City (Negros Occidental), Barbaraza and Culassi (Antique), Danao (Bohol), Mabinay (NegOcc), and Nueva Valencia (Guimaras), it has finally come to Cebu where it was conceived, this was also learned.

Event hosts University of San Carlos Mountaineers headed by Mervil Eyas Patigdas with Joel Cariño and Ramon Vidal of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines, Inc. informed the media in a presscon last March 28 at the Cebu City Vice Mayor’s Office, that base camp activities would include basic mountaineering course, rope safety, hiking which seeks to instill the “leave no trace” principle, river tracing/trekking, caving, bouldering, and biking.

Basic mountaineering course is designed to teach basic skills in facing the rigors of the outdoors, trail etiquette, basic backpacking, preparation, and setting up camp. Rope safety imparts skills in basic knot tying and safety practices when undertaking high element activities.

River tracing/trekking follows an upstream adventure from Sitio Masaba to Barangay Tabunan wherein participants are to learn skills in short roping and crossing rivers while enjoying the discovery of waterfalls as well as dipping and sweeping in safety while in swift water.

As for caving, they are to learn the basics of cave etiquette and safety and discover the diversity, importance, and the critical state of our cave ecosystems; while bouldering which is a mountaineering skill would serve as platform to learn techniques in climbing, spotting and safety.

On the other hand, bikers are to go around the Central Cebu Protected Landscape (formerly the Central Cebu National Park) covering five “very sensitive areas” of the 32,000-hectare protected area – Taptap, Tabunan, Sitio Cantipla, and the other Cebu City mountain barangays of Tagbao and Sudlon II.

CCPL is said to be the last frontier in Cebu – home to our remaining rainforest and endemic but one of the world’s most threatened tree species – cinnamon (Cinnamomum cebuense) and the critically endangered small passerine bird flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor) rediscovered in 1992.

A bus will transport participants today, at 9 a.m., to the CREMDEC facility in Taptap with the Cebu City Hall Grounds (near Magellan’s Cross) as designated assembly area. — (FREEMAN)