From the trail-head in Barrio Gawahon, Glenn Sorbito and I reached the base of ascent in Ubak Creek below west of the South Ridge at 6:09 p.m. on April 17, 2003.
Early in the morning of the next day, we climbed the crest of the South Ridge, aided by a foot-trail, and began the gradual ascent over the spine of the ridge whose angle increases as we progressed. The trail vanished at an elevation of around 250 meters below the summit, leaving us the task to clear a way through the wooded ridge with dense undergrowth. At a point, we abandoned our plan for a summit camp because we could no longer ascend the steep angle with much load. Soon we clambered up the almost perpendicular summit-wall. We reached the top at 3:31 p.m.
We lingered briefly on the summit. We started down, pitched tent by dusk at a point on the South Ridge where we left our backpacks. The whole night I was not able to catch an iota of sleep, worried by the coming storm and troubled by the two scenes of landslide on the ridge not far from our bivouac site.