Sea of Clouds

Many are enthused to try mountaineering in order to witness the elusive sea of clouds. I know this because I too was curious. Mt. Pulag was my first-ever mountain since it has been well known for catching the sea of clouds. I'll share to you my three favorite shots of the sea of clouds, shot over the years in different mountains. 

So, ladies and gentlemen, Let's count to three.

(In order of date taken)

#1. The Calm Before the Storm

Our Mt. Pulag climb in December of 2014 was my 4th time in this mountain and this time, we tried the Akiki-Ambangeg traverse. Towards the tail-end of the ascent towards the saddle camp, you will be treated with a beautiful view of the rolling grasslands and since it was already late in the afternoon, the clouds started to set at the lowlands, treating us with this view:

Mt. Pulag (at the grasslands just above the mossy forest ascent in Akiki Trail), December 2014

And there was a rainbow to boot! This experience reinforced my thoughts on mountaineering, that the best views are not necessarily at the summit. Little did we know that this is a harbinger of doom for us. It started raining that night, which never let up until the morning (we never got out of the tent!). It was very cold and to make matters worse, the winds started to pick up.We had no choice but to traverse the cover-less saddle camp towards camp 2. Exposed to strong winds, rain, single digit temperature and near zero visibility. I can say that that experience was the closest I've been to a near-death experience. The threat of hypothermia was very eminent that cold morning. Well, that's how it is to be walking IN the clouds. Not fun. HAHA!

#2. Clouds at Your Feet

The title of "Rooftop of Indochina" is too tempting not to pass up. So in December of 2015, we ventured at this mountain at north of Hanoi, at the province of Lao Cai.

Mt. Fan Si Pan (summit), December 2015

We were told that this awesome view is quite a rare treat since, most of the time it is covered in fog. Two of my friends who actually went here before us (at separate instances) did not even had a good clearing. So I'm putting this here, for posterity and a badge of good luck - that in the next mountains to come, we will be blessed by the mountain gods by rare treats such as this. 

#3. Tengoku no Torii (Heaven's Gate)

I was lucky to complete the East Asia Trilogy in July of 2016. The trilogy composed of Mt. Kinabalu of Malaysia (4,095 MASL), Mt. Jade of Taiwan (3,952) - both of which I climbed in 2014 - and Mt. Fuji (3,776 MASL). These mountains are the prominent peaks in this part of the world. 

Mt. Fuji (the last gate towards the summit), July 2016

Our group was fortunate because it had been raining the day before our climb and the day after. It's as if we had a window had been opened for us to have this awesome sea of clouds to top off the equally vivid sunrise. The sunrise atop Mt. Fuji, locally termed Goraikou is actually the one inspired the Japanese flag.