Kiokong's Lesser Known Treasures

This is an incomplete, subjective list.

George Darling, 6b/6b+

If there's a classic in Neverland, George needs to be the top nominee. You can dance OR muscle your way through the crux. Either way, it's all quality rock until the fun ends at the top.

Smee, 6c

Sketchy from the third clip to the anchor. I can't say there are indeed opportunity for risky falls but I'm sure I'd have more fun doing this on top rope. The best part is climbing from one tufa to another.

Route 13, 6c+

Same grade as the often-repeated Masthead but it's a class ahead. It demands body tension and throwing your best guess at what may or may not be holds. 

Of course, this could change if the route gets more repeat. Like many routes in Neverland, Route 13 looked like it hasn't seen a send in a while.

Tick Tock, 6c+

A true test piece of climbing vocabulary: traverse, roof, tufa, slab climbing. The roof above the anchor makes this an all-weather climb, almost. 

The crux-y traverse at the start can get wet during a downpour. I'm not sure where the water comes from.

Tinkerbell, 7a+/7b

The first three bolts offer a two-part menu: force your way through sharp rocks or get the beta dialed down for a flowy sequence on quality holds. 

The answers are not too obvious since holds, true and false, all look the same. The overhang doesn't leave plenty of time to think either.

The crux sequence is all about keeping the barn door shut.

Unnamed Route, 7a+ (Skeletor)

How do you grade a route when the sequence is hard to find but it goes smoothly when you get the beta wired? 

This route, not yet included in the first topo, asks you to see the subtlety between white rock and white chalk marks. Shades of white, to see a world in a grain sand and movement on sleeping holds.

Notes on Kopi Wall

Kopi Wall is the most recently bolted crag in Bukidnon. I really like Kopi Wall because many of the cruxes are on face climbs. 

I'm pretty good at that style because I learned to climb in Cantabaco. However, the holds can be crumbly because it has seen few attempts since the bolting.

Developers can only do so much cleaning when putting up a route. If you understand permutation, you'll know. 

I hope more people go out there. It's all quality lines except for the left-most route. Maybe I'll appreciate it when I figure it out.

Thank you, developers. Thank you, people who donate money so we can climb. Thank you, rock!

There's Room for Dogs at the Crags

Now and then, we get that intrusive beat that loops days-long in our head. Today, mine went like:

Crag dogs, crag dogs

What you gonna do…

What you gonna do when they come for you?

It’s high time we discuss dogs in our local crags. This is an opinion piece so it helps to premise where this perspective comes from:

- I’m chill with dogs. I grew up with dogs and we have five dogs in our house. I treat dogs as people: with a healthy measure of likes and dislikes.

- I won’t ever bring a dog to the crag but I’m happy to see well-behaved dogs at the crag.

- I am not too keen to discuss “do’s and don'ts” so please take these pleadings to mean “please do” and “please don’t.”

Please DO

Please know that most climbers are pro-social: they’d rather hold their breath than speak up about bad dog behavior for fear of upsetting the owner. 

Please understand that a crag is a shared space. There are behaviors that are okay in private spaces but can cause unpleasantness in shared ones.

Please be aware of how your dog may respond to strange dogs in a strange place. Dogs trash-talking each other in the form of “whoof-whoof” and “ghaaar--aarggghh” can distract other climbers.

Most of the time, this is a minor inconvenience. But distraction can lead to inattentiveness which is just a few (metaphorical) clips away from someone getting hurt.

Please train your dog to be prepared for all kinds of social interaction. An overly friendly toddler and a scared dog is a recipe for a rabies shot. 

Please create a comfortable space for your dog to lounge in. Rock climbing areas are full of rocks. To a dog with no other choice, the coziest chill to place is on a bunched up rope on top of a rope bag. 

Please DON’T

Please don’t be the reason your dog gets painted as a villain. Dogs are neither good nor bad–they have the mental age of toddlers. They become bad dogs when they are put in “bad situations”--situations they are not trained for.

These thoughts popped into my head after a brief chat with Jojo, who you may know as Cebu Dog Trainer. Two years ago, he helped me navigate the most difficult dog relationship I’ve ever had.

At that time, I lived in an apartment complex where there’s a caged Belgian Shepherd in the garage. The dog couldn’t even take a full step in that cage. The only thing he could do was move around in circles, like how some dogs may chase their tail. Or like the Firefox logo.

A caged work dog is not a friendly dog. Over several weeks, I managed to create a relationship with that dog. Until such time I could pet him and eventually we’d go on walking out in the park. The only constraint is that I could only walk him at dawn or very late in the night because he’d lunge at everything that moved.

This is not an exaggeration. He’s lunged at a Ford Ranger, a Mitsubishi Strada, and at a dog barking at him from the second story of a house. 

I’ve always kept him on a short leash so I could easily tell when his body would tense up for a lunge. The most he could do was a dog version of a wheelie. (Really helped to walk him only when no one was around.)

Jojo gave me some advice that turned a hopeless case into some of the most meaningful times of my life. Like tech support but for dogs. He splits his time between New York and Cebu.

I had to move eventually and I couldn’t take the dog with me.

Koto wouldn’t have been a good crag dog. But he’d be a good free dog.

Thoughts on Rappeling with a GriGri

Long list of caveats before I get to the point because we live in 2025: 

- This is NOT an instructional post. You will die.

- I read about a fatal accident that happened recently because of a failed single-strand (Reepschnur) rappel. This post is not a speculation on the incident. It's my personal reflection on the rappel systems that I use (because writing is a form of introspection). 

- The chain links and bolts that I use to rappel off of are much narrower than the ring in the photos. 

- I don't recommend a single-strand rappel if you've only learned about it from YouTube or Wikihow. Please respect gravity. 

- You may see a non-locking carabiner in the photos. Let's pretend it's a locking carabiner.

I've been rappeling quite a bit lately because some of the routes in Bukidnon don't have rings or chain links at the top. Rapping down with a GriGri is my second favorite method of rappelling .

Setup 1:

This is the setup that I use most frequently. It strikes a good balance between material, safety, and efficiency. The carabiner blocks the rope and there's a BFK to act as a backup blocker.

Is it SERENE? Probably not.

It's not equalized. If set up on two bolts, it violates the non-extending principle.

Setup 2: 
 

It's almost the as the first setup but the carabiner clipped to the live end of the rope makes it a close system. 
 

Setup 3: 

This setup uses a knot to close the system. It's the same as the second setup, minus the first blocking carabiner.

Being a closed system, the rope cannot slide off of the anchor if you load it on the strand that's supposed to take your weight. This brings us to the biggest risk of a single-rope rappel.

Quick sidenote: I don't like this configuration because one time I rapped off of it and the pull end went through the ring. I had to climb back up again because I couldn't pull the rope down. 

Some Random Thoughts 

Just as it's so easy to confuse left and right, it's so easy to mix up the load and pull ends on a Reepschnur system. That's why I always do a load test before committing to my rappel system. 

The biggest risks for more experienced climbers are complacency and absent-mindedness. I guard myself against those.

I also tell myself that I'm not special--that any "stupid" mistake that others do, I can do, too. 

I've been taught to load test a rappel system before disconnecting my PAS. Someone once told me that when building anchors, you should always add before you subtract.

Climbing is not worth dying for. I've bailed many times on routes that I found too risky and will bail many times over.

I will also happily admit if the technical requirements of a task are way beyond my skills. 

PS: My favorite configuration is an extended double-strand rappel with a friction hitch clipped to my belay loop: it's clean, secure, and comfortable (because the extension puts you in a more upright position).

The Best Crag No One Climbs: Neverland in Kiokong, Bukidnon

 The first time I visited Neverland, the trail was so overgrown that we took a few wrong turns to find the crag.

Vegetation doesn’t scream “Climbing Capital of the Philippines”, the dream that some people thought it would be when development began.

No amount of limestone can turn a destination into the capital of anything if locals don’t frequent the crag. The “never” in Neverland has started to take on a new meaning.

Fortunately, I found a climbing partner who was willing to do the 20-minute hike with me whenever our schedules align (that’s about every weekend with a few gaps here and there).

What Makes Neverland Unique

Spiderwebs make Neverland unique. Bolts covered in webs as if an allusion to the superhero many want to be; or a gift wrap to anyone willing to experience the gift of movement that the climbs offer.

The bolters did a masterclass (can we still say “master”??) in finding lines in, around, and under the tufas that Neverland holds.

Reaching around tufas is often a game of “wish-me-luck.” Climbing away from the rock face and on to tufas can make the climbing feel exposed even as the bolts are right within an arm’s length.

What Makes Neverland Truly Unique

For real now, what makes Neverland unique is the three dimensional climbing that tufas and random features for you to do. That’s like climbing on lots of volumes and macros, for my fellow gym rats out there.

The other thing: the grading is wild. Because most climbs haven’t been repeated many times, we’ll have to take on the word of the first ascensionists and the few repeats the lines have had. You can expect a climb to be soft or terribly hard; and wish for the best.

The crag sits just a little over 600 meters from the parking area. A 20-minute hike if you go really, really slow. It’s a mystery why it’s not getting more climbs.