A simple Guide for newbie before A Major Climb

I always consider myself as a newbie climber, although I reached some of our countries highest peak, I know that theres always something to learn. Hiking in the Phillipines has never been on this height before, with continuos improvement on the technology when it comes to gadget, gears and ways to hike, many people are now jumping to the bandwagon. Some are weekend warriors, wanna-be, some might go and will continue to hike, some will give up if they experience some difficulty on the trail.

In that situation and your consideration I will share something that Im doing before a major climb. If you have 4 weeks before the major event, you might want to consider to do a little extra effort before the climb, other wise you might be a burden to the team and might not enjoy the hike because of injury, cramps, fatigue and tired body.

Dayhikes before the major climb is a good training

Four weeks before the event : If your able to climb some minor peaks we have in batangas and cavite, you just need to do a little conditioning and training.  You might want to try to do some body squat and lunges for at least 30 times for 3 sets. You should at least try to run for 30 mins on your first week of training for at least 2-3 times a week. Moreover, You might want to add walking in your neighboorhood for at least 30 mins to an hour. This training will strengthen your legs and condition your knees for the torture it might encounter on the major climb. This is also the time you need to find out more about the mountain you will be climbing so that you can prepare properly. You can check the trail, water sources, length of time going to the campsite, the weather pattern etc.

3 weeks before the event   : You might do some little inventory of the gear and supplies that you might need. However, since this will be your first time to do a major climb, you might not have yet a tent, cookset and stove. Those equipment should be part of your investment soon, at this point what you can try was to complete your first line of defense against the environment- your clothes. Most people die on the trail by exposure. You should have at least a warm jacket and at least a poncho if you dont have a waterproof jacket yet, a beanie or bonnet, a good hiking shoes and a reliable backpack. And in this period you should also find the group where you can share the tent, cookset and stove.

2 weeks before the event  : Since you already have checked your supplies, its time to test your back if its strong enough to carry your pack. You should load all your equipment with at least 2-3 liters of water (  you can use 1.5 liters of plastic bottle) then walk for at least an hour or two if you still can. This will give you the feeling of walking with all your supplies on. Then if you find your pack to heavy, check again your gears if there is something that you can leave behind without compromising  your comfort , to save weight.

1 week before the event  : This time your legs are somewhat ready for the long hike, what you can do at this point is this - Monday : 30mins easy run, Tuesday - an hour of slow walk, Wed - You can start carbo loading, Thursday and Friday - electrolyte loading. Since most of the major climb will start at friday night as the travel time to your destination, You can take with you a sport drink to hydrate you all   troughout your travel, then just before you hike, hydrate properly with water.


Your first major climb will determined all the other major climb you might want to do in the future. Its either you enjoy it or it might serve as your first and last. As they said, never ever underestimate the mountain.

Good luck and see you on the trail..

My very first Major Climb. Pulag Via ambangeg trail

Set foot on top of Mt Apo via Mt Talomo

Wish there was a shade..

Mt Sicapoo traverse to Mt Simagaysay Day 3

We woke up once again at 4am, this will be our last day in the mountains. We still need to cross Mt timarid and Mt simagaysay under the intense heat with no trail cover and limited water supply 

Hot And Dry, Yet a Beauty

It was a continuous up and down journey until we reached a small forested part of the trail only to emerge again into the open hot trail. Most of the time we are walking on a steep edges with just a little slip you will find yourself deep below the edges, if your lucky you will still be alive. 

See that? We just came trough that peak

 

The trail on the 3rd day. Pics courtesy or Rus de guzman.

The sun keeps on tormenting us troughout that long walk. Will just a little shade along the way, we found ourselves wishing and hoping for the clouds to covered the sky.There are at least 2 or 3 trees that at least an hour apart from each other. When we get there , we rested and cool down our body. We know that we might be in danger of having a heat stroke. Some of us have said that they will just wait for the sun to set before hiking again, even though they walked at night, but this idea didnt materialize as every now and then, our guide keeps on motivating us to move forward.

Open trail.Pics courtesy of R.de Guzman

With our tired body and dry mouth, we eventually reached the one degree plateu.This is the place where you can feast on duhat and recharge your body with water. I wish i have instilled in me the water disclipine they are talking about. And have trained more under the heat. However, I thank God for not giving me  a sore knees and weak spirits troughout the climb. Im tired but not wasted. We arrived at tatay emilios house at 4:30pm. For me , its alway an added bonus if you arrived in your target destination just before the darkness came in.

Hot and dry. Wish there was a cloud. Pics of R.de Guzman

 

One degree Plateu.Just like africa. Pics of R.de Guzman

Mt sicapoo is one of the hardest trek i have done so far, Second only to the real deal Talomo-Apo traverse. Ill be back soon to experience once again the long walk, as I found myself more intrigued and fascinated and motivated by long and hard trek. I might be slow, but i know eventually ill get to where I want to go..

Team Russell

With Melo, Tatay Emilio and Dan Pogi

The event itenaries

MT. SICAPOO ‘CLIMB OF THE ABNORMAL’
By PTN (Philippines Team Neverest), powered by Tingguian Tribe

DAY 0
1600 Meet up/assembly @ Partas Cubao Terminal
1730 ETD to Laoag via Partas liner

DAY 1 

0330 ETA Laoag City
0345 Assembly Jollibee Bacarra Road ; Breakfast; buy packed lunch
0430 ETD Solsona Poblacion
0500 ETA Solsona Poblacion, Register @ PNP station,
0515 ETA Tata Emilio Hauz @ Brgy. Manalpac, last preparation
0600 Start Trek
0700 ETA Gate
1100 ETA Parpar Creek Camp;Lunch
1200 ETD for Saulay Junction
1415 ETA Balbalitok Peak, coffee break
1700 ETA Mt. Saulay Junction, Pitch tent


Day 2 

0400 Wake up/ Breakfast
0630 Start Trek
0800 ETA Mt. balbalite peak
0900 ETA Mt.Pakpako Peak Camp Site
1100 Lunch Along the trail of Mt. Matalidong
1130 Resume Trek
1400 ETA Sicapoo Summit; Pictures
1415 Start descent
1600 ETA Matalidong “coffee break”
1715 ETA Mt.Pakpako Camsite
1800 ETA Campsite

Day 3 

0500 Wake up/ Breakfast, prepare for breakfast, packed lunch
0700 Start trek to Mt. Timarid traverse Mt.Simagaysay
0800 ETA Saulay junction
0945 ETA Nagdata Camp site
1000 Start ascent Mt. Timarid via 70 to 80 degree ascent
1200 ETA Mt. Timarid, lunch/emergency snack
1300 Descent/ascent Mt.Simagaysay
1415 ETA Mt. Simmagaysay, descent to one degree plateu/Picture along the trail/ridge.
1530 ETA ODMG Plateu
1600 ETA Solsona Dam
1630 ETA Tatay Emilio hauz, party party

 

The penguin Beak

Mt Sicapoo traverse Day 2

We woke up at 4am under the only cold nights we had in the campsite. Immediately we prepare our breakfast and packed lunch. At 6:30am we began our way to reachead the summit of Mt Sicapoo.

The trail was the continuation of the steep edges and non stop assault that we already experienced in Day 1. With light packs, we easily navigated trough the trail. But the trail was too long, so even with light packs, we are dead tired. After a few hours of walking on the open trail, We entered the short forest of Sicapoo.

First team

After almost 8 hours of hiking the first group arrived at the Peak, kiss the penguin beak and congratulate eachother for a job well done. After just a few minutes, the 2nd group arrived. We just spent a few minutes taking pictures and enjoy the surroundings, because we know that its a long way back to our campsite, and all of uagree that we dont want to hiked at night. Will less visibility and anticipated cold weather, we rushed our way back . Our guides informed us that most of the group arrived at night . Some arrived at 10pm the earliest would be 7pm. But to our surprise we arrived at the campsite just before 6pm , just in time before the darkness engulf the whole area. 

The Penguin's Beak

 As usual, We prepare our dinner and share our personal challenges of the trail onwards . 

Little did we know that the last day would be the toughest and most difficult part of the entire traverse..

A celebration of a job well done.Smile Guys.

The complete idiot guide for Kibungan Circuit

KIBUNGAN CIRCUIT
Kibungan, BenguetJumpoff (closed loop): Sitio Tanap, Poblacion, Kibungan
LLA: 1820 MASL (Tagpaya); 1875 MASL (Oten); 2105 (Tagpew)
Days required / Hours to summit: 2-3 days / 6-9 hours (Tagpaya)
Specs (Version 1): Major climb, Difficulty 5/9, Trail class 1-4
Specs (Version 2): Major climb, Difficulty 6/9, Trail class 1-4
Features: Pine ridges, mossy forests, rice terraces, village walks

Source : Pinoymountaineer.com

Welcome to Kibungan!

Just before the Holy Week, Im looking for a multiday hike to do with less expense because we are only two in the group. And the video from Loyola mountaineer inspire us to drop all of our plans and instead go to kibungan benguet to try the kibungan circuit. Of course doing it with two persons , the itenary will differ from doing it with a big group. So I once again, researched how the locals would do it, how are the locals go to kibungan from baguio and from kibungan back to baguio. I reached out to Engr Kolbel for information and he replied that Sir Charo is the new head of tourism and he gave me sir Charo's number. Since January this year, I constantly get in touched with sir Charo for logistics and information about kibungan and he glady reply to all of my inquiries, without his help the climb might not pushed trough or might not be comfortable than what we have experienced.

Kibungan Municipality Town Hall

We Met at Victory Terminal in Cubao, After more than 5 hours, we arrived in Baguio City, walked all the way to session road to eat breakfast and to buy our packed lunched. Then we took a taxi to Dangwa terminal and wait for the first trip of bus to Kibungan.

The travel time from Baguio to Kibungan will take within 3-4 hours with 2 stop over. It was 30 mins past 9am when we arrived in Kibungan Municipality. There we were met by Ferdie, our guide assigned to us by sir Charo. We have our last minute preparation and bought our supplies. At 10am, under the heat and  humidity, we started to walked to Kibungan mountain ranges.

The trail of Kibungan Mountain ranges

The trail was comparable to Mt Ugu,with weather like Mt Arayat and Mt Balingkilat. With continous ascend and short descend, We arrived in the first campsite at 3pm. The first campsite is also called Buga campsite,there are reliable water source nearby and clean bombsite.

Buga Campsite

From the first campsite to the 2nd campsite which is near Mt tagpew , it will take you between 6-8 hours depends on how long you take a break and how fast you are walking. We arrived at the 2nd campsite at 2pm. According to the guide we are the 2nd fastest group to arrived, the fastest was at 1pm. The tagpew campsite is much colder than the campsite in buga. The water source is just 5 to 10 mins walk and there are also restroom nearby. From the campsite it will also take within 20 mins hike to the summit of Mt Tagpew, the highest peak of the entire circuit.

At Mt Tagpaya. The first peak of the circuit.

The dry part of the trail

At Mt Oten. 

The trail to Ilocos or La Union

Mt Tagpew Summit

The Second Campsite. Near Mt Tagpew.

The descend back to poblacion is the most challenging part of the trekked. We are all accustomed to descend all the way to the jump off with just short ascend and flat terrain. In kibungan, the descend back to jump off is the most crucial and difficult because the entire trail is open, meaning you are under the mercy of the sun's heat that will surely drain your energy and sometimes your sanity. When you reached the road , you think its over and all the way easy ? Think again! After the first store on the side of the road, you will be back again on the trail. When  you passed the last hanging bridge,you will be up again for the surprise, this is the only trail that will let you finished still hiking up. And you are hiking up with the bugs constantly bugging to get into your eyes. We arrived at the municipality at 15 mins past 3pm to end our kibungan circuit adventure.

At Mayo's River

Sweet. Another small group climb.

 The complete idiot guide for climbing Kibungan Circuit

9pm  : Assembly at Victory liner Cubao. Fare : P445
10pm: Etd Cubao to Baguio

Day 1
4am   : Arrival in Baguio, walk to session road to have breakfast and to buy packed lunch/ dinner
5am   : Take taxi to Dangwa terminal. P40
6am   : Take first trip Bus to kibungan. The second and last trip was schedule at 11am. P130
9:30   : Arrival in Kibungan. Meet the guide, buy supplies. There are small stores in kibungan that sells meats, vegetables and other canned foods. No butane .
10am : Start trek
11am : Arrival at the Church, lunch break. Watersource nearby
12pm : Proceed hiking
3pm   : Arrival at the Buga Campsite : Restroom available. Watersource nearby

Day 2
5am  : wake up call
6:30  : start descend
7:00  : water source
10:00: Mt Bulalakaw. Lunch. Water source nearby
11:00: Proceed hiking
2pm  : Arrived at the 2nd campsite . Watersource and restroom available
pitch tent, relax . Enjoy the surrounding.
4:00  : Hike up to the summit of Mt Tagpew
4:15  : Eta Summit. Take pictures. Enjoy life.
4:30  : Start descend
4:45  : Back at the campsite

Day 3
6 am : wake up call
7:30  : Start descend
9:00  : Arrived at the church. Watersource. Take 30mins break
9:30  : Proceed
11:00: Mayo's River Lunch.
12:30: Proceed
3:15pm : Back at the Municipality. Rest.

Lodge is available for 200/head. There's a clean restroom so you can take a bath and change clothes. You can also cook in the lodge for your dinner. The small market and sari-sari store will be closed at 6pm.

First trip bus back to Baguio is at 5am. Fare is P130. Travel time 4 hours.
From Baguio take taxi to Victory liner. No need to reserve ticket.
Baguio to Manila : P445

Registration fee : P30
Guide fee          : P500/day
The guide have their own tent, cookset and food. Of course we can share our foods/trail food to the guide. The guide can only share your load up to 3kg. Because remember the guide have the same load as you are..

Enjoy The Kibungan Mountain Range Experience..

For guide and other information please contact : Charo - 09108771725

Kibungan rice terraces.

Dont forget to reward yourself for the climb. Try Goodtaste Beef Broccoli for less than P100

Climb for the Pringles

Mt. Sicapoo/Traverse via Timarid-Simagaysay (2,354 +)

*MT. SICAPOO
Solsona, Ilocos Norte
Entry point: Gasgas River, Brgy. Manalpac, Solsona
Exit point: Solsona Dam, Brgy. Manalpac, Solsona
LLA: 2354 MASL
Days required / Hours to summit: 4 days / 16-18 hours
Specs: Major climb, Exploratory, Difficulty 9/9, Trail class 2-5
Features: Pine forest, Traverse trail, River crossing

*source : pinoymountaineer.com

Group pics at the penguin beak.Courtesy of Russel De Guzman

 Day 1

Dubbed as the most difficult traverse in the north, with the rating of 9/9, together with few known friends and first time climb buddies, we venture and accept the challenge to traverse sicapoo in 3 days. The climb labeled as "The climb of the abnormals". Onedegreemountaineer suggest in their multiply page that for much comfortable itenaries, the traverse should be completed in 4 days. However, we dont want to comfortable arent we? We all want a new challenges that can bring us to our knees and tell ourselves " Why on earth am i doing this ? ". 

So the adventure begins..

Start of the trek

I already planned and gather logistics for this climb last year. I already coordinated trough email to onedegree, already have the budget and the form to fill out, but with lack of charisma, I failed to gather enough participants for the climb to materialize. So It remains a big dream until the right time comes. 

Melo Sanchez was popular in local mountaineering, as having done a enormous climb records and feats, he is one of the living legend in the field. Some called him "halimaw" (monster) for having successfully completed some of the country's toughest mountain in shorter itenaries, and to be able to have a long stamina and endurance as he can keep walking with no rest until campsite.

Melo Sanchez. Picture of Dan Garcia Samarita

He posted in Facebook that he will be organizing a climb in Mt Sicapoo. I, Myself have this kind of ambition to climb with him, to see how strong he really is. So I send him a message that I want to join the event. However Im not yet comfortable to climb with strangers, and it would be more fun to climb the toughest mountain with someone you already know. So I invite some of my climbing buddies to join me on the event and to my joy, they said say. So the plan begins, to gather information for the event, logistics planning, food preparation and some other things. 

And the climb begins..

We all met at Partas Bus station in Cubao. We arrived in Laog at around 3am, have breakfast, bought packed lunch and dinner, then rode the jeepney to jumpoff. We started to trek at around 6:30am.

First part was a long walk in the flat road,then we entered the first river crossing of Gasgas River. Luckily for us the water was only knee deep, so we dont have any trouble crossing the river. To my count there is at least 4-5 wide river crossing and 3 or more short river crossing or i might be mistaken.I have a climbing strategy to cross the river, as I knew that the rocks below the river might at times became too slippery or the current might be strong deeply, so I pick up a short walking stick, and never left it until Im back at the jumpoff at the end of the climb. Having a third leg in river crossing is also a safety precaution for me, and it help me secure my footing many times, and I have escaped a number of slip and fall.

The First River Crossing. Picture of Dan Garcia Samarita

River Crossing with Walking Stick.Picture of Dan Garcia Samarita

At 11am, we reached the end of the river crossing and took our lunch at the area after the crossing. After 30mins, with the sun shines at its fulles, we began the non stop ascent to the mountain. With numerous ascent and short descent, only to hike up again, on the ridges under the scorching sun, We eventually reached the saulay campsite or crossing at 4pm. We supposed to camp at bubuos campsite, but with some of our companion already showed signs of fatigue, we all agree to call it a day. Of course we all know that tomorrow, another set of challenges, torture and pain awaits all of us. 

Start of the Assault. Picture of Samuel Solidarios

Assault under the heat

Picture of the Gentleman, Russel De Guzman

Campsite.Picture of hiking buddy Dan Garcia Samarita

To be continued...











































 

Dry Trail of the North

 Mt Arayat

After 2 months of hibernating, I found myself on the trail again. This time it was on the uncovered ,exposed and hot trail of Mt Arayat.

I told myself that after this climb, its only a couple of days and I will be hiking up in Mt Sicapoo.
So I should be conditioned enough and rested enough for another multi dayhike. But with 2 months of no practice, no running Im dead tired after this dayhike. Maybe next time I should squeezed out even just one day hike a month and couple of jogging exercise will get my legs the desired condition I want.

I dont want to be the fastest or the strongest on the trail, I leave that title to those who hike years before me. I just want to finish the climb with no injury and not caused any burden to the group Im climbing with. Not that fast, but not very slow either..

This is just a minor climb, and can hike up for 2 hours, unfortunately those 2 months of not hiking can have a big effect on my legs and lungs as I find it taking a toll on me. With less preparation and anticipation, I did not bring enough trail water that can sustain me for the entire climb, much less of the traverse trail that we initially planned. It took us almost 4 hours to hike up, and 2 hours to go down. The trail was just easy to follow, with much less confusing for. However most people said that doing the traverse is not that easy, with less visible trail sign and more confusing fork, to our dismay because we do not have enough water, we aborted the plan of going down in san juan bano area.

This mountain should be climb early in the morning if you plan to do a dayhike , or traverse, and late in the afternoon if you plan to stay for the night. At the campsite, where the basecamp of the military is, there is no water source. Its completely dried up there and in the entire trail

                          My hiking buddy doing his signature planking pose

                     

                              At the south peak,looking at the north peak


How to do it..

From Cubao you can take the bus going to mariveles,orani or any buses that will pass by Sm San Fernando.
Fare : P102

From SM San Fernando take the jeep bound for Magalang, Alight in Jollibee Magalang.
You can buy your packed lunch and get some trail water there.
Fare : P35

Ride tricycle to Jump off.
P100/head

Sunday Afternoon with MCAP

Last Sunday I was invited by my friend to join the ropemanship and knot tying training with Marc Gana. Those people who are into rock climbing and rappelling they know and climbed with  Marc. He was the founder of the extreme adventure zone, and have years of experience using the rope. He is a rockstar (working with rocks ) on his own right.

                                   Marc showing his ways with the rope

Mcap-short for- Mountain Climber Alliance of the Phillipines another group created on facebook by Edwin Gatia- whose name always associated when you mentioned Guiting Guiting.As he, among others-included in the first group who was able to reached the Peak of  Mt Guiting Guiting back in the days.

Ropemanship is the skill climbing with ropes. All outdoor enthusiast, from some point of their lives probably used ropes one way or the other. Ropemanship is also important skills to have to rescue lives during natural disaster and catastrophe-such as typhoon- flash food, landslide, earthquake or any other emergency that requires rope to save lives and properties. Having said that ,being an ourdoorsman requires us to have a few skills with knot tying.

                                Marc is sharing some of his favorite knots

Ropemanship always goes hand in hand with knot tying. According to Marc and from the internet there are thousands of knots available. But you dont need to memorize all of it, you just need to learned  a few knots and how to used in a given situation really matters. Bear Grylls shared his Top 10 knots on his ipod/iphone applications . Marc Gana shared his top 20 on the training.

For simplicity, I will just share some of it. These are very easy to learned and to remember. As of all other things, practicing it ,until it becomes second nature should be your main goal, because you really never know when and where  you're going to need it-maybe the life you will save will be your own.

The following knots below are some of most used knots in backpacking and hiking. From tying your guyline to the peg, or making a makeshift tarp or tying your hammock to a tree.  These knots are very useful in the outdoors. 

1. Bowline - makes a reasonably secure loop in the end of a piece of rope. It has many uses, e.g., to fasten a mooring line to a ring or a post. Under load, it does not slip or bind. With no load it can be untied easily. Two bowlines can be linked together to join two ropes. Its principal shortcoming is that it cannot be tied, or untied, when there is a load on the standing end. It should therefore be avoided when, for example, a mooring line may have to be released under load.

2.Figure of eight - allows the simple and reliable Figure 8 loop to be tied to a ring, a carabiner, or your own harness. It is reasonably easy to remember, tie, and check. When completed it forms a Figure 8 Loop

3. Clove hitch -A clove hitch is a type of knot. Along with the bowline and the sheet bend, it is often considered one of the most important knots.^[1] A clove hitch is two successive half-hitches around an object. It is most effectively used as a crossing knot. It can be used as a binding knot, but is not particularly secure in that role.^[2] A clove hitch made around the rope's own standing part is known as either two half-hitches or buntline hitch, depending on whether the turns of the clove hitch progress away from or towards the hitched object.

4.Cow Hitch - The cow hitch is a hitch knot used to attach a rope to an object. The cow hitch comprises a pair of half-hitches tied in opposing directions, as compared to the clove hitch in which the half-hitches are tied in the same direction. It has several variations and is known under a variety of names. It can be tied either with the end of the rope or with a bight.

5.Overhand Knot - The overhand knot is one of the most fundamental knots and forms the basis of many others including the simple noose, overhand loop, angler's loop, reef knot, fisherman's knot and water knot. The overhand knot is very secure, to the point of jamming badly. It should be used if the knot is intended to be permanent. It is often used to prevent the end of a rope from unraveling.

6.Sheep Shank - The sheepshank is a type of knot that is used to shorten a rope or take up slack. This knot is not stable. It will fall apart under too much load or too little load.

7. Sheet bend (also known as becket bend, weaver's knot and weaver's hitch) is a bend, that is, a knot that joins two ropes together. Doubled, it is effective in binding lines of different diameter or rigidity securely together, although it has a tendency to work loose when not under load.

 8. Square Knot ( Reef Knot ) - The reef knot or square knot is an ancient and simple binding knot used to secure a rope or line around an object. Although the reef knot is often seen used for tying two ropes together, it is not recommended for this purpose due to potential instability of the knot.
A reef knot is formed by tying a left-handed overhand knot and then a right-handed overhand knot, or vice versa. A common mnemonic for this procedure is "right over left, left over right", which is often appended with the rhyming suffix "... makes a knot both tidy and tight". Two consecutive overhands of the same handedness will make a granny knot. The working ends of the reef knot must emerge both at the top or both at the bottom, otherwise a thief knot results.

9.Taut-line hitch -The taut-line hitch is an adjustable loop knot for use on lines under tension. It is useful when the length of a line will need to be periodically adjusted in order to maintain tension. It is made by tying a rolling hitch around the standing part after passing around an anchor object. Tension is maintained by sliding the hitch to adjust size of the loop, thus changing the effective length of the standing part without retying the knot.It is typically used for securing tent lines in outdoor activities involving camping, by arborists when climbing trees,^[1] for creating adjustable moorings in tidal areas,^[2] and to secure loads on vehicles.

 

  

10.Siberian Hitch (or Evenk knot) is a knot used to attach a rope to an object. The hitch is thought to have originated from the Evenk people of Siberia.^{[citation needed]} It is a quick release hitch often used by Ray Mears during his bushcraft television series. The hitch is known for the ease in which it can be tied even whilst wearing gloves or mittens in cold climates. This hitch is also slipped and therefore can be released by pulling the short end of the rope.^[1]

 

 

^{Disclaimer :} 

 ^{All pictures of the knots above and its descriptions came from the internet.} 

 

^{I wanna say thank you to all Mcap members for their warm welcome and hospitality . And to Marc Gana for sharing his talents and time to make this event possible.}