Pagasa station on Mt. Pulag

I was on Mt. Pulag two weeks ago, on a longer trek through Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya, and I can personally attest to the cold temperatures that were being reported in the news media. I took pictures of the frosted grass at the summit as my evidence that indeed, temperatures have reached freezing point.

This is not an unusual phenomenon on Mt. Pulag—and in mountaineering lore. Many hiking clubs, and hikers who love Mt. Pulag enough to visit it once a year, have tales of frozen water bottles or frosted tents. These anecdotal reports suggest that subzero temperatures on Mt. Pulag are a perennial “phenomenon,” not just a record-breaking event this 2013.

Some hikers would attest that they have recorded minus 2 degrees Celsius on Mt. Pulag; and others will go as far as to say that the temperature reached minus 5 degrees Celsius. These chilly figures, if validated, would be the lowest recorded temperatures in the Philippines.

But how can we validate these anecdotal reports if we do not have an official, scientific thermometer to corroborate them? Indeed, it is very unfortunate that many in our news media, when they reported about the “below zero” temperatures on Mt. Pulag (at about the same time I was there), had to rely on the online brochures of tour operators or accounts of returning hikers. In a more carefully written article in the Inquirer (“Zero in Pulag? Pag-

asa clueless,” 1/25/13), the writer noted that the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) cannot validate the reports of subzero temperatures because it does not have a monitoring station on Mt. Pulag.

I am not casting doubt on the reports of well-meaning hikers and tour groups because I actually believe them, and I myself attest that it was very cold indeed on Mt. Pulag; and I am even offering photos as evidence. But temperature is not something that you measure with testimonial or photographic evidence. You measure it with a thermometer, preferably an official one, validated and calibrated by meteorologists and other experts.

That is why I am calling on Pagasa to set up a monitoring station, or at the very least, an official thermometer, on Mt. Pulag. This will enable the agency to track the coldest temperatures in the Philippines, which should be of interest to hikers, meteorologists, and the general public alike.

—GIDEON LASCO,

PinoyMountaineer.com