Wawa - Montalban, Rock climbing

YDS

5.1 5.3 5.5 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.10a 5.10c 5.11a 5.11c 5.12a 5.12c 5.13a 5.13c

Map

1 11 12 2 5 4 13

1 Rook Area 2 El Kanto 4 Banzai Wall 5 Slayer Wall 11 Uling Wall 12 Boogie Wall 13 Monkey Wall

Directions in Google Maps

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Seasonality

Summary

Climbing and bouldering

Description

Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) is located in the foothills of the SierraMadre mountain range beside the Wawa River. Limestone climbing and bouldering can be found.

Access issues

Aling Normas is a food stall where every visiting climber eats. Register here, ask for the logbook and write down your name and destination and messages for friends who will be late to arrive. Settle the PhP 300 fee per group of 10 or less. Additional PhP 20 per head applies for the succeeding number of climbers. This goes to the local government for maintenance and security of the area. P20 for parking if you have a private vehicle but remeber the attendants name that you paid so you dont pay twice. Once you cross the bridge make a donation to the locals on the trail head in the village, PhP 15-20. (This donation comes and goes and isn't official)

Approach

Approach vis Commonwealth Avenue. From Commonwealth Ave, turn R to the road going to Batasang Pambansa, following the curving road until you see Payatas Avenue to your R, marked by bottleneck traffic and market vendors on the sidewalk. Go through Payatas, down the mountain and R once you come across a junction. Follow this tricycle infested highway to the end and turn LFollow this road till you hit Wawa. You have reached once the road turns into a walkway with parking on the L.

Or public transport options.

Take Cuboa-Montalban jeepney /FX to the end of its route (P25)
From Philcoa, take the jeepney marked Philcoa-San Rafael via San Mateo all the way to its end. (P12)
You can take any jeepney heading to Fairview and go down at Litex. Take the jeep to San Jose Market (P6) Take one more jeepney to San Rafael (P3)

All routes lead to San Rafael where you take one last ride to the dead end road of Wawa

Be ready for river crossing and watch for slippery trails in the wet.

Where to stay

Meals are usually taken at Aling Normas where the typical morning fare includes lugaw (Filipino congee) with hard boiled egg and a plethora of other local dishes. Ask for sinigang, adobo, chicken curry, kaldereta, tinolang manok and fried chicken.

You can take sari sari store snacks with you to the crags but what most do is eat a full breakfast and just finish the day with a late lunch dinner. Take lots of water.

You can also spend the night at Aling Normas now furnished with two toilets, three showers, and 2-3 sleeping quarters. Sleeping over will be a good option if you have far to go after the post climb chit chat, San Miguel, Redhorse, and all night Karaoke.

Ethic

Trad, sport climbing and bouldering.

History

History timeline chart

The history of Montalban spans 30 years with some access issues with the crags situated on private land. As of 2009 Rodriguez has been opened to climbers, bikers and vacationers through the payment of minimal fees.

Montalban Wawa was the first developed sport climbing area in the country, with routes going as far back as the 1980s through the efforts of climbers from the University of St Tomas and the University of the Philippines. From a few traditional routes it has grown into more than 20 crags with over 100 routes.

Wawa offers a variety of styles steep, crack, sport, boulder and trad. Sadly not all are well maintained and some of the areas have long been forgotten and have sunk back into obscurity. Today's most popular climbing areas is limited to just a few: Uling Wall with the most number of routes, Slayer Wall with the most number of hard single pitch long routes, Boogie Wall which is the most quiet and off the beaten track, and Banzai Wall currently getting new attention because of the development of 2-pitch routes.