At 2,954 m, Mount Apo is the highest peak in the Philippines - a
flat-topped, solfataric stratovolcano straddling the boundary of Davao del Sur,
Cotabato and Davao City on Mindanao. To the Manobo, Bagobo and Kalagan peoples it
is Apo Sandawa, the "revered elder" - a sacred ancestor and the abode of
spirits. No historical eruption is confirmed (a 1640 event is disputed), but the
mountain is far from dead: a line of solfataras - hissing sulfur vents that
crust the rock yellow - runs from the south-east flank at 2,400 m up to the crown.
The summit is not a single point but three peaks. The south-west peak is
highest, capped by a 200-m-wide crater holding a small lake; the final approach crosses
a chaos of house-sized andesite blocks known to climbers as the Boulder Face.
Just north, at about 2,280 m, lies Lake Venado, the Philippines' highest lake
and the classic high camp on the Kidapawan trail. Apo was declared a national park on
9 May 1936 and an ASEAN Heritage Park in 1984; its forests are the last
stronghold of the critically endangered Philippine eagle, and shelter over
270 bird species.
Hikers cross the deep Marbel and Sibulan valleys and the Lake Agco hot
springs to reach the boulders; dawn on the summit typically breaks above an unbroken
sea of clouds, with the volcano's shadow thrown west across it. Press the
button below to raise the cloud deck. Terrain is real NASA SRTM elevation draped with
Esri World Imagery; the summit region is refined with a denser mesh and z15 imagery.
The cloud deck is stylised.