With power banks becoming the norm with almost everyone with a semblance of one inside of their everyday carry, it’s only a matter of time until such gets improved on. Lifemate, with its outdoors oriented products, took up the mantle and is imminently coming out with two series offerings totaling to six products whence each variant is accounted for.
Apollo, is one of those series and it’s only apt seeing as it is also the moniker of the sun god which this set of products tames as well. The Apollo series works in tandem with the Power Eagle, Power Bear, and Power Lion each carrying more charge the fiercer the predator represented is. What better way to demonstrate its viability than going to a remote location where power is scarce and barely existent.
Power Mac Center and Lifemate came together and brought a few people from the media into the infamous Mt. Pinatubo. It was my very first trekking experience and it was quite the “rugged ride” as they put it. Everyone was gathered into a bus early in the morning and we were at the transition point at Tarlac at around 6:45AM. No one is allowed to go up past 7AM due to military exercises in the area.
We were subdivided into a number of Jeeps, understandably so as the unforgiving terrain is only navigable by these robust machines and their suspension systems.
Our first stop involved several carved mountains shaped into triangles… suspiciously like Toblerones. It was a photo opportunity that is a part of the ride to the starting area.
Jeeps travel in tandem and each with a designated guide as well that is why only four get to ride at the back.
This makes sense because if one jeep were to fail and it were on its lonesome, there wouldn’t be any immediate help anywhere in the vicinity. Our jeep had to pull another one out of de-comission from running into a ditch.
We got to the drop off point at around 8:52AM. Everyone went down the jeeps and prepped their gear and went off to face the mountain.
It’s practically mostly rocks and a number of streams with a few green patches here and there.
Respite comes in the form of a hut, or two, along the path to the summit.
Here we are waiting for at least some of the people to catch up and when that happened we continued on along even more rocks…
The second resting area marks entry into Botolan, Zambales, its still a bit far from the top but we were assured to be getting there… it was around 9:41AM at this time and we’ve been walking under the sun for approximately 50 minutes already.
The final marker came next in the form of three medium sized huts which coincidentally was the original trek start point for when the roads were clearer for the 4x4s to traverse better. From here its supposed to be only another 20 minutes to the summit.
This final hike stretch gets more vertical with some of the areas lined with more rocks to facilitate ease of climb.
You’d know you’re close when the path becomes more like stairs and that is when you get to the sign that signals the end of your journey.
That’s the crater right there ^^ The yield of an hour and forty-six minutes of trekking.
Thankful to these pair of shoes for getting me here as well… Top advice would be to use a fully closed pair when hiking as there’s the occasional trip up or the side of the shoe gets scraped as it hits a rock unintentionally.
Past lunch and a few minutes of rest, Yohan and crew finally let us in on the upcoming offerings to be distributed in Power Mac Centers around the country. Displayed here is the Power Lion and the Apollo 2 which has 4 panels capable of powering up even tablets with 2Amps of output.
The trek back was much shorter, both because we were descending, but more because I personally didnt want to be out in the sun too long XD. I even encountered some military planes going down, it would seem that the military exercises had started.
I saw the jeeps at around 2:14PM (started going down round 1:07 as per EXIF time).
Just over an hour returning, not bad all things considered. It truly was an amazing experience and one made even more so by the people we shared it with and the support of the portable solar technology from Lifemate.
A special shoutout to Think Big Events and the Power Mac Center team for making all the logistics and coordination possible. Watch out for the products in stores soon, especially if you find yourself outside more often than not ^^
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