Cordillera Great Traverse Trail

Cordillera Great Traverse Trail (CGT) is a long-distance, multi-day hiking trail network in Northern Luzon’s Cordillera region of the Philippines, built to connect challenging existing mountain trails across the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) from Apayao to Baguio City. It is intended as a continuous traverse linking major peaks and destinations across the CAR.

The route is designed for experienced trekkers with very high difficulty: steep ridges, dense mountain forest travel, repeated river crossings, and long, multi-day mountain travel between communities and established trailheads.

The CGT’s stated length is about 444 km, with a historical complete run over 17 days by the 2015 expedition. That 2015 effort reported 5,891 m of total ascent and 5,196 m of total descent, reflecting sustained uphill/downhill travel.

Key peak/destination connections called out for the traverse include Mount Pulag (2,922 MASL), Mount Amuyao, Mount Ugo, Mount Napulauan, and Mount Purgatory. The overall concept is a province-to-province link-up across the central Cordillera highlands rather than a single summit-only line.

The trail runs through the provinces of Apayao, Kalinga, Abra, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Benguet and ends in Baguio City at Camp John Hay. Planning and recon work for the project were conducted ahead of the 2015 expedition timeline.

Around the 2015 expedition, the starting point is described as beginning in Apayao (with Conner in Apayao cited as the start town), then finishing at Camp John Hay, Baguio City. The route is also presented as a way to link multiple jump-offs to major Cordillera hiking destinations along the way.

More information: Official website, The Cordillera Great Traverse - Schadow1 Expeditions, August 2015 : Schadow1 Expeditions