Cordilleran environmentalist scales Welsh dragon’s back

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Mild-mannered and soft-spoken Benguet-born environmentalist Arthur Joseph Paul Alipio has “tamed the dragon” in Wales.

From the oftentimes unforgiving Cordillera mountain ridges, “JP” among his colleagues and brothers of Pi Sigma Fraternity at the University of the Philippines, flew to the United Kingdom mid-May as the first Filipino to join and finish the legendary Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race along the mountainous spine of Wales from north to south.

The incredible five-day journey is 315 kilometers long with 15,500 meters of ascent across wild, trackless, remote and mountainous terrain. 

Galen Reynolds of Canada clocked 37:48:06 to finish first overall. JP placed 217th at 70:43:46.

Only 251 finished the race, considered as the toughest mountain marathon in the world, out of more than 400 who joined.

Alipio, who has ran the Cordillera ridges, said “it was the toughest race I have ever joined.” 

The original Dragon’s Back Race happened in September 1992, and since then has been considered as a race combining “awe and trepidation.” Its reputation reached legendary status with fell, mountain and ultra runners the world over by September 2012 when the second race took place.  

With the modern era of races now held every two years, the Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race is respected around the world for both its bulletproof organization and its “toughest mountain race” status. 

The mountains of Wales are completely different from what a runner is normally used to, JP said: “A lot of the route is over very wild land with no trails.” The need to navigate through 300 plus kilometers of rough terrain adds up to your stress every day, he said. “Having to make decisions on routes, which directions to go, picking the best lines through rocks, bogs and grasslands is added mental stress to the body.”  

JP said he had to wake up every morning of the race, swiftly pack gear and set out again running another ultra for five days. “It was also taxing,” he said, adding “I only got about three to four hours of sleep a night.” He said he hardly got any sleep during the last night. “I bonked really badly on the fourth day depleting my energy stores and couldn’t really get my energy up no matter how much I ate.”   

But he said “it was one of the most fulfilling things I have ever done in my life.”   

JP had been with the environmental movement for decades, lately as director of the non-government volunteer Cordillera Conservation Trust (CCT). The group has existed since 2006 and has over the years implemented different innovative solutions to environmental problems of the Cordillera region. 

CCT in partnership with the Department of Education built 107 forest nurseries in remote elementary schools in Benguet and Ifugao.    

In 2015 they started the sustainable mountains initiative to create livelihood opportunities through adventure, teaching communities to develop homestay and sustainable tourism enterprises as an alternative to destructive practices such as commercial agriculture. The program in partnership with the University of Baguio has trained over 200 households in Itogon, Kabayan and Kibungan since 2015 and helped increase household income by up to 500 percent. 

His love for the environment goes hand in hand with adventure running. “I don’t think anything really compares with the Dragon’s Back Race. It is one part adventure, one part mountaineering, one part trail running.”

The unmarked route has to be navigated daily and takes a huge toll on a runner’s energy and mental strength, JP continued. “The course is also extremely technical so you have to have laser focus every single day or you could easily slip and fall off a cliff, sink into a bog, etc.” 

Doing extreme distance through five days really takes a toll on the body, the Benguet ultra racer and environmentalist explained. “You have to be constantly eating because you are burning over 4,000 calories a day and even then you’re going into a deficit, I lost almost five kilograms during the race and some of that was muscle already.” 

Beyond the technical aspect of the race, JP said, “the best part for me was the camaraderie of the racers, because you are all together in camp every day and you see each other on the course… there is a bond with everyone sharing the hardship of this journey.”   

JP confessed, “I was starting to break down crying about 20 kilometers from the end of the fourth day realizing that the end was in sight.” It was also his most emotional race, he said.

As an environmentalist going through so many beautiful mountains, he said this is really what got him into this work in the first place. “Also seeing the effect of the outdoors on the competitors made me think of all the people we have influenced to keep it wild through the years of CCT,” he said.