Mount Halcon


Mount Halcon and is a mountain located in the island of Mindoro in the Philippines. Its height of makes it the 18th highest peak in the Philippines. Its steep slopes have earned it the reputation of being the most difficult mountain to climb in the country. The first documented ascent was made in 1906 by botanist Elmer Drew Merrill and a party of forestry and military personnel.
Mount Halcon is home to the indigenous Alangan Mangyans. Its thick vegetation contains much flora and fauna, including the critically endangered Mindoro bleeding-heart which is endemic to the area, and the stick insect Conlephasma enigma, which was first described in 2012.
The mountain was also the location of a possible World War II Japanese holdout. Isao Miyazawa found evidence that his comrade Captain Fumio Nakahara was living there in 1957. Another search in 1977 was called off due to Miyazawa contracting malaria. In 1980, Miyazawa found Nakahara's hut, and the natives talked to him extensively about the foreigner. However, Nakahara himself has never been spotted.