There are at least seven Filipinos, who have reached the summit of Mt. Everest. At 8,848 meters above sea level, Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. First to achieve the feat was Heracleo “Leo” Oracion on May 17, 2006. A day later, Erwin “Pastor” Emata did the same. Romi Garduce became the third Filipino to reach the summit on May 19, 2006. Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon and Janet Belarmino followed suit. Reggie Poblador was the last Filipino to set foot on the summit last May 17, 2007.
Another climber, Dale Abenojar was supposed to be the first to climb Mt. Everest a day before Oracion. His claim, however, is still disputed until now by the country’s mountaineering community.
Now, 18 years later, another expedition will attempt to scale Mt. Everest. Jeno Panganiban and Miguel Mapalad will try to join the record books as the 9th and 10th Pinoy to conquer Mt. Everest.
Panganiban was one of our guests during the latest episode of Larong Pilipino aired over DZME RadioTV last Sunday.
There, Panganiban revealed that they plan to summit Mt. Everest within the next two months.
“We are hoping to start the journey on April 14 where it will take us eight days to reach the first base camp on Everest. Then we will have the acclimatization and rotation, where we will spend most of our days to train by climbing up and down para masanay ang aming mga katawan sa kondisyon sa Everest at maging safe rin ang pag-akyat namin,” Panganiban said.
Panganiban, who initially started mountain climbing because his friends were into the sport, said it is his ultimate dream to reach the “top of the world” not only because not too many have managed to do this,a but he hopes to bring back interest and excitement to mountain climbing again. Just like what happened during the aftermath of Oracion, Emata and Garduce summiting Everest in three successive days, almost 19 years ago.
Panganiban is also aware that climbing Mt. Everest will not be easy considering the many factors that every climber will face in every footstep. The mountain is very unforgiving with several degrees below zero temperatures, extreme weather conditions, avalanches and its dreaded death zone. Also, climbing up and getting down are two different matters.
“Kinakabahan ako at natatakot, pero I use that para maging conscious ako sa bawat galaw ko, sa mga gamit ko, sa approach ko. Most deaths actually happen during the descent. Pagod na kasi sila. Kaya may plan kami ng team ko for both ascent and descent,” he admitted.
Before coming back to the country a few days back, Panganiban had been training in Nepal for several weeks. Before planning to climb Everest, he has already sumitted several 8,000-plus meter peaks to prepare him for the ultimate ascent. In all of his experiences climbing several peaks, he has a key motto.
“Sabi nila climbing a mountain is optional, but getting down is mandatory,” he added.
Panganiban will leave for Nepal on April 9. From there, he will rendezvous with Mapalad at the first base camp where they will prepare climbing up and down the several base camps before making the final assault to the top of Mt. Everest.
If plans push through, Panganiban and Mapalad will reach the summit either on the third or 4th week of May, which offers the best window to push for the summit.
“It’s about time for the global community to recognize once more our ability to climb Everest na kaya na naman natin ulit. It’s also time to raise the Philippine flag once more atop Mt. Everest and hopefully, this will unify us as a country and as Filipinos,” Panganiban said.
More than anything else, the last sentence matters most. I can’t stress enough how recent events have polarized the country and our people. Maybe, just maybe, we need something or someone, in case this forthcoming Mt. Everest expedition, to remind us that at the end of the day, there are so many things and reasons that could and should unite us.
Stay safe. Stay happy peeps!
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