Recalling Filipinos feats on Mt. Everest

The trio of Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino-Serdena and Noelle Wenceslao, the three Filipinos who became the first Southeast Asian women to summit the 8,850-meter (29,035 feet) Mt. Everest and the first women in the world to traverse Everest from the North to the South side, made their appearance as guests of honor of the inter-MBA (Master of Business Administration) Friendship Games hosted by the De La Salle Ramon V. del Rosario Sr. Graduate School of Business Sunday morning at the Enrique Razon sports complex at Taft Avenue, Manila.

Dayondon, Serdena and Wenceslao came together with Heracleo “Leo” Oracion; former Department of Transportation and Communications undersecretary and head of the Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition team, Art Valdez; and team physician, Dr. Ted Esguerra. The group was warmly welcomed by close to 300 graduate business student-athletes from De La Salle, Ateneo, Asian Institute of Management, University of Sto. Tomas and San Beda.

Prior to the trio’s feat, which occurred on May 16, 2007, crossing the mountain from Tibet to Nepal had only been done by a handful of mountaineers, all of them men. A year earlier on May 17, 2006, 33-year-old Oracion of Mandaue City, Cebu, became the first Filipino to scale Mt. Everest. 

A day later, May 18, 2006, Erwin Pastor Emata of Tagum City, Davao made it to the summit at 5:34 a.m. Nepal time, together with three Sherpa guides. Valdez says that the Nepal Ministry of Tourism closely monitors all groups going up Everest. Groups queue up according to a system designed by the Nepalese government and wait their turn. All teams are assigned guides that exclusively come from the Sherpa tribe. According to Valdez, not even the sturdy Gurkha tribe, among several tribes in the Nepal side of Everest, is allowed to guide teams climbing Everest.

The third officially recognized Filipino to conquer Everest is Romeo “Romy” Garduce, project manager of Petron. Garduce climbed Everest at 11:20 a.m. on May 19, 2006, two days after Oracion and a day after Emata scaled the summit. A year later, on May 17, 2007, a day after the trio scaled Everest, mountaineer Regidor “Reggie” Pablo reached the “rooftop of the world” in what has been described by Pablo’s wife Melissa as a “quiet, no-hype” climb, per writer Fe Zamora.

Zamora states that Pablo of Globe Telecoms, climbed Mt. Everest from the North Side and went down via the North Side, unlike the three Filipinas who traversed the mountain. Valdez says that traversing Mt. Everest makes more demands on logistics, communications and teamwork, among others.

Speaking before the inter-MBA athletes on behalf of the trio, Sardena, 28, from Sta. Rosa, Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, said that teamwork and discipline were the most important factors in the group’s success. Sardena, a sports science graduate of the University of the Philippines (UP), has been promoting mountaineering as a way of life and had to leave behind a five-month-old baby, named Hinalaya, to pursue her dream of conquering the world’s highest peak. She was the last among the three to make it to the summit around 7:45 a.m.

Dayondon, 28, the fourth of 14 siblings, grew up in southern Bukidnon. A daughter of retired bankers, Dayondon reached the peak of Mt. Everest at 6:20 a.m., 10 minutes after Wenceslao. We are told that Dayondon’s family didn’t actually want her to join the Everest team because of the obvious dangers and since she is also the family’s breadwinner.

At 27, Wenceslao is the youngest member of the team. Like her teammates, Wenceslao is a PCG officer. A graduate of Physical Education from the UP and member of the UP Dragon Boat Team and the UP Mountaineer’s Club, Wenceslao was the first to reach the summit at 6:10 a.m. Earlier in the climb, Wenceslao suffered from Acute Mountain Sickness but team doctor Esguerra “monitored her condition and took care of her every step of the way, according to Valdez.

Truly, the Filipinos who belong to that elite club of conquering Mt. Everest, embody what we as a people can achieve if we work together. As the ladies said, “we agreed since we started preparing in 2004, we wanted to contribute our share to regain our self-esteem and confidence as a people by conquering Mt. Everest.”

As one of the group said the unrelenting focus on achieving their goal is found in the song “Climb Ev’ry Mountain”: “Climb ev’ry mountain, ford every stream, follow ev’ry rainbow, ‘till you find your dream. A dream that will need all the love you can give, everyday of your life, for as long as you live.”