Was another Pinoy first to Everest

With his Sherpa guide and a reported "summit picture" in hand, climber Dale Abenojar said he is actually the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mount Everest, two days before Heracleo Oracion, Erwin Emata and Romeo Garduce did so.

Abenojar "summited" with Tsiring Sherpa on Everest’s Tibet side — reportedly a harder route — last May 15, the website www.everestnews.com reported. He is now headed to Kathmandu, Nepal with his claim.

Oracion reached the peak of the 8,848-meter high mountain on Wednesday. Emata came second 17 hours later, while Garduce reached the top before noon Friday. All three climbers approached the mountain on its Nepal side.

Oracion and Emata are members of the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition, whose quest to climb the highest mountain in the world was covered by network giant ABS-CBN.

Rival network GMA-7 chronicled the quest of Garduce, an individual climber.

Liza, the wife of Abenojar, who was earlier reported to have called a stop to his quest, said she talked to the director of the outfitting company her husband had accompanied to the summit and was told he indeed reached the top.

Abenojar’s route to the summit, on its north face, is called the "Death Zone" because the climb is much steeper compared to the route taken by the Philippine team.

In a May 16 report by outdoornewswire.com, it said that "according to MountEverest.net, Malaysian climber Ravichandran Tharumalingam and… Abenojar have both reportedly reached the summit" while "on the south side of the mountain, teams at Camps 3 and 4 are getting ready for summit attempts that are likely to start early tomorrow."

Filipino mountaineer Francis Lim was earlier reported by ebalita.net to have said that Abenojar "is a mountaineer and a 4x4 enthusiast, member of the Land Rover Club of the Philippines."

Abenojar, according to Lim, "was the first Filipino to publicly announce his intention to climb Everest in the 1990s. He was also the first to bring up his plan to the government, but I guess they had more pressing matters to attend to, instead of a solo climber wanting to go for Everest and asking for government funding."

Weblogs from the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines Inc., according ebalita.net, said Abenojar was at the Everest base camp in 1993 "but did not get as far as Khumbu icefall" and instead spent the whole time at the camp.

"It appears the general feeling is that Abenojar could be a showman, thriving on outrageous and high profile stunts," ebalita.net said in its April 7 report, citing Lim’s statement.

Lim said that aside from driving his 4x4 to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo, Abenojar "also ‘climbed/rode’ to the summit of Mt. Apo, the country’s highest at 2954 meters, on a dirtbike. He had with him seven porters to help him carry the bike through the rocky sections."

"Unlike the other Filipinos going for Everest, little has been known of (the) Abenojar Alpine experience," Lim added.