RP climber’s wife clams up on ‘feat’

The wife of Dale Abenojar, the climber who claims to be the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, has clammed up on her husband’s alleged feat, saying she has chosen to wait for her husband to come home and tell his story.

Lisa Abenojar said she wanted to avoid fanning a controversy over the apparent confusion over which Filipino climber actually reached the summit of Everest first.

"I want this to come out peacefully, we don’t want to cause a controversy over this," Lisa told The STAR in a phone interview yesterday.

Lisa said she is sticking to the press statement she emailed and faxed to media last Saturday.

In her press statement, Lisa said her husband made it to the peak of Mt. Everest, which towers at 29,035 feet in the Himalayan mountain ranges between Nepal and China, at 8 a.m. (10 a.m. in Manila) Monday, May 15, via the North Col route.

This was days ahead of Heracleo "Leo" Oracion, Erwin "Pastor" Emata, and Romeo "Romi" Garduce who all went via the more popular South Col route, said to be a relatively easier route.

"Dale Abenojar is one of the four Filipino climbers on Mt. Everest. But unlike the others, he climbed independently and without any sponsors or network backing him up. He left last April 1 with meager resources," Lisa said in her press statement.

Dale was earlier reported to be on his way to Kathmandu, Nepal to file his claim, bolstered by a "summit picture" and the testimony of his Sherpa guide.

According to Lisa, her husband was expected to come home before the month ends. She declined to give personal details about her husband when asked about his occupation in the Philippines.

Dale was reported to have gained fame when he became the first to reach the peak of Mt. Pinatubo using a Land Rover.

In Lisa’s press statement, she also pointed out that Dale was the first to publicly announce his intention to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest way back in 1994 but had difficulty finding financial backers for his expedition.

Lisa said one of the reasons for her husband’s unnoticed climb to the peak of Mt. Everest last week was that they had no media sponsors.

The 1st Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team, to which Oracio and Emata belong, has ABS-CBN as a long-time sponsor since it was formed last 2004 by former transportation undersecretary Arturo Valdez along with others such as Globe Roaming, Philippine Airlines, Summit Mineral Water of Asia Brewery, athletic gear company North Face, Roudy Project eyewear, and several others.

Garduce was backed by ABS-CBN’s rival GMA 7.

The FPMEE suddenly pushed ahead their schedule for a climb of Mt. Everest this year when Garduce suddenly left for Nepal last May 3, announcing his bid to reach the top of the world’s tallest mountain. The FPMEE had originally set their expedition to climb the mountain in 2007.

Fortunately for the team, Oracion and Emata were already in Nepal for training and acclimatization. The 15-member FPMEE has scheduled a string of climbs of several alpine mountain around the globe to prepare for their original schedule to climb Mt. Everest in 2007.

Valdez said that they will push ahead with their 2007 climb of Mt. Everest, this time as a full expedition.