Abenojar worried over Sherpa guide’s condition

Dale Abenojar, the adventure sportsman who claimed he was the first Filipino to conquer the summit of Mt. Everest last month, said that besides his personal struggle with frostbite, he is also bedeviled with concern over the plight of his young Sherpa guide.

Abenojar said he cannot help but feel sorry for his 21-year-old guide, Pasang Sherpa, who stands to lose all nine of his toes to frostbite. The Sherpa porter accompanied Abenojar on his climb up the more difficult terrain of Mt. Everest’s north face.

While Abenojar is agonizing over the possible amputation of the big toe of his left foot because of frostbite and gangrene, he said that he can’t help feeling sorry and, sometimes, guilty over the possibility that Pasang may lose all but one toe to frostbite and gangrene.

"I really feel sorry for him. If I’m suffering this much from just this left big toe, he has to face the amputation of all but one of his toes," Abenojar said in a long-distance telephone interview. "If I could, I would bring him with me to the Philippines so his (frostbitten) feet can be treated by our specialists."

While he said he trusted the Filipino-trained Nepali doctor who now cares for him and his guide, Abenojar added that he would prefer to be treated at St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) in Quezon City or Makati Medical Center in Makati City.

Abenojar and Pasang’s Nepali doctor was a schoolmate of the Philippine Coast Guard member and the First Philippine Mountain Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team’s Dr. Ted Esguerra.

Esguerra is the medic of the five-man support team of the FPMEE whose two members, Heracleo "Leo" Oracion and Erwin "Pastour" Emata arrived at the summit of Mt. Everest on May 17 and 18 respectively taking a route different from Abenojar’s.

"The problem is that I really cannot go home yet," Abenojar said.

"I really, really want to come home. I miss my wife and children. But I really have to fix some things here yet."

He said the delay in his homecoming has a lot to do with clearing away all the doubts about his claim that he was the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mt. Everest.

"I want to finish all the documentation before I go home," Abenojar said of his extended stay in the Nepali capital of Kathmandu.

It will be recalled that the FPMEE and other mountaineering groups in the Philippines, such as the University of the Philippines Mountaineering Society, dismissed Abenojar’s claim that he reached the summit of Mt. Everest ahead of Oracion on May 15.

Abenojar supporter Robin Mendoza, Abenojar’s only companion in Kathmandu, gave The STAR a copy of a certificate issued to Abenojar by the Mountaineering Association of Tibet of the Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China, which certified that Abenojar reached the summit of Mt. Everest at 10:45 a.m. of May 15 — a good two days ahead of Oracion’s May 17 arrival at the summit of the world’s highest mountain.

Dale admitted he was deeply hurt by the doubts cast upon his feat, especially because such doubts come from fellow Filipinos: "Masakit. Parang mas masakit pa nga yung mga doubts kaysa sa sakit na nararamdaman ko sa paa ko (It is painful. The doubts pain me more than my foot does)."