Database Confirms Abenojar conquest

The Himalayan Database has listed adventure sportsman Dale Abenojar as one of an elite group of 33 people who were able to reach the summit of Mount Everest through its deadly north face on May 15 last year.

Abenojar, 43, earlier claimed to be the first Filipino to reach the summit of the world’s tallest mountain.

According to the Himalayan Database that was recently published online by the American Alpine Club, Abenojar was the sixth from the last of the 33 individuals who conquered Everest last May 15, placing the time of his arrival at 8:45 a.m., Nepal time.

The other successful summiteers came from New Zealand, China, Lebanon, United Kingdom, Australia, Turkey, Japan, Russia and Malaysia.

The release of the database online by the American Alpine Club has given Abenojar "great joy" since he learned of it.

"I am very honored and privileged to be so recognized by Elizabeth Hawley. It gives me so much pride and joy that I have become a part of world history on high-altitude mountaineering by their validation that I had indeed reached the summit of Mount Everest last May 15," he told The STAR in an exclusive interview yesterday.

"It has restored my confidence and enthusiasm for more challenging endeavors that I am now seriously planning," Abenojar added.

The Himalayan Database is a compilation of records for

all expeditions that have climbed in the Nepalese Himalaya by Hawley, an 80-something former Time Inc. reporter who settled in Nepal in the 1960s and has become the virtual official chronicler of the mountaineering community that sprung up in the Himalayas.

Hawley’s database covers all expeditions from 1905 through 2003 to more than 300 significant Nepalese peaks. Also included are expeditions to both sides of

border peaks such as Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga as well as to some smaller border peaks.

Data on expeditions to trekking peaks are included for

early attempts, first ascents, and major accidents.

Abenojar admitted that the Himalayan Database’s recognition of his feat came at a time when he was deeply resentful over the continued claims by the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition (FMEE) team that the group’s two climbers, Heracleo Oracion and Erwin Emata, were

the first and second Filipinos to reach the summit of Mount Everest last May 17 and 18, respectively.

Oracion and Emata recently received citations and awards from different sports and media bodies for being the first Filipinos to accomplish this feat.

The two had also been given the presidential citation and recognized as "Champions for Life" by Malacañang for their accomplishment. The "Champions for Life" award has not been given to Abenojar.

Oracion and Emata were acknowledged by the Himalayan Database as having climbed to the Mount Everest summit through the south col or south face on May 17 and 18, respectively.

"I have to admit that I am deeply hurt that I am being ignored, and that the hardships and sacrifices I made to reach the summit of Mount Everest and bring honor to my country are not being recognized here by some people," Abenojar said.

However, he said the international recognition given him by Hawley and other foreign groups such as the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), which is the only authorized issuing authority certifying Everest summiteers on the northern Tibetan side, has alleviated some of the hurt.

Oracion and Emata, by virtue of their having reached Everest’s peak through its south face, were certified as Mount Everest summiteers by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation of the government of Nepal, with their summit dates indicated as May 17 and 18, respectively.

Abenojar, for his part, has a certificate from the CTMA of the Autonomous Region of Tibet of the People’s Republic of China that listed his summit date as May 15, 2006.

Abenojar has accomplished his feat despite having no high-altitude alpine mountaineering experience, a fact that he said was raised by the FPMEE to discredit his accomplishment.

He brushed off these statements, saying he had undergone the appropriate acclimatization last year for a month and a half before his actual one-week push to the top of Mount Everest from the China "base camp."

"It can be done. I was able to do it. But you really have to have the right amount of willpower and determination, and I have to admit, a lot of luck, to pull it (off)," Abenojar said.