‘Sherpas say Abenojar did not reach summit’

The disbanded First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team revealed the other day that the Nepali sherpas who escorted Dale Abenojar, the 43-year-old Filipino adventure sportsman who claims to have reached the summit of the world’s highest mountain last year, are now denying that he accomplished the feat.

According to Dr. Ted Esguerra, the erstwhile FPMEE expedition doctor who is now in Tibet providing support to the three Filipina mountaineers attempting to become the first Southeast Asian women to reach the top of Mount Everest this climbing season, he had talked with the sherpas and gotten their statements that Abenojar had climbed only up to the height of 8,000 meters of the 8844.43-meter or 29,017-foot tall mountain last May.

"We have the video interview," Esguerra told The STAR in a text message sent last Sunday.

Abenojar, sought for comment on the matter yesterday, was dumbfounded upon hearing of the reported move of his sherpas.

Abenojar said that he was at a loss on how to react, saying that he could not believe that his sherpas would do such things.

"I don’t know. I don’t believe that they would lie and do those things," Abenojar said.

Abenojar said he was also puzzled why the FPMEE, especially Esguerra, would continue to distort the issue of his climbing to the top of Mount Everest last May 15.

Abenojar said that he could not make a comment regarding the supposed move of his sherpas Pasang Dorchi and Tshiring Jangbu, especially since they were his friends.

"They have become my friends, almost like brothers. Friendship was all that I was able to offer them when our paths crossed in Mount Everest last year," Abenojar said, adding they went through tough times together and he had no money to offer them.

However, Abenojar recalled that Pasang and Tshiring may nurse some resentment against him for his failure to fulfill his promise to return to Nepal this climbing season and hire them again as sherpas in an attempt to climb to the top of Mount Everest again but without supplemental oxygen.

Expecting him to return, Abenojar said, the two sherpas were not given porter and escort jobs for other mountaineers who booked with the Monterosa International Treks and Expeditions group.

"If they were given work by FPMEE, then I’m happy for them because I let them down," Abenojar said in Filipino.

"But I can’t believe that they will do things like say that I was not able to reach the summit of Mount Everest because of their grudge," Abenojar said.

It will be recalled that Abenojar brought Pasang Sherpa and Tshiring Sherpa, and also Ramkrishna Tripathi, the Nepali base camp manager for the Monterosa International Treks and Expedition, when he returned to Manila from Nepal last year.

While here, Tshiring said that Abenojar had undoubtedly reached the summit of Mount Everest and that he was with him when he accomplished the feat.

Pasang, on the other hand, was helped by Abenojar to get medical treatment for his gangrene-infected toe, ultimately having all of his toes amputated due to severe infection.

On the claim that he only reached to up to 8,000 meters of Mount Everest, Abenojar explained that it could not be denied that he had climbed past this height since he was interviewed by a crew of Discovery Channel at Camp 3 which is at 8,300 meters of Mount Everest.

"Definitely, I climbed past 8,000 meters because I was interviewed by the Discovery crew at Camp 3 and I was on my way down from the summit then," Abenojar said.

Abenojar pointed out that the Discovery Channel crew who were taking video footage for a documentary on Mount Everest were aware of the comings and goings of mountaineers and that they interviewed him because they were aware that he had passed by David Sharpe, one of the few mountaineers who had died a few meters from the summit.

"It’s hard to explain to people who are not familiar with the Mount Everest climbing expedition process at the north col that you could not lie just like that up there and claim falsely that you just came from the summit. There are many climbers up there, and there are many who can expose you if you lie about getting to the top of Mount Everest," Abenojar said.

"I think the FPMEE knows this and it is very disappointing that they seem to seize on this to belie the fact that I was able to conquer Mount Everest ahead of Oracion and Emata," Abenojar said.

Esguerra shared that the retraction by the sherpas of their statements made to Philippine media when they came to Manila with Abenojar last year that Abenojar reached the summit of the "roof of the world" was spreading around the international climbing community that has now sprouted in the base camps of Mount Everest for the April and May climbing season this year.

"Grabe ginawa ni Dale. Pinahiya ang Pinoy sa international mountaineering world," Esguerra said in another text message, stating that Abenojar had shamed the Filipino.

Esguerra, it was learned, is with Heracleo "Leo" Oracion and Erwin "Pastor" Emata of the FPMEE in Tibet, China, assisting Carina Dayondon, Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao, fellow members of the FPMEE, in their attempt to be the first women from the ASEAN to conquer Mount Everest.

The FPMEE and their corporate sponsors have trumpeted Oracion as the first Filipino to conquer Mount Everest last year despite climbing it on May 17, taking the south col or the south face or slope of Mount Everest route. His fellow FPMEE member reached the summit on May 18, also through the south col.

Abenojar, taking what many say is the deadlier north col or north face route to the top of Mount Everest, reached summit on May 15, according to a certificate issued him by the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), which is said to be the only official entity authorized to certify mountaineers who conquer Mount Everest using the north col route which falls within the Tibet-China border.