Return to Everest

Five years ago, three courageous Filipinas fought thin air, illness, high winds, landslides and their own limitations to become the first South East Asian women to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Noelle Wenceslao, Karina Dayondon and Janet Belarmino consecutively reached the peak on May 16, 2007. That was an auspicious date: 32 years earlier, Junko Tabei of Japan became the first woman in the world to summit Everest.

The conquest was the culmination of a record-setting, physically demanding odyssey for the trio. They had dedicated three years of their lives to doing what had never been done by their countrywomen before. Though they had set other records along the way, Everest was the lone goal they set their sights on. They were gambling with their lives, and they were aware of the dangers. The world's most famous mountain often exacted a steep price for those foolish and arrogant enough to challenge all 29,000 feet of it unprepared. Each season, about a dozen or so climbers are claimed by the mountain, most of them bigger, stronger, more experienced male climbers.

“We all knew at the time that once we started going up Everest, there was always a chance we would not come back,” says Belarmino.

The “Kaya ng Pinay” team, targeting Everest a year after the group of Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata and Romy Garduce became the first Filipinos to accomplish the feat, had to travel extensively to prepare themselves physically in conditions as close as possible to the actual climb. They went to New Zealand to learn the skills needed to survive the ascent. Along the way, they set a new altitude record for Filipino women, reaching the summit of Mount Muztagh-Ata on the China-Pakistan border. Next to fall was North America's tallest mountain, “The High One”, Alaska's Mount McKinley. Getting close to their target, the team then overcame “Turquoise Goddess” Mount Cho-Oyu in the Himalayas, the world's sixth-highest mountain and just 20 kilometers away from Mount Everest.

The long Everest climb itself was fraught with many dangers. Wenceslao, a member of the last SEA Games dragonboat team, was suffering from pulmonary edema at the time. The team felt the physical and emotional strain. There were even certain stretches of knife's edges where stopping meant certain death. Other climbers would not wait for you. You would be left behind to freeze, and your body could not be carried down. Upon their triumphant return to the Philippines, the Filipinas showed the wear and tear of their ordeal: the skin on their faces badly wind-burned and darkened from the harsh elements. It was a trek that tested anyone, male or female, beyond their limits.

Now Janet Belarmino is going back to Mount Everest.

Belarmino, tennis player, triathlete, adventure racer and biker, has an added motivation. In 2007, she was the last member of the Mount Everest team to reach the summit. Now, she will be leading a team of beginners to her original team's base camp about 18,000 feet high, in the hope of reaching it at around the date of her first historic ascent with Wenceslao and Dayondon in 2007.

“I know that for some athletes, having done it already is enough,” Belarmino told The STAR. “But I'm not done with Everest yet. I want to show that anybody can do it, if they prepare properly.”

The plan is for Belarmino and a small team to bring some newcomers, some of whom are fellow UP Mountaineers, to Nepal on May 2, with the aim of reaching Base Camp in 17 days.

“We've been training and meeting regularly to condition them physically and mentally,” explains Belarmino. “During the actual climb, we will have targets for each day. Once we hit our target altitude for the day, we stop. Even if you feel you can still go on, you save your energy the rest of the day.”

Everest Base Camp is the first of five camps before approaching the 60 million year old summit. Each succeeding camp is another 3,000 feet or so higher. Those numbers may sound easy if you were just walking, but not climbing slowly and cautiously in extreme conditions. For an inexperienced climber, that is daunting enough, with many of the hazards one would never face anywhere else. Alpine climbing is more challenging than climbing tropical peaks. The thin air alone already impairs ability to think, reaction time and decision-making. The temperature adds another constant threat. And all the while, the climber is carrying survival equipment and other essentials. It takes a rare athlete to take on the challenge.

But, if the quest is successful, it will open doors for those who aspire for this great adventure, and also promote tourism to and from the Philippines. Belarmino and company already proved Pinays could do it. Now, she has made the challenge more reachable for more of her countrymen. In a way, she continues to inspire Filipinos to dare to consider reaching for the impossible.