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Thursday, May 18, 2006
Cebuano climber summits Mt. Everest
CEBU CITY -- Cebu-based triathlete Leo Oracion is the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak.
The 32-year-old climber reached the top of the 8,848-meter mountain at 3:30 p.m. Nepal time (5:30 p.m. Philippine time) Wednesday.
According to ABS-CBN, the principal sponsor of the expedition, Oracion's feat was a "reconnaissance climb" via the popular South Col route for the remaining members the Philippine Expedition Team who are in separate base camps below.
Fellow expedition team member Erwin Emata began his own bid for the summit Wednesday night.
Meanwhile, Romeo Garduce, who is with a commercial climbing outfit and backed by GMA 7, is expected to push for the summit Friday.
"The Philippine eagle has landed on the summit of Mt. Everest," Oracion said over the satellite communicators that linked him to the rest of the members.
"We were all crying," said expedition leader and Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Undersecretary Arturo Valdez. "It was really a dream come true," he added.
Oracion reached Camp 4, the final way station at the rarefied air of 26,000 feet on Tuesday without the aid of oxygen tanks, Valdez said. "He was able to demonstrate that, indeed, the Filipino can."
Reactions were swift.
"The entire nation is proud at what they are achieving," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said on national television.
Mandaue City Mayor Thadeo Ouano also praised Oracion, who resides in Barangay Cubacub, for bringing pride and honor to the country and the Filipino people.
Relief
Within the local mountaineering community, however, it's a mix of elation over the conquering of difficult challenge and relief that no harm had befallen the man Cebuano climbers, triathletes and adventure racers fondly call "Robot."
"We had constant communication with them through the Smart Aces satellite phones that were sent to them by Habagat," said businessman and fellow mountaineer Ramon Vidal, referring to the Cebu-based local mountaineering equipment provider whose local climbing team both he and Oracion was a part of.
"We knew that the weather was good but we were worried because he was three hours late. He encountered high ice poles that he had to clear first to fix ropes," Vidal said.
Respected as a climber and mountaineer at a national level, Vidal, like Oracion, is a veteran of the Habagat team and the Mountain Search and Rescue Team of the Philippines (Mosart), a non-government group often called in to assist in search, rescue, recovery and retrieval operations during aviation accidents and other disasters.
Vidal's worry stems from the fact that the Everest climb wasn't supposed to be until next year and that it was forced into being after the GMA 7/Garduce bid for the peak was announced.
Not that sponsor ABS-CBN was trying to play catch-up.
Race
The Philippine Expedition Team has actually announced its intent to scale the peak as early as 2004, with Valdez announcing a three-year preparatory program that aimed to put a 20-person Philippine Team to the summit by 2007.
"As a matter of fact, the preparation is still on-going. The other members of the expedition are leaving for Alaska (today) for a preparatory climb of Mount McKinly," he pointed out.
Garduce, Vidal said, was recruited for the climb but the latter declined.
But when the expeditionary team climbed the 24,000-foot Mount Mustagh Ata in Pakistan as part of their preparatory climb, earning them the Philippine record, Garduce, now backed by GMA 7, rivaled them by climbing the 26,000-foot Mount Cho Oyu, the sixth tallest mountain in the world.
"After this, the team decided to do the Everest climb," Vidal said, adding that they called the project an "expedition climb" to hide any semblance of a full race.
Network executives at both ABS-CBN and GMA have denied that there was a network race to the top of Everest amid published criticism from some sections of the local mountaineering community that they could get the three climbers killed.
"There is no such thing," said Rikki Escudero, assistant vice president of GMA, which put up 2.5 million pesos (48,733 dollars) to finance Garduce's climb. She notes that "their (climbers') lives are already at stake" just by their presence at the mountain.
"We are just focused on supporting Romy. If the other group reaches the summit first we will still cover them," she told AFP.
"There is rising (viewer) interest because we are all hopeful that they will make it," Escudero said. "We think it's a worthy endeavor."
Robot
Born in Lucban, Quezon, but residing here in Cebu since 1996, Oracion is active in the local mountaineering and adventure racing circuit.
He, with fellow adventure racer Jerome Mil, holds the national record for 10 and 20-kilometer tandem kayak for example.
And, with people from Frontiertrainings Inc., he is also active in the training circuit, giving seminars on organizational development or self-enhancement through outdoor-adventure activities like rappelling, orienteering and kayaking.
He is also a veteran in international competitions. He took part in the 2001 Eco Challenge in New Zealand and was the first Filipino in the circuit.
Oracion is a "robot" because, according to Mil, nobody ever sees him tired.
"He also has the uncanny ability to just shut off pain. He is definitely the best climber the Philippines has and this is evident on how he was chosen to do the reconnaissance climb," Mil said.
He said Oracion was simply determined to do the Everest climb, adding that the preparation for the trip took him away from his wife, Angel, and child, Marie. Angel is in the United Arab Emirates while Marie is with Angel's parents in the province. (Karlon N. Rama of Sun.Star Cebu)
(May 18, 2006 issue)
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