PINOYAPACHE MEETS THE GREATEST PINOY MOUNTAINEER

REGIE PABLO JOINED ME today, March 18, 2017, inside a Toyota Corolla driven by Jay Z Jorge. We would all be going to Antipolo City. The Climbers League for Ideal Mountaineering and Balanced Environmental Responsiveness, or simply known as CLIMBER, will be opening the 18th Batch of their Basic Mountaineering Course in Basekamp, a private camping facility.

I stayed the whole day yesterday in the residence of Jay Z in Navotas City and I am fully rested after a week of travel, work and outdoors recreation. A wholesome dinner at Pacing’s House of Barbecue settled my equilibrium to near normal levels. My participation in the CLIMBER BMC would just be in a cameo role of bed spacer and freeloader. Jay Z must have erred in inviting me.

Sitting all to himself at the back is Regie, the renowned Filipino mountaineer and Mt. Everest summitter. It is indeed an honor to meet and share a ride with him inside the Toyota. This unassuming man made possible the Philippine dream of putting the first Filipino on Everest, with which honor belonged to Leo Oracion, who planted the national colors at 8848 meters in May 2006. It could have been him, though.

 

Unknown to many, he was the wellspring of that idea when he made known his intention of climbing Everest in 2001, after acquiring the funds, the equipment and the sponsors through his own industry and connections to sustain his expedition. He was set to claiming that honor when he was talked and prevailed upon by the local mountaineering community to involve the whole nation. So it became known as the Philippine Everest Expedition Team.

On that year in 2006, the country achieved an unprecedented feat by placing two team members on top of the peak. He did not get that chance. He sacrificed everything for that moment but his never came. Worse, he was sent packing days before caused by internal politics of the expedition team. He nursed bitterness for relinquishing his opportunity in 2001 but he will prove one day that he can climb without a team with useless people and their personal motives.

His day came on May 16, 2007. He did the impossible. He climbed Qomulongma all by himself, by his own wits and, in the process, losing the endmost joint of a thumb to frostbite. But he survived the greatest ascent of his life and lived to tell his solo adventure. Quite a feat for someone who defied age and his critics. It was the greatest insult he could flaunt in their faces! I loved individuals who thrived in obscurity. Regie is a certified Badass!

 

I remembered featuring Regie Pablo and his Everest climb in my Multiply account back in 2007. I know only that his expedition was done on his own power, bequeathing his corporate job for that one chance which elicit my appreciation. I know now that he took the longer route, after a brush of betrayal and rejection. His ascent has more substance, more drama and more sacrifice than any other Filipino before him and he deserves that honor, in bold letters, as the Greatest Filipino Mountaineer.

We arrive at Basekamp and some of the CLIMBER training staff are already there. The participants are excited to be in a seminar that would educate them into responsible individuals. They would learn a lot, considering that CLIMBER is an advocate of excellent outdoors education anchored on the seven principles of the Leave No Trace. In fact, CLIMBER is one of only a very few local partners of LNT Center of Outdoor Education.

Jay Z introduced me to the participants as an “inspirational” speaker. I was caught unprepared for I was informed at the last minute. Maintaining my composure, I tried to be esteemed as possible infront of them. I appealed to the participants to be discerning and objective of joining in mass climbs and cheap bandwagon tours which tend to drain them physically and emotionally instead of gaining good impressions and memorable experiences.

However, DIY trips and organized tours by more responsible tour agencies are much better and yields you higher sense of adventures and better memories, provided you follow protocol, which you can only learn in seminars like the BMC. As my parting message, it would be nice to the environment and to the indigenous communities to keep these unvisited places all to yourselves and it would be better, as well, not to share it in social media sites.

 

Regie would talk about Introduction to High Altitude Mountaineering during the first part of the BMC. For that matter, he brought a big bag containing the learning aids vital to imparting his lecture to the participants. Real mountaineering starts at 4000 meters because air begins to thin and low temperatures starts to be a hindrance. These two, together with ice, avalanche and crevasse, would make progress painful and dangerous.

Altitude sickness, frostbite, exposure, pulmonary and cranial edema are the main illnesses that slows down expeditions and, almost always, it claim lives. Another difficulty in higher altitudes is the difficulty of doing body functions deemed normal at sea level like breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping, defecating and urinating. Because of that, the sport of mountaineering needs special clothing, safety equipment and high-end gear and a very complicated acclimatization process.

The bag is a treasure trove of items that have seen better days when Regie brought it in many of his mountaineering expeditions in New Zealand, China, Argentina, Kyrgyzstan, Alaska, India and Nepal, but his crowning glory in Mt. Everest made these items more valuable than ever. Each has its own story to unravel and are now collectible items. These items are a decade old now and still served its purpose as valuable aids in BMC education.

I was amazed at the number of tools and thought processes to accomplish an expedition in arctic and thin-air conditions. In cold weather, deprived of oxygene, your blood circulation becomes sluggish affecting your thoughts. Simple body movement takes an eternity to accomplish. It takes years of experience to get used to these harsh conditions and an equally harsh environment. It takes also a deep pocket to make a summit timed on the most favorable time of the year.

 

It is cheap if you were born and have lived there all your life like the Sherpas but astronomically expensive when you are organizing an independent expedition on your own. Lately, commercial adventure tour agencies organize climbs in the Himalayas region and the price has diminished so much by leaps and bounds and, because of that, summitting Everest or any of the fourteen 8000-meter peaks are now possible for everyone.

The Philippine Everest Expedition Team took this very economical course and their contracted tour agency took care of everything from climb permits, lodging houses, additional equipment, oxygen, food, transportation, yaks and a small army of Sherpas to pave the way for them. It would have been much cheaper still if they start from the Buddhist Kingdom of Free Tibet but it is much safe in Nepal with all these professionals.

Regie successfully climbed Mt. Everest after cultivating friendships and connections with Nepalese tour operators and guides. He is a likeable fellow, humble and simple, but he has drive which could move mountains like his plans in 2001 where a number of people woke up from their stupors and inspired a nation. Denied his chance in 2006, which was originally his expedition, he came back and proved his detractors wrong. He won the last battle after a painful retreat.

His name in Philippine mountaineering history is already ensured and his way was the stuff of legends. Regie is an asset to any organization which could positively harness his intellect, skills, experiences and insights and CLIMBER is just fortunate to have worked together with him in educating people. CLIMBER guarantees the education of BMC participants only from the people who are the best in their fields, which followed thereafter.

 

The afternoon of the first day is dedicated to Land Navigation which is handled by Ronald Fabon and, after dinner, Basic Life Support by Christopher Jazmin. During the breaks, I set up my Silangan 2nd-Gen Hammock and an Apexus sheet at the back of the lecture hall and chased short naps. While witnessing the BMC, I get to meet again Ven Ap of Ven Going Places’ Stories Blog who had featured me many times and who have helped me with sponsorship for my Thruhike last January.

The next day, March 19, is a whole morning of Ropesmanship and Knot Tying by Marc Gana. The afternoon is dedicated for Wilderness First Aid by Chad Angelo Torres and Leave No Trace Principles by LNT Master Educator Erick Suliguin. After dinner, guest resource speaker Jeremiah Dayto talked about Prepping. Jay Z capped the final day with Introduction to Wilderness Survival and Khai Fredeluces explaining the appearance and contents of a survival kit.

It was another worthwhile weekend that I spent, this time, with my friends in CLIMBER. Some of these guys have even sat in my different bushcraft and survival classes like Jay Z (PIBC 2012, BWSC 2013), Marc (MCAPBC 2012), Jeremiah (PIBC 2016), Chad (BWSC 2016), Khai (BWSC 2016) and CLIMBER top honcho Bong Magana (MCAPBC 2012). These guys know what they are doing and, as I have mentioned earlier, they are the best in their fields.

Notable mentioning is Erick, a product of CLIMBER’s earliest BMC batch, who went on to pursue advanced learning in LNT at its US headquarters and came back to inject CLIMBER into a very credible outdoors learning institution. From him, I now own a Condor Bushlore, a Browning folding knife and a NOLS patch. It was a very fruitful weekend and my overall 14-day in visit in Luzon, which brought me to Baguio and Zambales, culminated in meeting Regie Pablo, a Filipino mountaineer nonpareil.

Document done in LibreOffice 5.3 Writer