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.
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