3 Pinays seek to reach Everest summit

These Fiipinas are off to climb to the top of the world. 

With high hopes of making their compatriots proud, three Filipino women flew to Katmandu, Nepal yesterday to take on the challenge of climbing to the summit of Mount Everest.

Janet Belarmino, 28, Noelle Wenceslao, 27, and Carina Dayondon, 28 – members of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Airlines (PAL ) Mountaineering Club – are expected to start their climb in May to follow the path cut last year by Leo Oracion, perhaps the first Filipino to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

The three said they are leaving behind loved ones, whom they hope to come home to with pride and with the joy of having made history.

Belarmino is mother to a three-month-old baby boy, Himalaya, whom she is leaving behind for this expedition. She said she feels both happy and sad that she is about to climb the highest mountain in the world because this means spending months away from her family.

"Nobody can predict what the weather would be like when we’re about to make the dash to the top," she said, noting that the goal is to reach the peak and come safely down the treacherous mountain.

All three said they have prepared for the climb by climbing other mountains, including Tibet’s Mount Chu-uyo, which is a little lower than Mt. Everest.

Former transportation undersecretary Art Valdez, their team leader, said Belarmino, Wenceslao and Dayondon will also seek to traverse Mt. Everest by climbing up the mountain’s North Face on the Tibet side and descend through the Southern part to come out in Nepal.