Forty-year-old Gene Basilio was the only Filipino who joined a group of 19 Asians who scaled Taiwan’s Jade Mountain, also known as Yu Shan, the highest peak in East Asia with an elevation of 3,952 meters, last Nov. 12-14.
Basilio is one of the pioneering members of the Nueva Vizcaya Mountaineering Club.
Although the trails were free of thickets and thorny bushes, the climb was as difficult as the Ambaguio, Nueva Vizcaya trail to Mount Pulag, the country’s second highest peak at 2,930 meters above sea level, he said.
"The thin air at more than 3,000 meters makes it even more challenging than the rest of the mountains in the Philippines because you have to breathe more often, gasping for oxygen while ascending slopes that can go 60 to 70 degrees," added Basilio, also a noted spelunker.
While Jade Mountain is steep and rocky, crumbling cliff faces could be encountered, strong winds could arise suddenly, and clouds or rain could come in an instant, he recalled.
"The temperature also dropped to 8 degrees Celsius so we could not rest for even only five minutes to avoid getting the cold wind into our whole bodies," he said.
In April 2000, Basilio also joined a group of Filipinos who successfully climbed the 4,101-meter Mt. Kinabalu, Southeast Asia’s highest peak, in Sabah, Malaysia.
His local mountaineering group was responsible for recently establishing the breathtaking but tortuous Kayapa, Nueva Vizcaya trail to Mount Pulag.
An environmentalist, Basilio, chief of the provincial government’s provincial affairs, information and assistance division, has also scaled the Sierra Madre, Cordillera and Caraballo mountains.