Nepalmountainnews Report | 5 Jun 2008
Arturo and his fellow Filipinos on Everest
By Ayush Khadka
On May 17, 2006, former Transportation and Communications Under-Secretary Arturo Valdez of the Government of the Philippines, accompanied by the mountain guide Lakpa Geljen Sherpa, led a first two-member Filipino team atop Mt. Everest.
What more could Valdez want? His long-cherished dream since 1970 to lead a Filipino team to the top of the world was accomplished. His two summiteers, Erwin Pastour and Heracleo "Leo" Oracion, became heroes overnight back home following their successful ascent of the world's highest peak.
“I'm always thankful to Lakpa because without him we couldn't have made it to the summit. We got a hero's welcome back home, and we're always grateful to Lakpa for helping us achieve the feat,” exclaimed Erwin.
Setting foot on Mt. Everest was a matter of personal pride and a dream come true to these Filipinos whose tallest mountain back home, they said, is just as high as the Lukla Airport, now renamed Edmund Hillary Airport after the death of the legendary climber in 2007.
“Coming from a topical country, the feat gave us a feeling that nothing is impossible in this world if we only try,” expressed Arturo.
Delighted from the accomplishment, Arturo assured their Sherpa guide Lakpa Geljen that he would provide free education to his son Ang Pasang up to the level of doctorate in the Philippines. As a result, it has been two years since 12-year-old Pasang is studying in the Philippines. Seventh-grader Pasang speaks both Filipino and English fluently.
Artuto wants Pasang to serve in the Khumbu region after he obtains his degree in medicine. Pasang considers himself lucky enough to get education in the Philippines which was only possible due to his father Lakpa's brave deeds.
Pasang, who calls Arturo his dad, says in broken Nepali, “I want to serve my region after I complete my education.”
The love between Pasang and Arturo has grown much deeper over the past two years. Seeing them together sharing a mutual father-son relationship, it is only common for one to assume that they are biological father and son.
When this scribe met Valdez last month in Lubuche — which stands at the elevation of 4,950 meters on the way to the Everest Base Camp – he, along with a three-member team including Dr Teofredo Esguerra, Erwin Pastour Emata and Carina Dayondon, were preparing themselves to participate in the 6th Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon being flagged off at the Everest Base Camp, and dubbed the highest marathon in the world.
The team expressed their unanimous love for the Khumbu region.
Apart from sharing similar facial features, they claimed the Filipinos are also as open and religious as the Sherpas. Thus, while on their expedition, they made sure they paid homage to all the deities worshipped by the Sherpas for a safe landing on the summit.
“Without Lakpa, our expedition wouldn't have been completed. He means a lot to me and all the Filipinos,” said Valdez, adding, “The whole Khumbu region holds a special place in our hearts. Perhaps that's why we find one or the other excuse to come back to this place again and again.”
For Lakpa, who is a seven-time summiteer of the Mount Everest, the generosity shown by these visitors was much more than he could have ever asked for.
“Never in my dream had I ever imagined that some strange foreigner would take the responsibility of educating my son to make him a doctor one day.
“I can't afford to give basic education, let alone make him a doctor. They've done so much for me that I don't have enough words to thank them. They mean a lot to me,” Lakpa shared.
Lakpa still reminisces the day Arturo took him to the Philippines after the ascent. “I met the President of the Philippines and had dinner with her.” Of all the things he did in the Philippines, the wildest was called “scuba diving”.
“Scuba diving was a new experience for me as I got to the lowest point of the earth. I have the experience on being on top of the world in Nepal while in the Philippines I got to set my feet on the lowest point of earth. It was a contrast and a tremendous experience altogether,” recalled Lakpa with excitement. “I had a lot of difficulty breathing down under the water and was scared like never before.”
Lakpa believes the honor given to him by the Filipinos was the greatest ever to be received by a Sherpa after Tenzing Norgay in a foreign land.
Buoyed by their first successful expedition in 2006, Arturo came back with a three-member women's team with Noelle Wenceslao, Carina Dayondon and Janet Belarmino to scale Mt. Everest the following year.
This time around, the trio, along with Lakpa, went up to the summit from the Tibetan side and came down from the Nepali side. And their successful ascent made them the first Filipino women to achieve this feat.
And Arturo may yet come with his new Filipino venture again! --City Post
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