All-Filipina Everest conquest remembered in book

Mountaineers Carina Dayondon (extreme left) and Noelle Wenceslao-Penetrante (extreme right) join author Art Valdez (second from left) during the launch of his book, “Live the Dream 2,” which recounts the 2007 feat of the all-Filipina team. Also in photo (from left) are siblings Mercedes Lopez-Vargas and Angela and Benjamin Lopez, whose late father Oscar supported the Philippine Mt. Everest expedition that Valdez organized.

Two Filipina mountaineers who made the first and only documented all-female traverse of Mt. Everest have reunited with other members of the Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition team and their supporters during the launch of the book reliving their 2007 conquest of the world’s highest peak.

Carina Dayondon and Noelle Wenceslao-Penetrante recalled their triumphant Mt. Everest journey at the launch of the book, “Live the Dream 2,” authored by Art Valdez, the head of the Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition team.

The book launch took place on May 17 at the Rockwell Center in Makati—the same venue where, 21 years ago, the first Philippine Mt. Everest expedition was announced. The gathering thus marked a cherished return to the place where the dream of a Filipino conquest of Mt. Everest all began.

In May 2007, Dayondon, Wenceslao-Penetrante and Janet Belarmino, another Filipina explorer, ascended the 8,849-meter Mt. Everest summit from Tibet and descended into Nepal to complete a full traverse of the world’s highest peak. The feat remains to date the only documented female traverse of Mt. Everest.

“It’s been 17 years, but every time I think back to that moment on the summit, I’m reminded that our story is every Filipina’s story,” Dayondon, now a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) commander, said during the book launch. “It’s about rising above doubt, and pushing past limits you didn’t know you could break.”

Cover of the coffee table book “Live the Dream 2”

Wenceslao-Penetrante, a PCG petty officer, for her part emphasized the enduring power of representation. “We didn’t climb Everest to be remembered; we climbed because we believed we could. And now, we hope other women will see that they can take on their own Everest, whatever it may be,” she said.

The all-Filipina expedition came on the heels of the May 2006 milestone climbs of Leo Oracion, Pastor Emata, and Romi Garduce, who first planted the Philippine flag at the summit.

Conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), then chaired by Oscar M. Lopez, supported both expeditions upon learning of the project.

Lopez, or OML as he was called, was himself an avid outdoorsman and climber. Before he died in 2023, he scaled some of the Philippines’ highest mountains. OML, together with some members of the same Philippine Everest team, also climbed Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia in 2011 to become, at age 81 at that time, one of the oldest persons to scale Southeast Asia’s highest peak.

In his book “Live the Dream 2,” Valdez recounts the untold stories behind the all-Filipina conquest of Mt. Everest. “Mt. Everest was never just about the summit. It was about belief, courage, and the unshakable will to rise to the top. May this serve not only as a tribute to our three Pinays’ triumph but also as a reminder to every Filipino that dreams—no matter how high—are within reach,” Valdez said at the book launch.

Hardbound copies of Valdez’s book, which FPH also helped to produce and print, are now available at P2,000 per copy. Interested readers may send a message to the Facebook account of Balangay Voyage.