Travel Footprints

Ultimate adventurer and famed mountaineer Romi Garduce gives a thumbs-up sign for the Roaming Ronos as we embark on our great trek over the Gokyo Valley (even if our goal of 5,483-m Gokyo Valley climb may be dwarfed with his 8,848-m feat summiting Mt. Everest in 2006).

According to juice.ph (cover story for March 2010 issue), Romi is the first Filipino to climb an 8000-meter peak, one of the first three Filipinos to summit Mt. Everest and the current Filipino record-holder in the quest to climb the world’s Seven Summits (he’s climbed six out of a total of eight peaks in two different lists).

More conveniently, he is working in the same company as Mr. Rono! So at least, we get first-hand advice and tips for Nepal travel (he gave us contacts of his sherpa during his climb!). We also get heads up on what to expect while doing a high-altitude climb in the Himalayan mountain range (altitude mountain sickness, especially!).

Truth be told, altitude mountain sickness is basically what scares me most with this climb because I know that it’s not the greatest feeling in the world. I had some sort of an experience on it while travelling in Ethiopia a few years back (Addis Ababa is located at an altitude of 8,300 feet and I spent hours on the toilet because I was always felt like I had to throw up – and I did a lot of times!). Romi said AMS really causes serious health problems, even for healthy travelers.

AMS or not, we’re still really psyched for this climb! Thanks Romi for inspiring us to see the real outdoors and may our spirit of adventure live on!