‘IT’S THE CLIMB’: Pinoy mountaineers trek African peak with election choice

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Rofil Magto and five other Filipinos weren’t supposed to climb Africa’s tallest mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro, last March 17 to 24, 2022 with political paraphernalia in hand.

In fact, they did not even talk about bringing a pink flag and a “Mountaineers for Leni” tarpaulin when they planned to climb, because mountaineering to them was not a political activity.

Also part of the team that endured a week-long, 70-kilometer trek through alpine and sub-zero conditions were Yelena Nina Magto, Andrei Nikolai Magto, Grace Feraer, Vanessa del Rosario and Gregg Yan.

But they were only able to go to Tanzania, where the Mt. Kilimanjaro National Park is located, at a time when they were concerned for the future of the country.

Luckily, all of them were on the same side, rooting for the tandem of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan in the 2022 presidential elections.

“We don’t talk about politics when we’re up in the mountains because this is something we enjoy. We should appreciate nature away from the mundane activities that we do here in the Philippines. But at the same time, we could not help but talk about the most important issues and concerns in the country, and we had to talk about it,” Magto told Daily Guardian via a Zoom interview.

“Because of the major restrictions we had to reschedule. It was set at a time when we are all very eager to help out in whatever we can to promote also our advocacies and what we believe is right for the country. The inspiration is really to represent the country and at the same time share that our collective choices will make a difference,” he said.

“[We] checked subtly with the team if what’s their political inclinations or their choices, and we were all in agreement, we were all surprised that we all, in our individual choices, chose Leni as our president and Kiko as our vice president. It wasn’t talked about that only climbers who are supporters could join. We would’ve welcomed any other supporters, or any other from other political organizations,” he added.

With the revelation of their political choices, there were cheers and expressions of awe and the inevitable criticism and bashing as well. But that was not a concern to them because the climb was definitely more important.

“That was expected. You know how the general public will react to that. What’s important is that we sent our message across to the entire country. We were not affected by the bashing or the negative comments on social media because they weren’t there. They didn’t know how difficult it was to climb one of the Seven Summits with low oxygen. We’ve been walking more than 7 days just to reach the summit,” Magto said.

To prepare for the climb, they did runs and other regular exercises within Quezon City and went on minor climbs in Bataan, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal.

This was while they were also juggling between their careers in the corporate world and hobbies including baking, surfing, and other enjoyable activities in their spare time.

They were also supposed to do a high-altitude climb in Benguet but the area they chose was closed.

They also ensured that they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and yellow fever and brought medicines for malaria and other illnesses they may catch in Africa.

Prior to their climb in Africa, they were already able to climb other tall mountains internationally and domestically, including to the Mt. Everest base camp in Nepal and Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia, as well as Mt. Apo in Davao, Mt. Pulag in northern Luzon, Mt. Guiting-guiting in Romblon, and Mt. Kitanglad in Bukidnon.

In between these climbs, their group also provides help to the communities, as a way of saying thanks for allowing them to move forward with their trek.

“There are countless of climbs already, mountaineering expeditions and efforts that we have done, and when we do this, when there is an opportunity to help the communities that we pass by, we give time to meet with community leaders and local residents and provide some items, like rice or canned goods as a way of saying thank you for welcoming us into their community and into the mountain,” Magto narrated.

Magto says they chose Robredo as their next president because of the kind of governance that she offers for the future of the country.

“We chose her because we believe that there’s a lot that she can do for the country. We are not voting for her only just to win as president, but we are making sure that in the end, our nation will benefit from our collective choices, and she is the one with the best track record and the one with the ability to lead us to that kind of vision,” he explained.

He described being able to reach Uhuru Peak’s summit as “surreal” after enduring around –20-degree temperatures.

“The entire experience was wonderful. I could not share everything. I’ll run out of words to describe our experience. We were very happy, very excited, but we were also a bit scared because we might’ve [not made] it to the summit,” he shared.

They later realized that they needed to take it slow, as they will still reach the summit anyway so long as they stay focused and remained supportive of each other.

“There was no need to rush. We were following an itinerary. We were expected to walk between 5 to 8 hours a day, sometimes 10 hours on a particular day. We just enjoyed the moment. The view was awesome,” Magto said.

Mt. Kilimanjaro stands tall at 5,895 meters above sea level, and is considered as one of the “Seven Summits of the World”, together with Mt. Everest, Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina), Mt. Denali (United States), Mt. Elbrus (Russia), Mt. Vinson (Antarctica) and Mt. Jayawijaya (Indonesia).