A Filipino woman has made it to the top of the Seven Summits, the seven highest peaks on each continent. Carina Dayondon, from Bukidnon and a first lieutenant in the Philippine Coast Guard, was the first Filipino woman to conquer all seven summits and the second Filipino to do so after Rami Garduce in 2012, GMA News reported.
Dayondon started her journey as a mountaineer when she was still in college and joined a group of mountain-climbing enthusiasts. She first conquered Mt Denali in North America in 2006 and in the following year, she became one of three Filipinas to reach the peak of Mt Everest in Nepal.
In 2013, Dayondon climbed Mt Elbrus in Europe and managed to conquer Mt. Kosciuszko in Australia in the next year. She climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa in 2015.
She failed to reach the summit of Mr Aconcagua in South America on her first try in 2016. However, she did not give up and made it to the summit on her second attempt in 2017.
This year, she completed the Seven Summits after she conquered Mt Vinson Massif in Antartica. Dayondon said she wanted to encourage more women to go beyond feeling intimidated and to venture into male-dominated sports.
The Seven Summits is considered the premier mountaineering challenge in the world.