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AKYAT! A Filipino's Journey to the Seven Summits
Funny, entertaining, educational and inspiring especially for adventurers who don't have a lot of extra money, tied up on a full-time job, and not born with superhuman strength. A book about a long journey to an impossible adventure quest that took so many years to complete, spanning many countries in all seven continents - to achieve a dream... The dream of climbing Mt Everest and all the highest mountains in all continents. 'Akyat' is a Filipino word that means 'climb' (the book is written in English).
325 pages, Paperback
First published March 10, 2014
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 8, 2014
Originally posted in my personal blog
Thank you, Ms Librarian for fixing the book cover :)
As of late I have been continuously talking in great length about how I am reading stuff from the bottom of my list of interests. There are a couple of reasons for advancing my comfort bounds - from truly growing not only as a reader but as an individual in the general sense, to sheer lack of having anything worthwhile to read at all. But apart from that, it is from taking a breather from the things I have too much of. Then, I come back for stuff I really want with much energized enthusiasm.
So, I pick up almost anything from the shelves of Booksale outlets and get used to spending not more than 150 pesos on boring classics and how-did-this-get-the-Pulitzer? types. After which I will be needing to wash down the bad taste left by all those obscure ones. Military non-fiction comes into mind, sometimes Jon Krakauer.
Given that scenario, imagine how I could hardly strangle mine own reins from grabbing Romi Garduce’s Akyat!, however relatively expensive the book maybe. This is Books AND Mountains, reaped in one single spending! That’s two of my greatest loves right there, budget be damned.
There’s an unspoken curiosity looming over this book in the local mountaineering circle. I, for one, would be lying through gritted teeth if I lay claim that’s not one of the reasons why I had picked this up (though primarily for me it’s the lack of having decently written hiking blogs in the local scene). Gossip IS gossip, and local outdoorsmen seem to be in dire starvation of it, loitering in Facebook pages, waiting like predators on the next ‘issue’ that comes up.
But Akyat! is more than just plain gossip. It actually settles the score as far as one main player is concerned, straight from that player’s mouth. On THAT issue of the Everest ‘race’ some years back.
Taking up the largest slice in this book that was for all the Seven (eight) Summits, undoubtedly was the Everest expedition, except that it had been more colorful, so to speak, given the vast issues surrounding the effort. There were the bouts on who had sprung the idea first, who got into basecamp early, which team was on which side, North or South, the freelancer who came first but actually did not make it- the list goes on. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. And I doubt if it will ever change the perception of those who were directly or indirectly involved in the fiasco for it will always be a case of which came first between the chicken and the egg. There will always be three sides to every story. Even I had to disagree on some points presented by Romi, big fan and all.
But the flavor of all this is not entirely sprinkled on all those issues. As for me, this book’s major draw is the voice of how this is presented, which is unabashedly and unmistakably Romi’s. He throws in a bit of swearing at tough moments without being too cocky, finds Gallows humor in desperate moments. He just has things all too balanced without sounding the least bit righteous, pretentious or condescending. His good-natured self, regular-guy-comedy comes out naturally in every bit, and you are left very much thankful this was neither ghost, nor co-written. Quite literally, you could almost imagine his speaking voice, and you find it effortless to forgive all the grammar slips, let alone the proofreading lapses. The man is a Math major, mind. And you know how it is with numbers and narrative. Albeit a wide reader, he himself had confessed several times that finding the words for this book was a much greater hurdle than completing all of the seven summits. Nonetheless, writer or not, the man is indeed a gifted storyteller. He takes you to those places with relative ease, and you find yourself teleported into a world of ice even if you haven’t been really into one. At times, I even find myself feeling sick from all his describing how bad he felt from the altitude. He was THAT effective.
On a personal note though, I find it rather quite odd that this book has given me a much needed kick in the groin- on something completely remote from mountaineering. Some may find this as the last push to go get out there and notch some peaks. I, however, found enlightenment in the fact that Romi had fought tooth and nail to make things happen without compromising his job. He went as far as giving up the Seven Summits dream, if it meant leaving his job for the training. ‘nuff said.
Speaking from his heart until the very last pages, under all the aforementioned circumstances, I’d say this book is a winner. This is as close as an amateur will ever get to that coveted drinking session with them seasoned ones. And that’s something every young hiker has always dreamed of. On that note and that alone, I believe this book is already a homerun.
Watch your six.
Cross
Thank you, Ms Librarian for fixing the book cover :)
As of late I have been continuously talking in great length about how I am reading stuff from the bottom of my list of interests. There are a couple of reasons for advancing my comfort bounds - from truly growing not only as a reader but as an individual in the general sense, to sheer lack of having anything worthwhile to read at all. But apart from that, it is from taking a breather from the things I have too much of. Then, I come back for stuff I really want with much energized enthusiasm.
So, I pick up almost anything from the shelves of Booksale outlets and get used to spending not more than 150 pesos on boring classics and how-did-this-get-the-Pulitzer? types. After which I will be needing to wash down the bad taste left by all those obscure ones. Military non-fiction comes into mind, sometimes Jon Krakauer.
Given that scenario, imagine how I could hardly strangle mine own reins from grabbing Romi Garduce’s Akyat!, however relatively expensive the book maybe. This is Books AND Mountains, reaped in one single spending! That’s two of my greatest loves right there, budget be damned.
There’s an unspoken curiosity looming over this book in the local mountaineering circle. I, for one, would be lying through gritted teeth if I lay claim that’s not one of the reasons why I had picked this up (though primarily for me it’s the lack of having decently written hiking blogs in the local scene). Gossip IS gossip, and local outdoorsmen seem to be in dire starvation of it, loitering in Facebook pages, waiting like predators on the next ‘issue’ that comes up.
But Akyat! is more than just plain gossip. It actually settles the score as far as one main player is concerned, straight from that player’s mouth. On THAT issue of the Everest ‘race’ some years back.
Taking up the largest slice in this book that was for all the Seven (eight) Summits, undoubtedly was the Everest expedition, except that it had been more colorful, so to speak, given the vast issues surrounding the effort. There were the bouts on who had sprung the idea first, who got into basecamp early, which team was on which side, North or South, the freelancer who came first but actually did not make it- the list goes on. But in the end, it doesn't really matter. And I doubt if it will ever change the perception of those who were directly or indirectly involved in the fiasco for it will always be a case of which came first between the chicken and the egg. There will always be three sides to every story. Even I had to disagree on some points presented by Romi, big fan and all.
But the flavor of all this is not entirely sprinkled on all those issues. As for me, this book’s major draw is the voice of how this is presented, which is unabashedly and unmistakably Romi’s. He throws in a bit of swearing at tough moments without being too cocky, finds Gallows humor in desperate moments. He just has things all too balanced without sounding the least bit righteous, pretentious or condescending. His good-natured self, regular-guy-comedy comes out naturally in every bit, and you are left very much thankful this was neither ghost, nor co-written. Quite literally, you could almost imagine his speaking voice, and you find it effortless to forgive all the grammar slips, let alone the proofreading lapses. The man is a Math major, mind. And you know how it is with numbers and narrative. Albeit a wide reader, he himself had confessed several times that finding the words for this book was a much greater hurdle than completing all of the seven summits. Nonetheless, writer or not, the man is indeed a gifted storyteller. He takes you to those places with relative ease, and you find yourself teleported into a world of ice even if you haven’t been really into one. At times, I even find myself feeling sick from all his describing how bad he felt from the altitude. He was THAT effective.
On a personal note though, I find it rather quite odd that this book has given me a much needed kick in the groin- on something completely remote from mountaineering. Some may find this as the last push to go get out there and notch some peaks. I, however, found enlightenment in the fact that Romi had fought tooth and nail to make things happen without compromising his job. He went as far as giving up the Seven Summits dream, if it meant leaving his job for the training. ‘nuff said.
Speaking from his heart until the very last pages, under all the aforementioned circumstances, I’d say this book is a winner. This is as close as an amateur will ever get to that coveted drinking session with them seasoned ones. And that’s something every young hiker has always dreamed of. On that note and that alone, I believe this book is already a homerun.
Watch your six.
Cross
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