"It is a big challenge to climb Mt. Everest that’s why we’re taking precautions. This reconnaissance climb will give them enough experience to help lead the whole team in 2007," said expedition team leader Art Valdez.

Valdez will escort the support team which will leave this month to meet the two climbers at Base Camp on Mt. Everest during the first week of April.

Oracion and Emata, who led the team’s successful assault at the Mt. Muztagh-Ata in China-Pakistan last year, are currently training and acclimatizing in the Tengbotse village near Mt. Everest and will proceed to Island Peak before joining the support team at the Base Camp for the most crucial challenge of the trek.

"The weather is the most forbidding challenge so the team has been undergoing rigorous trainings to get used to it," Valdez said. "This is why we’re taking precautions by sending Leo (Oracion) and Pastor (Emata) first this summer."

The expedition team will climb the Mt. Everest next year at the same time the Chinese team starts its journey to bring the Olympic torch to the peak and dramatize its holding of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

The RP delegation will be divided into two teams with one group coming from the north in Tibet along the Rongvuk Glacier, while the other will start from the south in Nepal along the Khumbu Glacier.

Valdez believes Oracion and Emata are up to the challenge.

"They proved their technical climbing skills, stamina, determination and teamwork during the trek to Muztagh-Ata. We are very confident that they will be ready for Everest," said Valdez.