Romi Garduce

Who is Romi Garduce?

Romeo Roberto "Romi" Garduce, sometimes nicknamed as "Garduch," is a Filipino mountain climber, a scuba dive master, an environmentalist, writer, motivational speaker and works as an IT professional. He began climbing mountains for a cause in 1991 as a member of the UP Mountaineers. Aside from being a mountain climber and IT professional, he became one of the host for the GMA Network public affair shows Born to Be Wild and Pinoy Meets World. He also hosted the GMA News and Public Affairs special entitled Pito Para sa Pilipino with Richard Gutierrez.

Romi wrote and published his first book in October 2013, entitled Akyat! A Filipino's Journey to the Seven Summits. The book chronicled his adventures and major climbs and expeditions. Akyat is a Filipino word that simply means "climb".

After reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in 2002, Garduce became the first Filipino to climb one of the Seven Summits. On September 26, 2005, Romi Garduce became the first Filipino to ascend Cho Oyu, then the highest mountain peak scaled by a Filipino.