Carina Dayondon

Outside of mountaineering, Dayondon is an officer of the Philippine Coast Guard with the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. She works in the agency as a training officer and uses her story to inspire the next generations of Coast Guard cadets into serving the agency and the Philippines. In 2019, she was honored with the Conservation Hero Award by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for her role in spreading awareness on environmental conservation through her speaking engagements with the WWF about her Seven Summits ascent. In the same year, she was also named among the Most Inspiring Filipinas, a recognition given by American toy manufacturer Mattel, the makers of Barbie dolls, and its Philippine distributor, Richprime Global, as part of the Dream Gap Project for International Women's Day to inspire young girls with women role models.

In May 2018, during a break between her ascent of Mount Aconcagua and Vinson Massif, Dayondon participated in the journey of the Philippine Balangay Expedition, also organized by Valdez and participated in by members of the 2006 and 2007 Philippine Mount Everest Expeditions. She made the journey from Manila to Quanzhou, China in a traditional balangay, a wooden seafaring boat used by precolonial Filipinos in trading with neighboring civilizations. The journey was conducted to celebrate the precolonial ties between the Philippines and China.

Having summitted Mount Everest and Mount Denali, Dayondon set her sights on completing the Seven Summits. In 2013, she summitted Mount Elbrus in southern Russia's Caucasus Mountain Range, which is tallest mountain in Europe at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft) in elevation. The following year, she summitted Mount Kosciuszko in New South Wales, Australia, which is Oceania's tallest mountain at 2,228 metres (7,310 ft). She summitted Africa's tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, which is 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) in height, in 2015. She completed the Seven Summits in 2018 with back-to-back climbs to the summit of Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, which is South America's tallest mountain at 6,961 metres (22,838 ft), and Vinson Massif, which is the tallest mountain in Antarctica at 4,892 metres (16,050 ft). By completing the ascent of the Seven Summits, Dayondon became the first Filipino woman to ascend the Bass version of the Seven Summits.

Dayondon, along with fellow female mountaineers Noelle Wenceslao and Janet Belarmino, reached the summit of Mount Everest on 16 May 2007 as part of an all-women Philippine expedition that climbed from the northern route and descended via the southern route. She has also reached the summits of Mount Denali (2006), Mount Elbrus (2013), Mount Kosciuszko (2014), Mount Kilimanjaro (2015), and Mount Aconcagua (2017). In 2018, she reached the summit of Vinson Massif in Antarctica, thereby completing the Seven Summits.

During the spring climbing season the following year, the all-female Philippine expedition led by Valdez and composed of Wenceslao, Dayondon, and Belarmino, began their attempt to ascent Mount Everest. Their plan was to ascend the mountain via the northern route in Tibet and then descend through the southern route in Nepal. On 16 May 2007, at 6:10 a.m. Nepal Time, Wenceslao, along with Pemba Chhoti Sherpa, reached the summit of Mount Everest, thus, becoming the first Filipina to reach the summit. Dayondon, along with Lhakpa Gyalzen Sherpa, reached the summit 10 minutes later at 6:20 a.m., thus becoming the second Filipina to reach the summit of Mount Everest. She was 28 years old at the time of her ascent. Belarmino, along with Pasang Nuru and Ang Phurba Sherpa, reached the summit at 9 a.m., two hours and 40 minutes later, thus becoming the third Filipina on top of Mount Everest.

After Filipino mountaineer Romi Garduce announced his solo attempt to climb Mount Everest in the spring of 2006, the expedition decided to fast track their preparations to get ahead of Garduce. The expedition organizers decided to prioritize the ascent of two of their most experienced climbers, Leo Oracion and Erwin Emata, who would later become the first and second Filipinos to reach the summit of Mount Everest on 17 and 18 May 2006, respectively. The organizers decided that Dayondon, Wenceslao and Belarmino, would make another attempt to summit Mount Everest in an all-female expedition the following year.

To prepare for their Mount Everest attempt during the 2007 spring climbing season, Dayondon, Wenceslao, and 2006 Philippine Mount Everest Expedition spokesperson Reggie Pablo, decided to fly to Alaska on 19 May 2006 and climb Mount Denali, the tallest mountain in North America at 20,310 feet (6,190 m), which they summitted on 23 June. Following this successful expedition, Dayondon, Wenceslao, and Pablo flew to Tibet in September 2006 to climb Mount Cho Oyu, the sixth tallest mountain in the world. The group backed out on 7 October 2006 at 8,100 metres (26,575 ft) due to bad weather.

In April 2005, Dayondon went with the expedition to New Zealand for a 10-day preparatory climb, in which she summitted Mount Aylmer (2,699 m) and Aoraki / Mount Cook (3,724 m) in the Southern Alps. After New Zealand, she joined the expedition in China's Xinjiang Region in August 2005 to climb Mustagh Ata (7,509 m).

In 2004, while still completing her studies, Dayondon was invited to join the first Philippine Mount Everest Expedition organized by then Transportation and Communications undersecretary Art Valdez. As one of the top female adventure racers in the country, she was a natural choice for the organizers. She joined fellow female mountaineers Janet Belarmino and Noelle Wenceslao in advanced mountaineering training along with the male expedition members at the Western Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Manali, India. During the training, she scaled the Baralacha Pass (4,890 m) near Manali and Kyorang Peak (6,300 m) in Ladakh.

Carina Dayondon (born 15 July 1978) is a Filipina mountaineer, adventurer, and Philippine Coast Guard officer who was the first Filipina to reach the Seven Summits, the seven tallest mountains in every continent in the world, and the second Filipina to reach the summit of Mount Everest.