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INPRIMATU
Pictures of Mari Abrego
"It's nice to realize that with technology, you can't beat the mountain"
  • Mari Abrego, a Navarrese mountaineer, has died after a long illness at the age of 73. In 1984 he made his first ocimilar (Makalu, 8,463 meters), and in 1986 he climbed K2 (8,611 meters), together with the Navarrese Josema Casimiro. They are the first Basque mountaineers to climb K2.
ARGIA @argia 2018ko apirilaren 19a
Mari Abrego / Nani Mosqueraren ilustrazioa

He tried to climb Everest, but he couldn't make it. In fact, one of these attempts was followed by an interview with LUZ in 1987. The bad weather forced them to abandon the expedition. Here's the whole thing:

What chance did you have to wait a little longer and not try again?

Not one, actually. There was no other solution than to collect the pieces from there and go down. It also happens that there at the beginning of June the summer season begins in the Himalayas, and you are not allowed to stop. Besides, we were completely exhausted.

You seem a little cold in your statements to go there again.

Well, yes, it is. You get into amazing jobs and preparations and end up getting the impression that you haven’t achieved anything. It’s very hard to get down from there without going to the top, considering that we also had the second session. Maybe I'd tell you that I don't feel like doing a show again, I don't know. You have a problem with the people around you. You're in a fame, and before you make a decision to keep you out of the house for three months, it's wise to think things through. In any case, and this is the first time I tell the magazine LUZ, if in the coming year I get the chance of an attractive mountain I think I will go.

Have you been afraid?

I'm not going to tell you about Josema, he's a pretty intimate person and you don't really know if he's scared or not. I can say that I passed. I always pass, even before I leave. I think this is necessary. The Swedes, for example, had a group of about 36 people and good media, and yet they have suffered great damage. Imagine if you broke the legs of the heights there, you needed a bad team to help you, and we were only two. If in that sense you have fear or respect or something.

On his expedition to Mount McKinley in 1982 / Desnivel.com

What did you learn this time?

As always, you learn a lot. On the one hand, humiliating in front of the mountain. It’s nice to realize that with technology, of course it’s the same in the sea, the mountain can’t be surpassed.

On the other hand, you realize that up there the human being acts with more humanity, this is something that I have always thought of. You go down the mountain, you enter society and you see behaviors that you don't like at all among humans, more or less disinterested in the mountain. The theory that society degrades man is not so wrong.

What do you do up there all day? Do you read it?

It is true that many climbers read in the main camp and many, but I don’t read much. Most of the time, I prefer to read rather than write. The story and the story over there, you know. The only thing I read are the letters. The preparatory work leaves no time for others. If I ever have an evening or am free, I prefer to lie down and look hard to think, not to sleep.

Don't you think you'll burn with Mount Everest having to carry that impotence?

No, at least I didn't smoke. I would burn if those who have helped us so far forgot about us, but that has not happened. On the other hand, we did the job well, it was the weather that caused the inconvenience. We've been there almost to the point of exploding, but we couldn't.

What is it like to climb down the hill and climb?

It's a big problem, yes. You know, you have to be with reporters, you have to get into fantasies. I try to live a normal life. The most beautiful city in the world that I thought I was going for a walk the other day in Pamplona, there are several beauties that you must know how to look for in an intense daily life. I always go back to the mountains with that hope.