How do you remember the first steps on the mountain?

I was born in Lesaka, in between mountains, and I remember as a little kid, I was going with my mother to the mountain, walking, for example, from Lesaka to Larrun. Later, at the time of the scholarships, I was accompanying my father to the mountain on weekends. And when I was a student, I started hiking with my friends. I met mountaineer Luis María Balde, who taught me the basic technique of climbing. In the Pyrenees, among other things, we climbed together the northern side of the Pique Longue de Vignemale.

It was the beginnings of Xabier Erro, the mountaineer who later made himself known.

Yes. For working reasons, I went to Mexico at the time, and taking advantage of my stay in America, I began to climb the highest mountains in America: The Aconcagua, the Chinborazo, the Huasán… In 1976 we placed the ikurriña on the top of the Aconcagua and that event echoed in the then Basque media.

In Euskal Herria, the desire to rise to the summit of Everest was very strong...

In 1974, the first Basque promotion attempt was made to the Everest, with the famous Tximist expedition as a backdrop. The company Cegasa was the main sponsor, hence the name of the expedition. I was then in Mexico and I did not participate in the expedition, although, of course, I was related to my fellow expedition. They were unable to reach the top and then a second attempt was made. At that time, though, it wasn't as easy as now to get the permits to go up to Everest, and we had to wait a few years.

until 1980.

That's it. In the second, despite being behind the company Cegasa, the Municipal Savings Bank of Bilbao contributed 8 million pesetas. The expedition was co-financed by the Basque Government and by many municipalities in the Basque Country. I still have in a notebook the amount of money each city council gave. In addition to numerous municipalities in the Ribera de Navarra, they were also subsidised by numerous municipalities in Iparralde. That gave the expedition a real character of nationality. It was time for change and in that sense we also had a great illusion.

Therefore, it was also a kind of political victory, its feat.

No doubt. Few nations had the Everest uploaded before us, and it was a great success for the Basque Country. The news had a big echo, and the tributes and others we received back were in that line. Because at the top we put the ikurrina, Lorente and Rose's chief of expedition went to the police station once we went home, that's why!

Starting with the description of the expedition, it was up to you to do a great job before the other expeditionaries arrived.

I had experience in the world of work and I was traveling quite for my age. Paul's Kike and I went there two months before all the others of the expedition arrived. There was nothing in Nepal, and we had to get everything out of here. We took 12,000 kilos by plane to Mumbai and from there to Nepal in trucks, after all the paperwork. Kike helped me in this work, although he also gave me more work from time to time than help, because I didn't know English! Ha, ha, ha. We chose sherpas both below and high and by the time the others arrived in March we had already done a dirty job and we were almost acclimatized the two…

It was the first time you were in the Himalayas.

That's right. The Pyrenees are for us like a house, then the Alps are 1,000 meters higher and they owe a lot of respect, in the Andes there are 6,000 and a step up of difficulty… but going to the Himalayas and seeing those giants covered in ice was exciting. Often only 8,000 are considered, but in the Himalayas there are many lower mountains in height, as interesting as difficult.

Once at the Everest Camp Base, the only goal is the summit.

We set out to equip the road, and meanwhile, we climbed other more modest mountains in the area, we did an acclimatization process. Then we divided ourselves into small groups and started experimenting. So you couldn't tell the exact weather forecast, and it was all harder. I became a friend of Sherpa Penba Tsering, he wanted to climb to the top to complete his resume and told me that we were going to go up together. We made the first attempt, but when another sherpa had edema, we took the road down. A few days later, the day when Martin Zabaleta managed to reach the top, Felipe Uriarte and I were 7,500 meters away, but the priority was to give up the summit and help bring them down.

Therefore, the group was above the individual.

No doubt. Although Martin was the only one who stepped on top, it was the triumph of all. The goal of the expedition was to reach the top and we got it. Security and solidarity were the axes of our expedition, above all. There the expedition ended, as a team member had hit the top.

Each year you gather members of this expedition

With the exception of Takolo and Gallardo, everyone else is still alive, and yes, every year we meet in the spring. It is an unbeatable opportunity to renew the accounts then.

Today's mountaineering is partly based on speed and agility.

It's been 35 years, and mountaineering has changed as much as society has changed. Technology, resources, sponsors -- they're all records and things like that. The goal of our expedition was to make the mountain, but starting and ending at home. If you are going to mark today, you will hardly have solidarity with others. In recent times we have seen embarrassing situations in the Everest, due to trade expeditions. I myself would climb the Everest today, pay, take four sheets, two ahead and two behind and go on with a fixed rope up. Respect for the mountain has been lost.

Aren't the mountaineers more prepared than before?

Maybe yes, but I have doubts. In our time the mountaineers followed a natural route, from the mountains of the area to the Pyrenees, through the Alps, the Andes and finally the Himalayas. Today many mountaineers forget the intermediate stages and do not make the jump too fast… All of us who participated in that expedition, except Felipe (who was a mountain guide), participated in other works, that is, we were not professional mountaineers. However, we were made of that natural route and very well prepared technically.

Among all the exits you have made, due to the technical difficulty you will have some to remember...

In 1979, Martin Zabaleta and I tried to climb Fitz Roy. We didn't get it through the storm. In Mexico we open the climbing routes of 6º in Las Ventanas paraje. In the Aconcagua I have made the eastern edge and also the integral, uniting the southern and northern peaks. In the Pyrenees, I have made the edge of Diña–Costa illou (Balaitous) four times, the edge of Salenques-Tempestades (Aneton)… I have many memories.

What relationship do you have with the mountain today?

I have the responsibility of a small group of people about 60 years old, and every year we make some way out to Argentina, Peru, Nepal… I have also collaborated in the Mendia eta Herriak group, but today I don’t want to go to the mountain with people I don’t know. In order to carry out this work, there are young drivers to whom the witness must be given.

You will have more than one anecdote on the mountain…

Yes, I have many. On the road to Aconcagua, a dog came once behind and fell asleep with us. It warmed our legs, ha, ha, ha. It reached the summit without the need for troops or anything. When we came down, we handed the dog over to the indigenous soldiers and took it for a pet named Beltxa. Years later we met another dog in the Aconcagua, which also went up and down smoothly. A landlord from there told me: “He will not go up to Aconcagua, because he is the son of Beltxa!” When I told him Belcha’s story, it was hard for the landlord to believe it…