Your best moment climbing? Your worst moment climbing? Best moment was just being there climbing with my teammates Alex Txikon (Spain) and Gerfried Goeschl (Austria). Even though it was very difficult, we had a great time, everything was perfect with them. I miss them so much now. My worst moment is, of course, when we went down the new route. We were so close to reaching the summit ridge. Another worst moment is when I lead a hard pitch around 6200m. Night was falling and extreme cold came fast. The pitch ended nowhere, I did a route finding mistake. Coming down from this pitch in the dark on a precarious piece of gear was frightening.
What was the most important thing you learned on the trip? On a Karakoram winter climbing trip, always bring with you new ice screws, the best you can find on the market. Ice is simply too hard. Unsharpened ice screws don’t work!
What is it like establishing a new route on such
a massive mountain? It is the best feeling ever, every step is new, you don’t know what will happen next, what you will discover on the next pitch, you decide where to go, it is really unpredictable, just real adventure… Every pitch become important and you forget the summit by focusing on climbing. What can be better than this? It is exactly the same feeling when you start climbing. For me, it was new and exhilarating!
At what point did you know you had to turn
around? When I had no fun anymore and vision of an accident came very clear. Just before going down, I remember that the little voice inside me shouted very loud “Louis stop!!!” every time I put one more crampon above the other one. It was not worth it.
Will you go back for another try in the future? 100% sure, we want to finish this great route. I don’t know when we will return. Very soon I guess!
What was your favorite activity to pass time in
your tent? On G1, for me it was learning and doing movie editing. But normally during expedition, I read a lot.
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climber MAGAZINEism |
MAY JUNE 2011 |
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