4.
THE EXPLORER – ONE MOUNTAIN AT A TIME
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
Edurne Pasaban was the first woman to climb all fourteen 8,000m mountains in the world. Her experiences provide powerful insights into the challenges we all face when we venture into uncharted territory.
Edurne grew up in a small picturesque town called Tolosa in the Spanish Basque country. As a teenager she fell in love with the mountains, reaching her first summit, Mont Blanc, when she was 15 years old. By the time she reached 16, she had climbed seven peaks in the Andes, including Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo, 6,310m high.
“At this age, while all the other girls would be interested in spending their holidays with the boys, my heart was in climbing. I was a member of a small team of more experienced climbers. They were patient with me and taught me a lot. This early mentoring was important and helped give me confidence.”
In 2001 she reached the Everest summit in her first expedition to the Himalaya. It was on her return that her father gave her an ultimatum: choose the family business or commit to climbing, as she could not do both. So she chose mountaineering.
After scaling Everest, Edurne began to climb one or two 8,000m mountains each year. Importantly, when she began this mission she could not conceive of being able to climb all of them.
“Each took so much energy and commitment, it would have been crazy for me to even entertain that thought. It was only after I had completed my ninth 8,000’er that I thought that it may be possible to do them all, because I could see the end.” In contrast to popular approaches to achievement, Edurne did not start with the “end in mind.” She just started climbing and kept on climbing. The final achievement became clear as she progressed.
Edurne’s climbing journey has not been easy. In 2004 she reached the summit of K2, considered the world’s most dangerous mountain, but she lost two toes to frostbite and almost lost her life. She descended safely with the help of her team and Sherpas, who brought oxygen. She is certain that if it weren’t for them, she wouldn’t be here today. For explorers, surviving in the unknown is only possible with the support of others.
Losing her toes was not the most difficult period of Edurne’s life, though. That happened off the mountain. “When I came home I was 32 and all my friends were married and had different lives from me. I asked many questions of myself – what I was doing with my life, whether I should continue climbing and travelling into the unknown, or have a normal life and motherhood... I had a lasting depression and for four months I stayed in hospital not feeling well, thinking I did not like my life.”
Edurne’s family, friends and climbing team helped her through this period. They reminded her about when she was at her happiest – climbing mountains or at a base camp.
“They helped reassure me that although I had a different life to them, I was happy in my own one. They encouraged me to try again. So after one year I organized another expedition and I committed to completing all 14 mountains. The most difficult moment in the unknown is to lose motivation to continue, so when you have people who understand you, they make your life easier.”
It is the climber’s ability to listen closely to the body and heart, rather than just the head. In 2001 Edurne was only 200m from the summit of a mountain with an Italian team and she had a very bad feeling that would not go away – she could not name it, but she didn’t feel well. Even though she was close to reaching the peak, she chose to listen to her intuition and made the very difficult decision to go back down. She passed two Spanish colleagues on the way down who tried to persuade her to go back up with them. As she had paid a lot of attention to how she was feeling and had made up her mind, she refused. She later found out that one of the Spanish climbers had lost their life exactly in the area she’d had a bad feeling about. “When your intuition speaks, you need to listen,” Edurne advises.
Edurne believes that when venturing into the unkown celebrating milestones and little successes along the way is very important – even if the end result might be years away. “Identify those significant moments; they are important steps. Make sure you don’t diminish your achievements. Celebrate with those who have helped you get there. I believe that we all have one life. Nobody can give me a second one.”