“We were ‘lost’, psychologically no one could prepare us”

The legend of mountaineering Edurne Pasaban, first woman to climb the 14th “eight thousand” on the planetensures that he no longer spends as much time in the mountains, which “It’s still a hobby.” after having worked for several years in a “job” in a stage which he remembers with fondness and to which he would undoubtedly return.

“I live in the Val d’Aran and I dedicate the time that life allows me to the mountains. I go skiing and these are no longer the great challenges of yesteryear, but the mountains are part of my life. I try to visit the Himalayas several times a year. My ‘hobby’ has become a profession and now it is a hobby again,” said Pasabán, 52 years old. In an interview given to the organization of ‘María Villota Awards’ of which she is one of the winners.

The Gipuzkoan has to its credit the conquest of the 14 ‘eight thousand’ of the planeta time when mountaineers were “self-taught, both in physical and mental preparation”. “We were part of a very minority sport and we went almost seamlessly from the mountains to the Himalayas. I think then We were “lost” and psychologically no one could prepare us. I saw the psychologists from CAR Barcelona working and they couldn’t help me because we were almost the first,” he remembers.

“The first thing that comes to mind is what great years and I signed from scratch to come back, with all the suffering. I’ll stick to fun, we started from scratch, we did what we loved and we combined first ascents with our work. “I lost a lot of people in nine years, but I remember those years without a doubt,” Pasaban added.

The one from Tolosa does not forget that they began to do the “eight thousand” “without thinking” of being the first to reach the summit of all. “When the Korean girl (Oh Eun-sun) appears, it becomes a competition. The Koreans wanted to put the first woman in the world on every peak over 8,000 meters and we were going on expeditions with very limited budgets, sale of lottery tickets, t-shirts, everything to raise funds and the Koreans had budgets of a million dollars. There, competition arises and we fight hard to achieve it,” he said.

Pasaban regrets that many think that in the mountains “there is no law because no one puts barriers against you.” “There is no regulation, there is an economic issue and A lot of value has been taken out of the Himalayas and the things we did back then.I’m sorry for you. We were lucky to live these years because it will not come back and if I want to do something more romantic, I have to go to mountains that no one does,” he admitted, confessing that “Ama Dablam”, a mountain in the Himalayas, is a mountain he would like to climb.

As for the prize she will receive on January 19, the Basque does not hide that “it’s an honor”. “The people rewarded have a very good track record and they are all great references. After so many years of retirement, IThe truth is that you already think that they will not give you an award and it is recognition to an entire career,” he noted.

“The figure of María was a reference for all of us. We coincided at that time in a world like hers and mine was totally masculine and I had her as a reference and fighter. The award makes me very excited because when María died she was doing a program called ‘Summit’ and in one of the Monte Perdido programs she was with Laia Sanz. María was at that summit and it is a moment that I remember so many times, that this award makes me very excited,” she said.

Such They passed for Villota and were pioneers in two sports with more male presence. The mountaineer believes that progress is being made and that women are “finding their place as athletes as well as in club management or in the world of sport in general”. “The presence of women is greater, but It is still the prerogative of men.. Spain is a country with very good women in sport, but overall there is still a lot to do,” she said.

And Tolosarra has no recipe for making change happen faster. “It’s difficult. We are a country in which, although we want to look with advanced and innovative eyes, culturally there are certain things in which It is very difficult for us to let go“, admits Pasaban, who currently gives “many conferences to companies on leadership” and also devotes his time to his eight-year-old son and “instills in him a passion for sport and snow.”