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Kilian Jornet and the 'praise of failure'

2023-05-26T17:22:51.327Z

Highlights: Catalan mountaineer Kilian Jornet has failed to reach the summit of Everest. He followed in the footsteps of Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld, the first two who ventured through a terrain unknown to humans in 1963. "I did not reach the top of the mountain I had in mind, but I did achieve everything else," he says. The west ridge of Everest is an amazing balcony and a metaphor for the distance between the exciting and the banal.


The Catalan mountaineer tries Everest by the compromised west ridge, falls in an avalanche and celebrates his attempt, pure contrast with the nonsense of normal routes


The Gipuzkoan Alberto Iñurrategi was for years the youngest mountaineer to climb Everest without artificial oxygen, at the age of 23. If he had been born in the United States and not in Aretxabaleta, he would be a millionaire, an American businessman once assured him. On the other hand, he always considered that there was no merit in an ascension shared with his brother Félix and raised to the altars in the Basque Country.

One of his most celebrated audio-visual talks bears a title that is a statement of principle: 'In Praise of Failure', a master class about what it means to truly pursue the dream of climbing mountains. Neither Alberto Iñurrategi was a failure nor is Kilian Jornet now, who has just announced that his appointment with Everest has ended without a summit in a spring in which at least 500 people have sneaked onto the roof of the planet. Already on his return, the Catalan athlete has explained in his social networks his particular trip, his satisfaction for having been able to sink his teeth into a dream: to follow in the footsteps of the recently deceased Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld on the west ridge of Everest, the first two who ventured through a terrain unknown to humans in 1963.

It has also achieved something that almost everyone has already forgotten: Everest deserves respect, it is still a place where authentic adventures are possible and that, oddly enough, they can coexist with the greatest of absurdities: queues to go up or down the mountain. The west ridge is an amazing balcony and a metaphor for the distance between the exciting and the banal. Kilian Jornet spent several minutes on this ridge observing the rows of climbers who, to his right, on the southern slope, advanced towards the top.

Identical image could be seen on his left on the north or Tibetan side. And he, between two worlds, as isolated as if he were on the Moon, as anxious and alert as the first ones who passed by, Hornbein and Unsoeld, were in 1963. In spite of everything, Jornet asks if "was (his) expedition a failure?" and responds like this: "I did not reach the top of the mountain I had in mind, but I did achieve everything else. For me the how is much more important than the what and, in this sense, this ascent of Everest was perfect. It was like a big puzzle in which I was completing each and every one of the pieces except one, the summit."

Unlike Jornet, neither Hornbein (a wiry guy with an elf air) nor Unsoeld (tall and heavy build) were elite athletes. They both loved to climb and explore. Already in 1963 it seemed ridiculous to follow the normal route of the mountain when there were virgin, attractive and obvious objectives such as the beautiful west ridge. They wanted to embrace an adventure. To convince his expedition leader, Horbein clung to a blurred photograph in which the upper part of the ridge was seen, a rock terrain that at that altitude could be impassable, but cut vertically by a snow channel: if they managed to reach it, their progression would be easy and there would lie the key to their success. The canal was baptized as Horbein corridor, and Kilian Jornet traveled through it after not a few troubles.

"The route is beautiful. It was a pleasure to follow in his (Hornbein and Unsoeld's) footsteps for a few hours. My ascent began along a steep corridor that took me up to the west ridge. The conditions were horrible: blue ice under a top layer of deep snow. For 1,000 meters (of altitude) I was making two steps up and one down!" he lamented.

Kilian Jornet shows his kit before the attempt to the west ridge of Everest /KILIAN JORNET COLLECTIONKilian Jornet

On the ridge, the strong wind forced him to take refuge for three hours under a ledge. "When the wind subsided, I continued along the west ridge and traversed mixed terrain to the foot of the Horbein corridor. There I felt very comfortable and the conditions were perfect," he says. But everything could end in nightmare when he broke a wind plate that triggered an avalanche that dragged him about 50 meters. With the fright in his body, he decided to turn around, his nose stuck to the screen of his GPS, without visibility in the middle of a snowfall that had also erased his tracks. "In short, it was a great day in the mountains in which everything was more than perfect, except that I did not reach the top," ditch.

It may be that Jornet's journey occurred exactly on the day of the 60th anniversary of the rise of Hornbein and Unsoeld, although the Catalan has not specified the date of his attempt. Horbein lived to be 92, but he was a couple of weeks away from celebrating the date they never forgot: May 22, 1963. Hornbein never understood the images of the traffic jams in the vicinity of the summit. This season, the numerous windows of bad weather have prevented overcrowding at the top of Everest, but not the traffic jams typical of a metro station at the Khumbu waterfall, the twisted glacier that leads from the base camp to the first high camp.

The video in which many mountaineers huddle waiting for their turn to climb a ladder and overcome an ice outcrop, has hidden an alarming death toll: 11, to which could be added several missing. Failure, race climbers say, is not trying. Others believe, however, that failure is not returning. Kilian Jornet definitely knows that his Everest has not been a failure.

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Source: elparis

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