Another of the places most visited by the experienced mountaineer is the imposing Himalayan mountain rangeto which he has gone on many occasions and where he has crowned the eight thousand meters. There, danger is always present, especially in winter, when the risk reaches unpredictable levels above 7,000 meters. He remembers an expedition in which fate was implacable: three mountaineers ventured to the summit, while Álex Txikón and his own Carlos Suarez They decided not to continue due to weather conditions. They were in the Gasherbrum 1 above 7000 meters, and the three who tried to reach the summit never returned. In a sometimes hostile environment, you can encounter large avalanches, blocks of ice or fallen rocks lurking around every corner. In this extreme scenario, decision making becomes vital.
And one of the expeditions that he enjoyed the most took place in the Karakoram mountain rangewhere after climbing several days, he managed to reach the top of the There Peak (6096 meters), and then fly down in a BASE jump. A feat on a mountain that stands out for its incredible beauty, and that he would achieve with his adventure companion Darío Barrio and the experienced mountaineer Ramon Portilla, who had to face relegation without Carlos. I would repeat that same style of jump again, but this time from the Nameless Tower (6251 meters), also in the Pakistani Karakoram. After three hard days of climbing its wall, it made history for being the first time BASE jumping was done from that summit.
Keys of an extreme mountaineer
When we reflect with him on the importance of having a calm mind to carry out activities that involve risk, he agrees that good sense and temperance are essential qualities “to survive safely”. On the other hand, he comments that he has seen very sensible people and also the opposite. “I have seen very unfair accidents, which should not have happened to a person in a given place or time, but I imagine that those answers can never be known”.
However, Carlos Suárez is known for being a sensible, intuitive and very experienced mountaineer. He has always maintained a constant training routine: “I normally train regularly 4 or 5 days a week, with an intensity of at least 70%, especially running and climbing. And when an expedition approaches, I push hard.”. But, for athletes who venture into territories where risk becomes a traveling companion, It requires more than training, experience and mental strength.. And that is, as Carlos says “without a doubt, personal and family history, in my case very small, has a lot to do with it, I have always needed to go out to see the world with an impulse that went beyond the normal”. For him, Risk is not just a part of your life, it is a way of understanding and experiencing the world. And it is this drive, this insatiable need to challenge convention, that sets these extreme athletes apart from the rest.
The fine line of risk
Aware that risk can generate addiction, he argues that “many studies say that risk generates a lot of dopamine that leads you to a fictitious state of well-being, which appears to be a reality and can be the greatest danger”. Carlos prefers to “talk more about a lifestyle.” He has always felt that his adventures “They contributed more than just pure sporting activity. Adventure has a lot to do with sport, but there is much more”.
A turning point in the life of the mountaineer It was the death of his good friend Darío Barrio: “I think it had a big impact on us, also on my friend Armando del Rey, because we came from a time in which several friends in a row had already died doing BASE jumping. It was a very difficult moment to understand everything we did and why we did it.”. A hard blow, since the famous chef died at the El Yelmo International Air Festival, in Segura de la Sierra (Jaén), while participating in the opening show with the form of skydiving known as wingsuit; a discipline that is exercised with a suit with wings that allows you to glide and reach an average speed of 160 kilometers per hour. This loss led him to question his own limits and rethink his goals in the mountains.
Inspiration for new mountaineers
And among his passions: “I am passionate about everything that has to do with sharing my adventures. When I was fifteen years old I read a lot of the classics and you realize that the best mountaineers have always shared their concerns and fears. Bridging the differences, I think everything that I can contribute to someone with the same concerns is very nice.”. Carlos Suárez is not only an extreme athlete, but also a committed communicator. Through his books, conferences and social networks, he shares his experiences and lessons learned in the mountains, inspiring new generations of adventurers.
With that desire to share experiences, he tells us that a new project is underway, which would be his fifth book. We couldn’t help but ask him what we are going to find when we open it: “my latest adventures and as always trying to explain that contradiction that exists between the search for happiness in the mountains and all the danger it hides that can end everything in one fell swoop”.
2024-03-12 15:59:42
#Life #edge #Carlos #Suárez
