Alex Txikon: “I live with one hand in front and one behind”

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‘Anwar’, a documentary presented at the Trento Festival, shows the social work in Africa and Asia of the Biscayan mountaineer, increasingly involved in activism

At the moment, Alex Txikon (Lemoa, 1981) is more excited about a light bulb that turns on thanks to solar panels in a remote village in Pakistan than he is about adding 8,000 new ones to the eleven in which he has reached the top. “You can’t go wrong,” he smiles. “I’m still going to be in the mountains and I still have a few expeditions to go, but it’s true that I’m passionate about this kind of action.” The mountaineer attends EL CORREO as he flies to the Italian city of Trento, which hosts the most important film and mountain festival in the world. This Saturday, accompany the screening of ‘Anwar’, a documentary in which he makes clear his transition from Himalayanism to social activism.

Written and directed by Rosa García Loire, the film guides its charismatic protagonist from the icy peaks of Nepal to the wretched suburbs of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, to reaching the impossible roads of Pakistan’s rocky mountains. Mountain movies often have an epic tone and a happy ending. ‘Anwar’ boasts majestic aerial shots and breathtaking landscapes, but it begins with the chronicle of failure. After two winters of trying, Txikon was unable to crown Manaslu’s 8,163 meters. “Oddly enough, it’s the simplest of all eight thousand, but in winter it brings them,” he justifies.

At least the expedition can claim to be the first non-polluting. The EKI Foundation supplied two kilowatt portable photovoltaic installations to avoid the use of a petrol generator. Thanks to them, they obtained the solar energy needed to light and charge mobile phones, drones and other electronic devices. The excrement went into a drum with quicklime and the paper was burned on the spot. Batteries are returned for recycling. “We leave as few traces as possible,” explains Txikon. “In field four of Everest, in the busiest areas, you keep finding trash, but it’s getting better. The government of Nepal has been campaigning itself this year to clear the mountains. Instead of spending on cleaning, it should be done on awareness and regulation.

Alex Txikon touched the Cruz del Gorbea at the age of three. At the age of 21, he climbed his first eight thousand, Broad Peak in Pakistan’s Karakoram. Nanga Parbat’s first winter summit in 2016 is one of the feats of this athlete, who vows not to be disappointed by his profession. «I do what motivates me, what fulfills me. The amazing thing is that in thirty years a sponsor has never forced me to do anything’, he confesses. “It is our own egos that invade us and kill us. With the insecurity and fear of pretending, of wanting to be the best, you get lost and you are able to step on others.

Txikon explains that the Himalayas have changed a lot due to technology. “I had a great time with ‘Al filo de lo imposible’ and in Edurne Pasaban’s expeditions,” he recalls. “There are now tour operators that are attracting inexperienced customers, and that has no mountaineering value. In 2004 we were 16 people in a base camp in Makalu, we installed the ropes and climbed without oxygen. Now you can find 150 boys there in the spring. With a rope up and a rope down.

The climber assures that he has no house or car. “I live off borrowed, that’s the fun. With one hand in front and one behind. However, in order to get the 250,000 euros to go to Everest in the winter, he manages to convince sponsors and to captivate the public with his talks. In ‘Anwar’, Txikon learns first-hand about the work of the EKI Foundation in Sierra Leone, installing solar panels to help schools and hospitals become energy independent. The girls tell her that they want to become lawyers, doctors and even presidents of the country. The reality is that some become prostitutes when they are nine years old. Those same solar panels will take the climber on Pakistan’s goat trails. Their destination is the Günther Messner school in Sair, an area visited by 16 tourists last year (10 were from the Txikon team). 14 hours from Islamabad by road. Another 3 hours off-road to where the road ends. And 12 kilometers on foot, with a fall of 1,000 meters.

“These people have to walk twelve kilometers there and twelve kilometers back to charge their mobile phones. They have nothing,” says the mountaineer and communicator, who is talking to a Bilbao football club for “a spectacular action” in Africa, although nothing can be said about it yet. “The bitch is that the world is divided geographically: dependent from where you were born, you have a future or not,” concludes Alex Txikon, who has a memory at the end of ‘Anwar’ for his fellow climber from Nanga Parbat, Ali Sadpara, who passed away at K2 last year.

Source: La Verdad

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