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ExWeb interview - Juan Oiarzabal: "I hate BS and my left foot!"

Dec 14, 2004 09: 05 EST
Juan Oiarzabal is going through a tough time. After an entire life dealing with mountains, he is now facing an enemy he had managed to avoid until last summer: Terrible frostbites refusing to heal.

Brutally honest, he thinks out loud, whether you like it or not. “Well, I know I have this temper, and I know I’ve gained myself some critics. But no one will say that I'm pretending to be something I'm not. This is who I am, I don’t want to play someone else.“

Making a path for others

Juanito summited his 21st 8000er last summer. July 26, he summited K2 for the second time, together with Edurne Pasabán, Juan Vallejo and Mikel Zabalza from‘Al Filo de lo Imposible’ team and two Italians.

They were the first to launch the final summit bid, fixing ropes on the Bottleneck and the final slopes of the mountain. They opened the track for many others to follow, wanting to turn around at least three times. Finally, very late in the day, they reached the summit. Juan would pay a very high toll for his decision to go on: He got lost in the middle of the night, until climbing-mate Ferran Latorre found him semi-unconscious and dragged him back to the tents in C4.

Surgery

Back home, the doctors couldn’t save any of his toes. He underwent surgery and was obsessed to recover fast, thinking about the future to forget the present. Media would quote Oiarzabal claiming he would be OK for Aconcagua next January, and then Makalu West Pillar, and then Nanga Parbat next summer, and then…

Last week ExplorersWeb had a chat with Juan, and he was not so sure anymore when we asked about his plans:

Angry with myself

“Right now, my first plan is to learn to deal with this and try not to be so angry with myself. Sometimes I think I am falling into despair.”

What is the problem, then?

“My left foot is not going well. Some of the skin grafts they put on the wounds have broken; the bone is showing through. I'm going to the operation room next week, they say it will by alright in a month, but I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

Meanwhile, I am forced to stay still. I can’t work out, I'm gaining weight, I can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. On the other side, I can't just stay at home, my agenda is packed with appointments for lectures, slide shows, public meetings… I wish I could cancel it all. But it's my job, it's what I do for a living…”.

Retiring in two years?

…Besides climbing, he could have added. Away from the mountains, Oiarzabal is risking more than a hobby. 48 years old, he has been climbing virtually all his life. For years he has been leading the climbers in the ‘Al Filo de lo Imposible’ TV documentary series, and has said, “I know nothing but climbing.”

“I hate my left foot, I hate the time I am wasting… Sometimes I hate myself, and I hate the mountains!”, he snaps. “I'm going to quit soon; in a couple of years, I’ll retire.” But then he keeps on thinking out loud: “But on the other hand… Oh, man, on the other hand I miss the high peaks more than ever. I need to be there again! Yeah, before retirement I must climb a couple of more 8000ers.”

Something else he hates?

"Yes, I hate people who talk too much!"

Watching the mountains from the other side

Reduced to walk on crutches or remain seated, Juanito has plenty of time to watch mountaineering from the other side: This time he is not the one climbing, but the one reading and listening to what other climbers have to say.

“I can't believe when I read all the bullshit some people say about purity, about everyone else being worse than themselves. Some people talk as if they had in their power the ultimate essential secret of mountaineering, when the facts are that they’ve never summited an 8000er.

You hear them saying; "Oh, I am not interested in climbing a mountain where there are other teams polluting the mountain with fixed ropes" - Oh, come on! You attempted the mountain as everybody else, you idiot! Your problem was that you where not able to get close to the summit, and now you are trying to make us believe that you are not interested. Please, I know what I'm talking about… because I was there!”

Climbing Everest is no news

But there is a flip side to his own reasoning: “Everest has no sense as a mountain for me anymore. It's a circus what they have there. Looking back, I must confess I'm ashamed that I was once part of that circus. Journalists keep asking me about Everest, time after time… How can I explain that climbing Everest is no news anymore? Believe me, it's not important!"

“Listen: I will never, ever return to Everest. It's too painful. Everest is a very vulnerable mountain, man can easily spoil it. There are too many interests around Everest, simply because it's the highest of all. The motivations, the reason people has to go there, are not about climbing. It's something else. And I don’t like it."

What about K2?

“No, K2 is different. Don’t be fooled by what happened in 2004; the anniversary attracted an unusual amount of people and led to an extra ordinary situation. Yes, we proved that ropes can be fixed and passages can be climbed but, it's still a huge, impressive, difficult mountain.”

We were not the best up there!

“And again, the media turns to me to ask about K2, as if our team was the only one on the mountain. This is unfair! Our expedition was not the one who did something great there. It was Jordi Corominas and the Magic Line team! Why don’t they ask them? They were the best of the season, that’s how it is. Not us.”

Well… journalists be shocked. Climbers usually tend to remark their own merits, not point out other’s.

“Well, I know I have this temper, and I know I’ve gained myself some critics. But no one will say that I'm pretending to be something I'm not. This is who I am, I don’t want to play someone else.“

Facts prove that this is true. Oiarzabal never denied being rescued, and never forgot those who helped him. The Basque climber is a rare species, and not only because he has climbed 21, 8000ers.

A realistic approach to 2005

Now that reality has forced Juan to change his plans and slow down his objectives, he dares to talk about future expeditions only in conditional mode: “If the toes heal on time”, “If I can bear the cold…”. Aconcagua is out, Makalu would be too serious.

Some weeks ago Juanito said that he would return the mountains not as a climber, but as a technical advisor in BC. But the question is if someone like Juan is capable of just sitting at the foot of a mountain like Makalu.

Yesterday, Juan dared only to talk about humble aims:

“If I'm OK, I’d like to climb Kilimanjaro. It is one of the Seven Summits, after all… And a test for me. You can simply walk to the summit, but I need to know if I can do it, and how I react to low temperatures. If that works out, then I’ll start thinking of…Nanga Parbat? Vinson in November? Let’s see what happens.”

Juan Oiarzabal was born in Alava (Basque Country) 48 years ago. In 2000, his Annapurna climb made him the sixth climber in the world to bag the 14 eighthousanders on Earth. Two years later he climbed Everest without O2. In later years, he has kept climbing 8000+ peaks, either as a mountain guide or as a stunt in Spanish TV documentaries. This gave him the world record of summiting 21, 8000+ peaks. His recent summit on K2 almost took his life, and he suffered severe frostbite.

Image of Juanito Oiarzabal courtesy of Juanitooiarzabal.com

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