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K2: Passion for mountaineering - A tribute to Manel de la Matta

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Agu 20, 2004 07: 08 EST
Manel de la Matta was part of a team. It was a team not like any other, for yes, there were many of them on K2 this summer.

But the five Catalan's of the Magic Line were different: They chose the most difficult line to the summit, they worked the route 24 hours a day, they sent accurate and punctual dispatches, and the most amazing pictures we could imagine. They didn’t complain about other teams. They reported they enjoyed the climb.

But they were the ones, the only ones, who raised the flag and tried to organize a rescue party when two climbers were missing on the crowded Abruzzi Spur route. This, while dozens of other climbers, on the same route and some under the same permit, looked the other way, packed their things and hurried home.

Perhaps that is why they were alone

Meters away from that Base Camp of high-altitude egos, our greatest joy was always to go back to the Magic Line. No kidding, no lies and no false motivations were afforded on its steep couloirs and unknow upper ridges. It took a very strong team even to dare to face that impressive spur. Perhaps that is why they were there alone.

They made it

But, well, the fact is that the Magic boys made it. Jordi Corominas went for the summit and, amazingly, got to the top of K2 at midnight on August 17, after 20 hours of lonesome climbing.

Everybody's friend

That's when the rest of the media, and community came running: With congratulations, and comments like “Oh, I was sure they would make it”, or “Oh, yeah, I know that guy, were are kind of friends , you know...”

Everybody filled headlines with words of triumph and celebration... Forgetting the simple climbers’ rule that the summit is only half way there. Forgetting there were still two other climbers on the mountain, retracing down the Magic Line. In the middle of sickness, the upcoming storm and the oblivious mass media, they slowly made their way back down.

The summit is only half way there

Manel couldn’t make it back from Camp I. He had been showing symptoms of pulmonary edema for three days. Oscar Cadiach, his climbing mate, wouldn’t leave him alone. But Manel couldn’t survive, not even when his other mates rushed up for him.

That's when, within minutes, his name hit the world through the internet, the phone, the TV networks. Sometimes one might wonder if someone has to die to raise the attention of the big national media. Without a clue of what the word ‘Magic Line’ may mean, but it didn’t matter: In the midst of a boring summer, a climber dead on the peak of the ‘Vertical Limit's movie is always attractive.

Well, not to us. To us Manel is, and will always be, part of the Catalonian K2 Magic Line 2004 team.

Piolet d’Or and Pioneer of paragliding in Spain

Besides, what does anybody know about him, except for his friends, his pupils, his - many - fellow climbers? He never was a media darling. Even though his name is related to countless expeditions.

Did you know that he climbed the British route of Shisha Pangma and Cho Oyu along with Chantal Mauduit? That the was awarded the Spanish version of the Piolet d’Or after his winter climb to the Croz (Alps)? That he has been in the Andes, in the Cerro Torre, in Mt. Kenya, and many other peaks? That he was one of the pioneers of paragliding in Spain?

Passionate Alpinism

He had also accomplished some hard solo climbs. But in a recent interview he assured that, what he really liked, whas climbing along with friends. He also said that he believed in ‘Passionate Alpinism’. Indeed, only passion can take you to attempt only “the most difficult, the forgotten routes, the new lines”. Just like the Magic Line which, for him, meant “a re-encounter with the feelings of exploration, to share experiences with climbing mates, to approach uncertainty”.

All smiles

He was convinced that only a team effort would take them high up. Not so worried about the summit, the clue was ‘the process, the method and the style’. “If summit was our main objective, we would have climbed the Abruzzi Spur”.

He always smiles in the pictures. In real life too, let me tell you, he was extremely nice. One of those who makes your work as a journalist more easy. How could he ever managed to swim in the turbulent waters of the Climbing federations, clubs and entities, being otherwise?

Leather boots, canvas and weed ropes

A graduate in Economics, he chose to teach how to... climb. His work and hobby was showing the younger ones how he had witnessed the changes in the last twenty years. From the rigid leather boots, canvas and weed ropes, to the revolution of rubbery climbing shoes and gore-tex, he has lived and enjoyed it all.

From Alpine classic routes to the hellish Patagonian winds, or the thin air of the eighthousanders. Whatever, as long as there was an elegant line to follow, in the best of styles and, most of all, with friends around.

Real climbers die in real mountains - or so they wish

In the end, it took his life. It was not a lack of experience; it was not reckless behavior; it was not an accident. Not even bad luck. It was just his passion for the mountains. ‘To much love will kill you’ says the song.

Climbers die on the mountains. Real climbers die in real mountains, on the most difficult routes. Or so they whish.

Manuel had the end of a true alpinist. But that fact offers no comfort to the ones who remain, looking up and searching for shadows. We shall miss you, Manel. As we now and then look back up the Magic Line on K2, to find some relief.

This story was compiled by Angela Benavides, the editor of Esp.MountEverest.net and part of team ExplorersWeb. We are very proud to have Angela on our crew.

Manel de la Matta was born in Madrid in 1963, but lived in Barcelona (Catalonia). He was the first director of the Fedme (Spanish Federation of Climbing and Mountaineering) High Mountain School. UIAGM Mountain Guide, currently he was the director of the Mountain Sport Techniques School of the Escuela Pia, in Catalonia.

At midnight local time, on August 17th, Jordi Corominas reached the top of K2 through the Magic Line, accomplishing the first repetition after a Polish/Slovak team in 1986. Oscar Cadiach and Manel de la Matta turned around from their camp at 8100 m on the morning of August 16.

Manel was showing symptoms of pulmonary edema. Climbing down at a very slow pace, Oscar and Manel spent that night in Camp 3, and the next night in C1, at 6400m. Yesterday there was no contact with the climbers, while a snow storm prevented Valen Giro to reach their Camp in the evening. The sad news arrived this morning. The rest of the team is back in Base Camp.

Catalonian K2 Magic Line 2004 expedition members were Oscar Cadiach, Manel de la Matta, Jordi Corominas, Jordi Tosas and Valentí Giró.

Image of Manel climbing the Magic Line, Copyright K2 Magic Line 2004 Expedition.

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