Everest and K2 summiter Fernando Gonzalez Rubio  Nanga Parbat 2005: The weather gets worse.

Fernando Gonzalez-Rubio on the Summit K2

The mountain is totally covered and the weather is very bad, the forecast is the same for the next two days, I am upset because I haven't been able to send or receive messages and everything I try doesn't work and I am upset with all this.  The wait disconcerts me a little but I think that everything is like this, the day I climbed for my acclimatization was not the day for the summit and that is clear to me, but the change of weather left me a bitter taste, waiting is the only thing to do, it looks like I am not used to it but being ready and not being able to climb leaves a feeling that rots you with the desire of achieving your objective.

Everybody at base camp is in the same situation but I only think about me and my project, I have to make things work and that is also a pressure.  I think about my family and I want the best for them, I want to fight for them.  God has given me a path on the mountains and I am grateful, but it is hard for the people who support me to know about this, I hope all this works and that things end well, I have fought for glory and I have tasted it, but a lot of times the little obstacles stop everything and that makes me unstable.

I have to continue, the fight should be endless and I make my best effort, I would like to have the same support as the people who are here, but I am happy with what I have because beyond the economic matters there are people who love me and who motivate me to continue.  My fight will be intense and my children and family have witnessed this, and the echo of my effort will get to the people who value effort and the discipline I apply on my things, who know that I have fought for my ideals, for my dreams, for my life.

It is easy to make an opinion from a bubble but when the reality is not only ours, that is when one offers the best of oneself for life.  The summits that have been under my feet have threatened my existence on this planet and have asked me a lot of difficult things to explain but that have given growth to my life.  How much solitude has been with me while climbing up and down a mountain where only me and its intensity are the protagonists of the achievements and perfection in our ways and movements.  Silence goes with us, maybe the best ally, the expectations can make our dreams sink but the surprise makes glory great.

We will continue fighting because this is just the beginning of a road I started to cover, a road that some have not finished but where they have always given their best, what we do in the mountains is not  just to be greater than others but to grow and to give the best to others.  I have had lessons of fight from all these people who have never been recognized for their effort, today from this base camp I want to offer my fight and my respect to the first team of Colombians who stepped on Nanga Parbat, to their tenacity on their two attempts to its summit, to recognize the historic rescue of a teammate on this mountain, I only feel respect for them from here and my dream has been their dream, let's hope luck is always with me and I can share this fight with those who are not here anymore.  I talk about Belisario Pinzón with whom I dreamt of ascending this mountain with and Anibal Folker, Truman and Elkin, unbeatable warriors that are giving their best as climbers and people to make the Colombian process on the Himalayas greater.

I continue to be positive while waiting for a change in the weather because, although this year has not been good to climbers, we wait for the moment because hope, the weapon of every fighter, is with us.  I will look for the moment, I will be ready and I count on luck to be with me, if everything is in harmony the cosmos will confabulate for this fight, which is from one Colombian to those Colombians who have forgotten to dream.

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Background: Fernando Gonzalez is going after his 4th eight-thousand

Colombian climber Fernando González Rubio Polanco started last Monday, June 13, his adventure in Pakistan, where he will climb  Nanga Parbat, 8,125 m, the ninth highest mountain of the world.

This time Fernando will be a team for Colombia, his next expedition which will start on June 13, Nanga Parbat, called the Naked Mountain, has big altitude differences an all its faces, especially by the Rupal Face, 4,500 m, the highest wall on Earth.  Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest mountain of the world with 8,125 m, and is located in Pakistan.

His schedule starts on Monday, June 13, leaving from Bogota to Paris, London, Islamabad and Gilgit, where he will start a trek to the base camp of the mountain.

Fernando wants to climb the 14 highest mountains of the world, of over eight thousand meters of altitude, located all of them in the mountain system of the Himalayas.

Fercho wants to send a message to Colombians with this project, to make a national effort, beyond the expected to recover the union among us.  His is a message of peace.

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

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