Nanga Parbat 2005: Everest Summiter IVAN VALLEJO RICAURTE MISFORTUNES AND GOOD OUTCOMES FROM TANTRUMS

From a modest analysis I have come to the conclusion that the consequences of a tantrum, being this earthly or ethereal, should normally bring more misfortunes than good.  But, since any exception confirms the rule, when the tantrum is a synonymous of tenacity and there is no involvement of the lack of objectivity or dignity, of the goal which you are fighting for, that tantrum in particular leads you to venture.

From this wide sea of possibilities, each one of us could count thousands of cases that exemplify our own tantrums or the ones from others: from our children, from our boss (thank God I don't have one), from our tastes and from love, of course, that sometimes make us pay the consequences very high.  The variety of kinds of tantrums is wide and abundant.  But in this occasion I would like to refer to the natural tantrums or to say it better, the ones from nature.

You see, the other day I announced that I was leaving for the summit.  And, in fact, I prepared my things and left the backpack ready according to the weather forecast we had received.  In the early morning of Tuesday the 12th, my teammates and I left from BC but we couldn't even get to C1 which is just at 4,800 m of altitude. We had to turn around aborting the attack to the summit.

You will ask: what was the problem? 

In fact, a tantrum.  From nature in this case, which, with these unexpected changes in the clouds and the wind broke all the predictions and made us change our plans.  We had to remain in BC for five more days waiting for a new forecast that would promise good conditions.  And during this wait, the other afternoon, nature gave us a new tantrum: a little after lunch, when I was calmly taking a nap in my tent, suddenly a very hard rain began to pour with such magnitude that Muslims and Christians thought that heaven would fall in pieces with Allah and God included.  If Abraracurcix, the Gallic friend from the village of Asterix, would have been in base camp, he would have swore that "the sky was falling on our heads".  But unexpectedly, while the roof of my tent suffered the hits of the bit drops, on the other side of the camp the big and warm sun shined on the daughters of the rain.  From that marriage a rainbow was formed, big and beautiful, the biggest I have ever seen in my life.  What a beautiful afternoon we had on our base camp!  The tents of bright colors shining above the green and immense prairie, the rain wetting it all and the sun warming it all.  In the background, an immense rainbow opening wide like the entrance gate to the Naked Mountain of Diamir.

IVAN VALLEJO RICAURTE

Expeditioneer

Translated from Spanish by Jorge Rivera

Updates

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