You don’t beat the mountain, you beat yourself
Sir Edmund Hillary
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–I went to Everest in October 2017 –Xiana Siccardi (45) tells me.
He is a journalist. He was a specialist in Events and Courts in El Mundo and La Vanguardia. He scripted television programs for Risto Mejide.
-And why was he gone?
–Because I was running from one place to another and I had disconnected. She only did urgent things that are not important. I didn’t even know what music I liked anymore, I didn’t read books or travel… I had decided to go alone and far away. If I stayed close, I would still be connected to the mobile. It worked for me.
-Because?
– I gained time to think. I went to Nepal because I liked the stories of the Dalai Lama and the yeti. It had to be fifteen days of trekking, but I was arriving at the Everest base camp (5,634 m) and, as I entered that world, I realized how dangerous our environment can be. From Barcelona they told me: ‘You’re crazy’.
–¿…?
–If I had listened to that environment, I would have missed a lot of awesome things. Like meeting Lakpa, my husband.
Beside him, Lakpa (25) smiles at me.
Lakpa was born in Solukhumbu, 70 km from Everest. He had done it in a stone shack with no light or running water. In order for the child to come out, his mother had torn him out of her womb.
Today, the mother still fights with tigers that intend to devour her cattle.
At fourteen, Lakpa was already a porter, like most young people in his region. He three times he has climbed Everest.
“We had two weddings,†Lakpa tells me. We speak in English although it is already released in Spanish–: on August 24, 2020 we celebrated a Buddhist ceremony with an offering to the gods, a Puja. A lama from the village came and one of my brothers, who is a Buddhist monk. We set up an altar in our apartment in Kathmandu and chased away the demons by rolling the cymbals. We offered rice to the gods and shared the khatas (white silk scarves) to wish each other long life.
To legalize the link, there was a second wedding at the Kathmandu court, days later.
“A storm enveloped us and only a brother and a cousin accompanied us,†Xiana Siccardi tells me now. I got married in Asia with a dress bought here for less than fifty euros and we ate pizzas and beers. It was the wedding we wanted.
–And how had that love blossomed?
“We had met in the mountains, in a refuge,†Xiana Siccardi tells me. Love came little by little, it was not a crush. We became very close friends, colleagues and confidants. We spent days together in the Himalayas, under the hail, the monsoon, the spring. Lakpa took care of me. I spent days terrified, thinking that she would attack us by a bear. After a while, Lakpa said to me: ‘Do you realize that you have not enjoyed anything because of something that has not happened?’ I returned to Spain and went back to Nepal six months later. Who would have told me that my life was going to take such a turn? I ended up marrying a very rich man. He didn’t even have a fridge, but he’s the richest man I’ve ever met.
–Being a porter generated money for me, like any other profession. But only in spring and autumn – Lakpa tells me.
-And the rest of the year?
–You spend it in the villa, with the family. We have all lost family members in the mountains. My uncle died on a black day in Nepal. A group of Sherpas had come up to fix ropes. There was an avalanche. 16 porters died.
We can read the story in Sherpas, The other story of the Himalayas (Editions of the Wind), the book that both co-wrote in 2020. They are in the third edition. They have sold more than 3,000 copies. They have invested the proceeds in removing more than a ton of microplastics from the top of Everest.
Today, Xiana Siccardi and Lakpa live in Barcelona. Lakpa works in a DHL frozen food factory.
–I’m in the logistics area, moving things. Sometimes at -22ºC.
–¿…?
They know that I can stand the cold well.
Before leaving, Lakpa presents me with a khata. She hangs it around my neck, she hugs me, wishes me a long life.
