Translator: Sherin Gupta Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
Good morning.
In 1953, a team enrolled itself
to climb the world's highest mountain.
Many people questioned "why" to climb the Everest,
if there had been 33 years of failed attempts
to achieve the ascent of this mountain.
And, they asked the leader of the expedition, "why" to climb the Everest.
And he responded that
there is no height or depth that the spirit of a man,
guided by a superior spirit, cannot reach.
He didn't say that it was wise, he simply said that it was possible.
The adventures, the explorers, we are all explorers,
and the adventures are in any place.
Personally, I found the adventures in the mountains
and for more than 25 years, the mountains taught me
certain important aspects to live our adventure in life --
adaptation, will, exploration,
understanding of Nature, transformation,
unity, regeneration and attitude.
As we go climbing the high mountains
we learn that up there, after 24,600 feet
that they know as the zone of death, the percentage of oxygen decreases
what is required from us is that we adapt.
We have to teach our bodies demanding to learn
how to change the metabolism, to know how to compensate for the lack of oxygen
that is up there.
I started climbing hills, climbing small mountains
and later I started to climb the volcanoes increasingly high,
5, 6, 7 thousand meters high,
to be able to gain access to what they know as the zone of death.
In the process of adaptation, I learnt that the strength of a mountaineer
is not necessarily found in his muscles
and you just realized, it is not in the muscles!
It is precisely in our ability of adaptation.
I do not say it, Darwin said this a long time ago:
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the fastest,
nor the largest, it is the one that is most adaptable to change."
And for that, we had to educate our body
to take more fluid, to demand it, and our body begins to create memory
that we know as acclimatization.
In the process of demanding from my body,
I learnt that there are certain foods that nourish us,
foods that permit us that our blood
be able to reproduce the red blood cells more rapidly
which is going to strengthen us on the height
and you learn to say yes to what nourishes you and no to the junk.
I also learnt that not only what you eat nourishes you, but also what you think
and that we seldom do mental diets.
And I started putting aside all those comments that told me:
"It is not for you, you are crazy, why do you want to climb the mountain."
"Leave that for the strong and brave men."
It is then when it came, in that adventure, the will.
But to be able to give that first step that is required
to exercise your willpower
first of all, you have to have clarity on what you want,
what you love, what you search for, and once you have clarity
you need to know how to weigh the risks.
Mountaineers, and explorers, are not potential suicidal people
who are going to see where to kill themselves,
are people who know that there are risks, but who prepare for it,
and it is then when the will to take the first step requires to be set free
which for many people is safety.
Up there, to be able to make progress, you have to start setting free
the things that you don't need so much.
The mountains teach us to differentiate, between the essential and the accessory.
Rich is not the one who has the most, but who needs the least.
So you go lighter and you start to take a first step
but as you go climbing the highest mountains, you also discover
that the next stage of will is to pick yourself up after the failure.
You do not reach to the top always, because it is when the mountain lets you.
There are times when you can put your best effort, your experience
and, however, cannot reach the peak.
And it is then when you have to seek exploration,
not only outward exploration, but also inwards.
I remember an expedition in the Himalayas when we got closer to the mountain,
a local approached and asked us what were we doing there.
One of my companions told him: "We come to conquer the Everest."
He kept quiet and then said: "That's not possible."
Between the English and the Tibetan languages
the discussion began, until they knew the universal language:
"We want to climb the mountain."
And the local said: Ah! You want to climb the mountain.
If the mountain permits, you are going to be able to climb it,
because the conquests are not outwards, you climb the mountains, not the conquests
the conquests are inwards.
When we talk about exploring,
we do not necessarily have to go to the most remote places on Earth,
we start with us.
We start by exploring,
simply starting on the basis of seeing with new eyes --
the ability to surprise,
the ability to see opportunities where, apparently, aren't any,
to see experiences where we might not see any.
And then, Nature as a great teacher starts to teach us.
When we start exploring we realize
that Nature is that generous mother who is ready to give us everything
and that, in fact, she does not need us, it is us who need her.
However, it also has its rules, and you have to fulfill them.
When we reach a mountain,
it is a universal ritual, in all the mountains,
that you have to ask the mountain for permission.
Ask permission, not only because it is part of a local ritual
but also, we have to recognize our exact size.
In Nature ... we are very small
but Nature shows us how everything works, how everything contributes
and the truth is, personally, the mountain gave me a great lesson.
I used to think that, if I focused, that if I trained, that if I fed,
that if I nourished, that if I had clarity in my thoughts,
I could reach the highest mountains of the world,
but in the process of climbing mountains, Nature taught me that
if the person next to you doesn't matter to you, you cannot climb.
In the year 1998,
after more than 10 years of attempts,
after getting sponsorships, of knocking doors,
of climbing small mountains, finally I was at 26,000 feet,
at the point of reaching the top, I was going towards the peak
after hours of walking in average temperature of 0 °F
walking, and that progress was very difficult for me,
suddenly, at a point which is known as "The Blue Summit" at the Mount Everest,
tired, I realized that I am very close to reaching the top,
when I turn and ask one of my companions,
"How much is left?", and he said to me that I am at 260 feet, half an hour,
and I am about to reach the top,
the truth is that my spirit returned to my body
and, finally, yes, like in an ad I said: "I found myself."
Yes! At the top! After 10 years of training,
five years of asking for sponsorships, of having given up my job,
of having prepared myself for years.
And suddenly, my English companions stopped and said to me,
"Up till here is enough" and I, could not understand.
I said: "These men lack oxygen in their brains.
Who wants to stop when we are half an hour short,
after all that we have done?"
Finally, one of them say to me: "It's not that we don't want to climb,"
the only thing that we needed was to climb a step
that is known as "The Hillary Step" is 26 feet high wall,
eight feet wide, mixed terrain, that is ice and rock,
where if you take a wrong step to the right is China,
to the left is Nepal, and you don't want to go nowhere in that moment.
So, to ensure not only your ascent, but mainly your descent
you have to put a rope [beam].
When I start to awaken excitement, because only half an hour was left
and in front of me, I had that wall, my companions say to me:
"We reached up till here we cannot continue,
we forgot the rope to cover the last feet."
Could we climb the Everest? The truth is, yes.
But, to come down without a rope
could cost the life to any of the team members.
So the decision was: half-turn and return, everyone!
When I came down, obviously I was very furious.
I had done everything that I had to do.
Suddenly, I am going to find the one at fault:
Who had been the one who forgot the rope?
Who had forgotten the rope?
And when we reached down, we started -- until we found the culprit,
with name and surname, and many nicknames that arose at that moments.
But at last, that season ended
and it was there, where Nature showed me
that nothing helps you have clarity on the objective
if you forget to care about others.
I did not ask:
Who is wearing the rope? Do I help you?
You carry it and later I carry it?
That great failure became one of our great learning milestones.
You can climb mountains, hills,
with all that you have learnt, said Nature to me.
But when we are talking about the highest ones, it is not enough,
you have to interest yourself a little in the one on the side
because when you ask the other what it is that you need,
it is exactly what "you" need to keep climbing.
In those moments I went down the mountain,
I kept training,
because you need to renew that spirit
and learn from the failure
and learn from what would seem rubbish,
but in Nature there is no trash.
In Nature ... waste is a human invention.
In Nature, one organism's waste is another's feast.
That waste, that "failure", today became my great learning milestone.
And with this learning you also needed to learn
about the importance of unity.
In an expedition, in Alaska,
my colleagues invited me to be a part of a team
as part of our training to return to the Everest.
In this expedition, the leader told us that we are going to go
gripped, roped, connected.
It is a form of climbing mountains that was used at the beginning of the century;
We were all tied up at the same rhythm.
What happened was that as time passed
and there was an accident,
if one fell, he took all the others,
so people started to detach themselves.
They said, "No, no, well, if it comes to cry in your house, or in my house,
look, we cut here, just cry in your house."
But, the leader told us, "We are going to climb, roped."
A woman from Monterrey said to me, already older,
when I talked about things of mountain, she said to me:
"How difficult is that of the mountain, how complicated ..."
And I: "What? The cold, the winds, the cracks, the risks?
And she said to me: "No, not how hard it is to go tied up,
because at least in the marriage, it is until death do us apart.
But here, if they go, they take you too, right?"
Yes, it's that if you go, you too take them with you.
It is very difficult to tie up yourself,
because your life depends on other, and others life depends on you.
When the leader told us that we are going to climb "tied up"
obviously everyone was against it.
My friend said: "I don't even tie up with the one who I lived with for eight years
nor am I going to walk tied-up with a stranger."
But there was no option, and we began the climb to the mountain.
And when we reached at the point to reach almost at the top
we found that the wind began to blow very strongly
and in that strong wind, you all know,
wind factor, the temperatures dropped,
descending temperatures, frostbites, frostbite amputations
and you don't want that because the fingers don't grow back,
simply, the leader made sign, half-turn and back
and we started to come down.
And when we were coming down, roped,
suddenly, you hear the cry of the leader which came from the rear, and told us:
"Take firm steps and do not stop."
The moment in which I focus on taking firm steps was
for me, in my mind, simply, fix the 12 peaks of my crampon
I meet with shouts of the leader and he tells me:
"Take firm steps and do not stop."
I lift the leg and I feel as if I kicked the backpack
I fall over backwards, I start falling
and suddenly all I thought was: "I already killed myself."
But since I don't want myself to die, I clung to the mountain with an ice axe
I regained my breath, I started to turn to see my companions.
I rise, I see my companions, super frightened,
hoping that they say: "Hey, how are you? Do you need anything?
We saw you almost killed yourself," anything.
The only thing that they said is, "Move!"
And I, they didn't realize, let me explain them,
I started to tell them:
"It's that I fell, the heavy backpack, the wind ..."
They tell me, "Move!"
Of course I was angry, yes, they noticed and they didn't care.
Then I get angry and I say: "You know what? What happened is
that the two of you forget that I am only a woman."
Of course when I said that, the leader of the expedition
grabbed the rope that united us and said to me: "I know that and continue walking."
I started to walk and I said:
"Why, why did my team not help me?
And then, the leader, my friend, showed me the rope and I understood perfectly.
In the mountains, if you make a mistake you pay the consequences.
When you are tied-up,
what you do impacts the others.
My leader said to me: "I know that, I know that you are the most fragile,
I know you are a woman, and that's why you come in middle, we come protecting you."
When I fell all I thought was: "I killed myself,"
I did not think, "I kill them with me."
When I understood that, I started to dedicate my steps.
And in my next attempt at the Everest, in 1999,
in the most difficult moment,
I had most difficulty to go forwards, when I really ached to take a step
when, as Reinhold Messner said,
"When taking a step becomes a true act of faith
is probably because you are up at 26,000 feet."
You find everything difficult --
when I start moving forward in my second attempt
suddenly, I find that there was no strength that moved my leg
and I started dedicating my steps
and I said this step is not for me,
this step goes for a little girl who once offered me her Sundays
so that I complete my expedition;
and this goes for my family, and this for my friends
and with name and surname, I started to move forward.
There came a moment in which I advanced the 27,900 feet
and all of a sudden there is a wall, that is known as Second Step.
It's 32 feet high, that at that height
in which taking a step is difficult, to face a wall
can be a mental block which makes many people return.
When I come across this wall, I said, "My God, help me,
I don't have the strength, help me."
Suddenly, I start hearing this voice telling me,
"You are going to climb, but it is not for you
it is going to be useful for something else,"
and I did not understand when was it that I started to dedicate my steps.
I reached the top and at the top I could see not only the curvature of the Earth,
I could see everything downward and I loved it
the only thing that I felt was a profound gratitude.
And suddenly, I thought, not in 10 years I finish giving thanks.
And, as you cannot stay a lot of time at the summit,
immediately I came down and I promised: "I come back in 10 years."
In 2009, I returned to the mountain
and I realized that the Everest
not only just allowed me to see the curvature of the Earth
nor the intense blue, nor the whole mountain range below.
It permitted me to see our own exact size, our vulnerability,
our ability of, being so small, to catch big things.
And also in this process of 10 years
working with public schools,
I could see how every time a little kid
recognized his own mountain,
recognized its own challenge,
he recognized himself as an explorer, he started to climb his mountains
and his life changed.
I started seeing that transformation
and promised to work with youth from that moment on.
In 2009, I started a foundation,
that invites kids of public schools
that in their short 12, 13, 14 years are recognized as explorers.
Nowadays, these little ones that have taken part
in the projects connecting them with Nature
and reconnecting them with themselves
have transformed their community, their school, their environment;
from projects of collecting rain water, of waste management
of recovery of green areas, of reforestation.
And this has led them to not only Nevado de Toluca or to a course of leadership
but mainly it has led them to Antarctica
to the white continent, to that blank page
where they are discovered as heroes.
Everyone has their own mountains, we are all explorers.
And I invite you to live that adventure
that is to reach their own peak and when they achieve that peak
they always have someone to share it with.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)