Stories about mountains are above all else stories about the people who confront themselves on the mountain. GORE-TEX athlete Edurne Pasaban knows that better than any other. She has climbed all 14 eight-thousanders on earth and with that concluded a chapter in the history of alpinism. The name, Edurne, translates as “snow” in German. The white stuff didn’t fall all too often in her birthplace of Tolosa, Spain. She was born there on 1 August 1973. In her parental home, little Edurne was always very protected: “They protected me, above all else, perhaps to excess”, Edurne says.
“What do the mountains give me? There, I am free!”
As a teenager, she got to know her cousin Asier Pasaban, a climbing instructor in the alpine club. It was with him that she began her life on the mountains. For Edurne, climbing is more than a hobby. It was in fact her sheet anchor, her path to an independent life without the protective oversight of her parents. When she was only 16 years old, she climbed Mont Blanc. In 1997, she joined her father’s mechanical engineering firm after completing her degree. But she wasn’t happy there and left to start her own business, taking over a restaurant and transforming it into a country inn called “Abeletxe”. But Edurne, at nearly 5’11”, still trained every free minute she found.
The seventh-highest mountain in the world came calling
After finding success on six-thousanders in the Andes, she headed off to the seventh-highest mountain in the world on her first Himalaya expedition in1998: Dhaulagiri at 8,167 metres (26,795 feet). That even without any prior success at high-altitude summits. It was on this trip that she got to know her first love, Silvio. The Italian, who was married and 15 years older, was to remain her love but one that was long distance. He was the one who taught her about all of the necessary equipment for survival on the mountain. His presence meant safety to her.
Finding herself on K2
In 2001, at 27 years of age, she first set foot on her first 8,000er that at the same time was the highest of them all: Mount Everest. As the love with Silvio fell apart, the pretty Basque finally learned to trust herself, to discover whether she was actually able to organize an expedition without him. “For me, it was about finally growing up in one fell swoop”. As the first proof, she took on Cho Oyu (8,201m/26,906 ft) in 2002 and succeeded at summiting. In May 2003, she had knocked off her fourth 8,000er with Lhotse. At 29 years of age, she felt she was in top form, both physically and mentally. So she set her sights on the second-highest mountain on earth: K2, at 8,611 meters (28,251 ft). It had an infamous reputation among alpinists and not just because it was considered the most difficult mountain. Edurne of course questioned whether her experience on six-thousanders sufficed to dare this unparalleled mountain. But the expedition was for her a big opportunity; she wanted to pursue her passion for mountaineering. And K2 changed her life: Edurne lost two toes on this expedition. But she had never really considered frostbite as a reason to give up mountaineering.
Highs and lows
After her big success on K2, Edurne had some hard times ahead of her. During her climb of Nanga Parbat in 2005, the athlete suffered from huge depression and tried to take her own life in 2005. Entering a clinic in Pamplona, she was convinced to work on herself and in 2006 she succeeded at coming out of her crisis even stronger. Finally, she really began to believe in herself. She finished her second degree in coaching and management in Barcelona and felt better than ever. 
The once shy girl from Tolosa who hardly trusted herself to peek out from behind her parent’s shadows, is today known far and wide across Europe. She is also the 22nd person ever to have climbed all eight-thousanders, completing that in 2010, exactly 22 years after mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner did the same. These days there remains not a trace left of self-doubt. The athlete gives talks in full ballrooms, coaches executives, and founded the travel agency “Kabi Travels”. Kabi by the way is the Basque word for K2. Edurne’s foundation, “Mountaineers for the Himalayas”, supports the education of children in the Himalayas.
GORE-TEX Experience Tour with Edurne Pasaban
At Gore, we are proud to count Edurne as a member of our athlete team. As a part of the “history sessions” on the GORE-TEX Experience Tour, the well-known Basque high-altitude mountaineer went to the Balmhorn in Switzerland with the winners in 2015 following the tracks of mountaineering legend Lucy Walker. Too, in 2011, Edurne accompanied a group of lucky winners to Aneto, the highest mountain in the Pyrenees as a part of the “Women Power” project.
I am an alpinist today because that’s what I decided.
Despite her athletic successes, Edurne paid a high price for her mountaineering success and gave up her dream of having a family. “We must make a choice in life to take one path or the other. In doing so, we often exclude other possibilities. Even if we don’t know where they might lead. Today, I am an alpinist because that’s what I decided.” She learned to have trust, in particular in herself. You can read more about Edurne Pasaban in her biography, “In the shadow of 8,000ers”, by Franziska Horn.
© Alun Richardson[/caption]
