The discreet Jordi Corominas (Barcelona, 1958) makes good the Taoist proverb that says: “He who knows does not speak, he who does not know speaks.” Light years away from those tired egos propelled by social networks, the Catalan mountaineer based in the Benasque valley keeps for himself and his closest people a generous handful of relevant ascents. One of its most celebrated milestones is the summit of K2 (8,611 meters) by the southwest pillar, the Magic Line and the subsequent descent via the normal route, in 2004. Corominas will be honored on the 10th, in San Martino di Castrozza, in the Dolomites, with the Piolet d’Or for his career, the highest recognition in the world of mountaineering.
The legacy of his parents
“They were both climbing; two weeks after I was born they took me to my first bivouac”
Jordi Corominas, on K2
How does a reserved man away from the spotlight receive the award?
A year ago the organizers started asking my friends without telling me anything. It was in September, a month before it was made public, when they contacted me to make sure I would accept it because they already knew I could say no. I accepted because I think it could be a recognition of Catalan and Spanish mountaineering, in the end from the alpine arch they have seen that we also exist.
In the statement from the ‘Piolet d’Or’ organization announcing the award, some of his most relevant ascents are recorded, but those who know him well comment that, due to his discretion, he has not included many in his public resume. of his adventures.
The list would be boring. Yes, what I have done in the highest mountains, in the Himalayas and the Karakoram, comes out, but there are many climbs missing in the United States, in the Pyrenees, in the Alps… What comes out is enough for people to get involved. an idea
Because? Do you consider that what you do in the mountains is something intimate, personal?
It’s very personal. I am in this world because of what my parents taught me. Two weeks after I was born they took me to my first bivouac and shortly after, at two months, to the Pyrenees. They both climbed, in Montserrat, in Pedraforca, in the Alps…, and they transmitted to me their passion for the mountains. What I do, with whom and how I don’t feel like telling everyone, is very personal, only to my surroundings, to the friends who understand me.
What he is best known for is the summit of K2 alone, when he achieved the first and, to date, only repetition of the committed Magic Line. Is your ascension more intense?
K2 was the end, the peak of a story, but I have reached peaks perhaps not as difficult or well-known, like the first times I went to the Himalayas or Yosemite, which have been much more important for me in terms of learning. K2 is the end of a whole story, the mountain no longer surprises you so much, you are there and you can more or less maintain a certain tranquility due to the accumulated experience, your mind is clearer, you know how you behave at altitude and what you can solve the difficulties. On the other hand, when you are young you go with more fear thinking about whether you will be able to or not, like in the route that we opened in Meru Norte (6,450 meters), in India, with Simón Elías and the Bahillo brothers, in 1994. We went into a wall of 1,000 meters and there we did learn.
With the ill-fated Manel de la Mata, in camp 2 of K2
What feelings emerge when faced with challenges of such magnitude?
Sometimes a certain fear, which you must control, but it’s like in a marathon, the only thing you think about is going kilometer by kilometer. On the wall it’s the same, you’re focused on going up, meter by meter, and when you get to the top, exhausted, you know that what you have to do is go down. There are many things that you don’t feel until days later when you see the photos and realize that you have been on the edge a lot.
So you think maybe the guy has gambled too much?
No, no, if I thought I could kill myself I wouldn’t go or I would turn around. Obviously in mountaineering there is always a risk that you have to take before leaving home because if you realize when you are already in trouble, be careful. The game is to first analyze the difficulties, the risks, know if I can solve them… But be careful, the mountain can do more than you. I’ve probably gone down more times without achieving my goal.
What interests you most about current mountaineering?
Every year you see Polish, Czech, French, Spanish, American, Japanese expeditions… that open difficult routes in alpine style, with little weight and speed, on peaks of 6,000 meters, not so much on seven thousand. The challenge would be to explore and transfer this style to seven thousand higher altitudes and to eight thousand. The Czech Marek Holecek has been doing important things for some time, as has the Japanese Kazuya Hiraide, who died this summer on K2.
Lightness and self-sufficiency, which is what is conspicuous by its absence every spring on Everest. Queues, fixed ropes, bottled oxygen…
I try to stay as far as possible from that image of queues on Everest. We have sold the mountain and now in some places it is overcrowded.
Jordi Corominas at the top of Chacraraju, in the Peruvian Andes
His love of reading led him to open a small publishing house, Verticualidad.
I closed it, it took too much time; Maybe when I retire I’ll return to the project. Now I am studying Spanish language and literature remotely for pleasure, not to get a degree; I have a good time and it’s a way to keep my head well furnished. I have always liked to read, I am doing the subjects that I like, the problem is that I am running out, I am in third grade. Studying I have discovered more poetry.
‘He who knows does not speak, he who does not know speaks’, said Lao Tzu.
I don’t know if I know, I think sometimes there is too much talk.
Jordi Corominas in Canada
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