A poem, 'The Reapers' and Everest conquered: 40 years of "We have reached the summit"

Barcelona"We have reached the summit." Forty years ago, at four in the afternoon on August 28, 1985, Catalan was spoken for the first time atop Everest, the highest peak on the planet. News that filled an entire country with pride. That "We have reached the summit" became a generational cry, a motto of the Catalonia that would become an Olympic champion. People incorporated it into their vocabulary, and thousands welcomed the heroes when they returned home. Curiously, though, the phrase uttered at the summit by Òscar Cadiach was "Catalonia has reached the roof of the world."

The expedition was made up of fourteen brave individuals: Conrad Blanch, Nilo Bohigas, Óscar Cadiach, Jordi Camprubí, Jordi Canals, Luis Gómez, Enrique Lucas, Jordi Magriñà, Joan Massons, Javier Pérez Gil, Antonio Ricart, Miguel Sánchez, Toni Sors, and Carles Vallès. They were accompanied by Sherpas Ang Karma, Shambu Tamang, Nima Dorje, Narayan Shrestra, and Nawnag Yonden, who were key to the success. Three of them, Óscar Cadiach, Toni Sors, and Carles Vallès, were the lucky ones to reach the summit. "It was a team effort. They were experienced people. There had already been two expeditions," recalls Barcelona native Conrad Blanch, the expedition leader in 1985.

Blanch was part of a group of fearless young people who had met at the Centro Excursionista de Catalunya in the 1970s. "I came from Scouting and joined the center when I was 19. There I met a group of people with whom we climbed Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya in 1976. Kush in 1978 in the Andes... We were the first in Spain to enter the Karakoram, in 1980, and we reached the summit of Gasherbrum II. It was our first eight-thousander. It was a golden age for mountaineering, with a certain rivalry between the Catalans, Basques, and people from Madrid to see who could go the furthest. "In 1981 I went to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese authorities to let us climb Everest from the Tibetan side. Imagine what China was like back then, shortly after the Cultural Revolution, all locked down... Until then, all Westerners had climbed Everest via the Nepalese side because China had closed its borders, but it seemed to be closing its border. The Italian Reinhold Messner managed to make the ascent alone and without oxygen via the Tibetan side. Knowing whether we would get permission was a challenge, and I got it in 1983," Blanch recalls.

But before that, in the autumn of 1982, another expedition from the Centro Excursionista led by Lluís Belvis and Emili Civis left.He fell just a few meters short of summiting Everest from the Nepal side. That same year, Catalan mountaineering suffered a severe blow when Pere Aymerich and Enric Font disappeared while attempting to reach the summit of Manaslu. It was a severe blow for Conrad Blanch, their friend, who had been unable to accompany them for health and work reasons. Blanch decided to continue pursuing the Everest dream. "There were always four of us. The two of us, Ton Ricart, who was a doctor, and me. After what happened to them, we decided to continue and added Antoni Sors and Joan Massons to the team," he says. With the support of the Caja de Barcelona, ​​​​they were the haystack of the expedition that left in 1983, and they incorporated people who had also participated in the 1982 expedition. "It was a good expedition. We didn't reach the summit due to luck with the weather. On October 14, 1983, we had to give up," says Blanch. "But we decided to go in the summer, during the monsoon season. Nepal closes the route due to bad weather, but China did allow it, since the Himalayas act as a natural barrier to the monsoons coming from the south. Now, it seems crazy.

The 1985 expedition was "a dream team of mountaineering, with experience in eight-thousanders, and it was made up of people from all over the country: Tarragona, Manresa, Valls, Barcelona...”, explains Blanch, who was clear that he wanted to climb the Tibetan side for different reasons. “For the adventure and to pay tribute to the first British climbers who had attempted it, like the famous George 1, like the famous George. Tibet and its culture. We had translated words from Catalan into Tibetan. We have great memories of the weeks before Tibet, when we tried to deceive the Chinese guards to speak with the monks in the monasteries”, Blanch recalls excitedly. After landing in Lhasa, they began a three-day journey of about 700 kilometers, to Rongbuk base camp.

When they reached Everest, they were alone. "We were at just over 5,000 meters above sea level, in the same place where Irvine and Mallory had set up camp. We made three unsuccessful attempts, and on the fourth, we managed to reach the summit. As an expedition leader, you make decisions, but in the end, it comes down to who is stronger, physically and mentally. I couldn't, for example, because I was waiting for news and suffering, because the descent was dramatic," he recalls. Forty years ago, Cadiach, Sors, ​​Valls, and three Sherpas—Shambu Tamang, Narayan Shresta, and Ang Karma—battled snow and wind on the final ascent. "When we were about 150 meters from the summit, I calculated it would take us about two hours to reach it... but it took six. Taking one step meant stopping and having to breathe ten times. It was very hard, but I was convinced that if the weather held, we would get there. It was extraordinary. Degrees below zero," Cadiach recalled years ago, who would end up becoming the first Catalan to climb all fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters. Vallès, too tired, had fallen by the wayside, but was determined to get there no matter what.

Upstairs they took pictures and sent the message to the rest of the team, who rang the bell. The Reapers at base camp. "There was a Catalan component, of course," says Blanch. They also displayed a banner from Barcelona's 1992 Olympic pre-candidacy at the top. And they fulfilled the commission of poet Joan Brossa, who had written a poem entitled A sestine ode to some intrepid Catalans hoping it would be read at the top of the summit. Òscar Cadiach would be the one in charge of doing it. One of the first things the first Catalans on Everest did was read a poem that said: "At the top of the world lies another life / we have the stars at our feet / from the storm to the sun there are four steps / the stone of strength bathes the ring / the beach of snow gathers traces / and the map is found in the middle." However, Cadiach admits that despite the wind and cold, he did what he could. Once they communicated by radio to announce the good news, the long-awaited telegram came from base camp: "With overflowing emotion, we inform you that Catalonia has reached the roof of the world today. Long live Catalonia! Long live Catalan mountaineering! Up, up, up!"

Two hours later, Carles Vallès reached the summit. "When he arrived, they gave him some chocolate and a cookie, and it was time to descend," says Blanch. They were at 8,849 meters. Not like today, when many expeditions to the highest peaks can gather every day. Only at the top of the world did they enjoy the moment. Perhaps too much, because night fell during the descent, which complicated everything. Four members of the team had to improvise a bivouac at an altitude of about 8,600 meters, a feat that no one had ever achieved at the time. Carles Vallès was one of those who had to dig a hole in the snow and spend the night as best they could, the four of them arm in arm. "It was very complicated," he recalls. After a very hard night, they made their way down as best they could until they found a tank with two oxygen bottles, which was crucial. "The reunion was exciting. That descent lasted so long that we had expected the worst of it," says Blanch. "It wasn't as if communications were easy. Back then, it was hard to get back to home; we had to send telegrams in Morse code. And it was hard for us to know what was going on up there," he adds. He becomes emotional when he remembers those who are no longer with us: Sors died in 1987 on Lhotse, and in 1988, Narayan Shresta would lose his life while climbing Everest.

The international mountaineering community also followed the team's journey, as it was the first Western expedition to climb the northeast ridge of the mountain. Back home, a country eager to learn the details of that adventure awaited them; all Catalans felt they, too, had reached the summit. In fact, Plaça Sant Jaume was packed to capacity to welcome the protagonists of an adventure they recounted to journalists and onlookers. To friends and family. First to their children, and then to their grandchildren. And they will remember it again this August 28th, when they will meet in Taradell to give a talk coordinated by Albert Om and to premiere a documentary. These brave souls have met many times in Taradell, the town where a square was dedicated to their goal. "I spent my summers there and was friends with the then president of the town's hiking center, Josep Munmany, so a banner from the Taradell Hiking Center was taken to the top of Everest," says Blanch. "The best thing of all is that we did many more expeditions together. And we've maintained our friendship, something that doesn't always happen in mountaineering, when with so much nerve-wracking and tension, people often become enemies," he adds. Forty years later, those climbers also miss the figure of Nil Bohigas, who died in 2016 at the age of 58. The memory of those who are no longer with us strengthens the bond between those who, four decades ago, thought they could climb the top of the world, at a time when everything seemed undoable.