Carles Gel: falling in love with Greenland crossing it from end to end

BarcelonaWhen he was 7 years old, Carles Gel left the farmhouse near Vilassar de Mar where he lived and, without saying a word, decided he would climb the Creu de Montcabrer alone. Between climbing up and down, he stayed there all day. He was born to explore. Carles (Vilassar de Mar, 1963) still remembers that first peak and the escapades with his parents to Montseny. Or the trips to the Pyrenees with the Salesians of Mataró, where he forged his personality and his desire to travel the world. This man from the Maresme region, who has lived far from the sea for years, would put down roots in the Pyrenees, and currently lives in Andorra, in Pal. Although he studied to be a draughtsman, he ended up working as a mountain guide, as he is not a person destined to live confined in an office. “I could have been a good architect, but there came a point when I told myself that I had to pursue my dreams. We cannot live without dreams,” he explains. He has now been working in this profession for 40 years, which has allowed him to reach peaks on all continents and cross Greenland, a journey that changed him. When he remembers that white immensity, he gets emotional. He speaks of it with the same passion as that boy who, at 7 years old, climbed the Creu de Montcabrer.

Carles speaks with ARA while still having wounds on his leg from his last adventure, a crossing over the frozen waters of Lake Peipus, on the border between Russia and Estonia. In recent years, crossings over snow and ice have been seducing him. He is already thinking about crossing Lake Baikal in Siberia. And also about returning to Greenland. But before falling in love with the north, he spent a lot of time climbing peaks. In fact, he still spends a lot of time, because he continues to work as a mountain guide. “When I started this job, there were few guides. I made my way quickly. I had only climbed Aneto when I went to Pamir to climb Mount Lenin, over 7,000 meters. I wanted to live and I was a bit reckless. At 26, I went to do my first 8,000, Manaslu, but it was a reality check. It is one of the most complicated mountains. Pere Aymerich and Enric Font died there in 1982. I went there in 1986, and it wasn't until the 90s that the first Catalans, Josep Nogueras and Antonio Montalban, from Sabadell, summited it. There I understood that I lacked experience, so I focused on the Andes, where I started going in 1993. I worked as a guide there and climbed over 125 peaks from Patagonia to Ecuador. Then I returned to the Himalayas, because I felt ready,” he explains, as he recalls climbing partners, peaks, and anecdotes, whether in Cho Oyu or Everest. When he talks about his expeditions, his eyes shine.

26 days surrounded by an infinite white

But nothing like his ski trek across Greenland, an adventure that, as often happens, was born a bit by chance. “I went to Alaska to do an expedition with my brother. And there we met José Mijares, a mountain guide from Palencia who worked with some Norwegians. My brother said he was cocky, but I liked him. And my intuition didn't fail. It was he who proposed to me, when we were there, if I wanted to accompany him to cross Greenland skiing. I told him no. I was tired of the cold. But after a few months I called him and asked him if I was still in time to sign up. At that time, the longest snow trek I had done skiing was in the Pyrenees, so I was going to Balandrau to train,” he says. As brave as he is, he began that adventure in May 2002. It was necessary to notify the Danish authorities, get the permit, and have courage. “In the days leading up to it, I had a knot in my stomach. I saw the glaciers and it intimidated me. But once we started skiing, the fear disappeared. We completed the route in record time, in just 26 days. And that despite the fact that we were three days unable to leave the tent due to a storm. We went from west to east, starting from the part closest to Canada. The first two days it's hard to ski, as you encounter crevasses. Then you still see the mountains, but afterwards you see nothing but infinite white. It's fascinating, as you end up climbing up to 2,500 meters and when it rises, it's very difficult. You only see a white horizon. You spend days seeing nothing, except when you have visions, which you do. We still don't know if we saw a flock of birds, because one of us saw them and the other didn't,” he recalls. During those days, they hardly encountered anyone. They crossed paths with some Icelanders who were skiing in the opposite direction and using kites, which allow you to ski with the wind at your back faster, a technique that Gel and Mijares had discarded. “There was a group of Norwegians and little else. And then we found one of the United States bases, there in the middle of nowhere, where some soldiers let us sleep with them. The next day a giant Hercules plane landed carrying soldiers. Who knows where they must have sent them to fight afterwards,” he reminisces.

Carles lost 15 kilos on that crossing, where they ended up at such an isolated point on the coast that they had to activate the safety beacon for a helicopter to rescue them. “When we finally saw green grass and the sea with icebergs, it was exciting, we had made it,” says a man who has returned to the area several times, to learn about Inuit culture and keep chasing dreams. They never end. In fact, he wants to return to reach the North Pole skiing alone.