Jorge Egocheaga (Oviedo, 1968) he learned to change his two houses without going from one to the other, without causing too strong a “shock”. Spring and autumn are usually in Nepal, the rest of the year in Oviedo. In the Asian country home to some of the most legendary peaks of the Himalayan mountain range, he does what he loves most: climbing. But not only that. The man from Oviedo is trying to help a very poor and isolated region as much as he can: he brings medicine, clothes and sets up medical camps in the Makalu Valley (the fifth highest mountain in the world) so that “they know how to cure water, heal minor wounds, disinfect…”. And for some time now she has been promoting a solidarity association called “Joëlle helps”, which is currently sponsoring fifteen children from this isolated part of the world to study. “I have two daughters studying at the university in Kathmandu “There is one, one of them finishes nursing this year, the other one starts this year.”
A few days ago, Egocheaga returned to Asturias, where he will spend the winter, where he takes the opportunity to work as a doctor in his office, trying to save money to return to what he already considers his “first home”: “Nepal is very important to me, there.” My wife remains (Joëlle Brupbacher died on the descent after reaching the summit of Makalu), I feel more at home here; I have my family here, I feel very good around them. But I feel very good there.”
Egocheaga, one of the country’s most famous climbers, thinks climbing Manaslu, one of 14 “eight thousand” climbers in the world, is nothing remarkable: “I don’t talk about what I’ve done if I don’t think it’s remarkable; for example, I was in Manaslu two years ago, I got to the top, but It was something I had already done, I also did it on a normal route…”. This year is different, two summits are climbed at the same time from the nearest town: “It was something original, it had never been done before.”
The man from Oviedo tells how these two adventures happened: “I was in Manaslu in September, I managed to climb to the top from the nearest town, Samagaun, in an instant, which was something that had never been done before, and I was already in Ama Dablam a month ago, you can directly reach the nearest town (Pamboche) to the summit without stopping. Alone”. It was something that had been on his mind for a long time and related to his childhood in Asturias: “I did it here when I was a kid, cycling from Oviedo to Peña Ubiña, from Oviedo to Tuiza, and then from Tuiza to the top.” and go down, cycle back, things like that; And I wanted to do something from a town of 8,000 people there, where you sleep in a shelter, you live in a house, you go to the summit. or Ama Dablam, almost 7,000 and you come back.” He spent 19 hours in the Manaslu expedition and almost 7 hours in the Ama Dablam expedition.
But while what he’s doing as he climbs is complicated, it’s not far behind the solidarity project in which four other Asturians are collaborating. He allocates all the income from his book “Maybe This Is Living”, which has now been published in eleven editions. “What we do is we sponsor children, we pay for their education, some of them also pay for food and subsistence for those who have to be hospitalized,” he explains. These are children who grew up in very difficult conditions: “If we didn’t help them they wouldn’t be able to study, public education there is very bad, some of the children come from the Makalu Valley, where Joëlle died, hence the name of the association and the opportunity to study until they are 8-10 years old, and then there “They participate in the working life, which is very difficult, carrying, carrying loads… The girls work at home and most of the boys are Sherpas.”
It’s a hard life in “towns that are 5-6 days walking distance from the road”, there is also “a very serious problem of alcoholism, which causes many deaths from liver cancer, many parents die young and children are left orphaned and desolate” “No matter what” explains the Asturian climber, hoping that soon they will be able to establish “partners” who will cooperate, because until now the association “was living on what I put in from my own pocket and everything I earned from the book”, ‘Maybe this is what living is’, everything, everything is 100% going there, but neither book goes further It’s not going away, nor is it in my pocket.
These days he has to return to a very different life in Oviedo, where he treats many different patients, but he has his own tricks to get used to it quickly: “Before, change was harder, but I’ve been doing it for so many years that I can’t do it anymore. It means everything to me; when I come here, I feel I know how to use mental tools to put it here and be there when I get there. The trick is, as soon as I arrive, I start work the next day. Moreover, last time I got to Oviedo at 5 and went to the consultation at 5.15 without going home or anything. Good job system, you don’t have a chance to think.”
Jorge Egocheaga (Oviedo, 1968) he learned to change his two houses without going from one to the other, without causing too strong a “shock”. Spring and autumn are usually in Nepal, the rest of the year in Oviedo. In the Asian country home to some of the most legendary peaks of the Himalayan mountain range, he does what he loves most: climbing. But not only that. The man from Oviedo is trying to help a very poor and isolated region as much as he can: he brings medicine, clothes and sets up medical camps in the Makalu Valley (the fifth highest mountain in the world) so that “they know how to cure water, heal minor wounds, disinfect…”. And for some time now she has been promoting a solidarity association called “Joëlle helps”, which is currently sponsoring fifteen children from this isolated part of the world to study. “I have two daughters studying at the university in Kathmandu “There is one, one of them finishes nursing this year, the other one starts this year.”
A few days ago, Egocheaga returned to Asturias, where he will spend the winter, where he takes the opportunity to work as a doctor in his office, trying to save money to return to what he already considers his “first home”: “Nepal is very important to me, there.” My wife remains (Joëlle Brupbacher died on the descent after reaching the summit of Makalu), I feel more at home here; I have my family here, I feel very good around them. But I feel very good there.”
Egocheaga, one of the country’s most famous climbers, thinks climbing Manaslu, one of 14 “eight thousand” climbers in the world, is nothing remarkable: “I don’t talk about what I’ve done if I don’t think it’s remarkable; for example, I was in Manaslu two years ago, I got to the top, but It was something I had already done, I also did it on a normal route…”. This year is different, two summits are climbed at the same time from the nearest town: “It was something original, it had never been done before.”
The man from Oviedo tells how these two adventures happened: “I was in Manaslu in September, I managed to climb to the top from the nearest town, Samagaun, in an instant, which was something that had never been done before, and I was already in Ama Dablam a month ago, you can directly reach the nearest town (Pamboche) to the summit without stopping. Alone”. It was something that had been on his mind for a long time and related to his childhood in Asturias: “I did it here when I was a kid, cycling from Oviedo to Peña Ubiña, from Oviedo to Tuiza, and then from Tuiza to the top.” and go down, cycle back, things like that; And I wanted to do something from a town of 8,000 people there, where you sleep in a shelter, you live in a house, you go to the summit. or Ama Dablam, almost 7,000 and you come back.” He spent 19 hours in the Manaslu expedition and almost 7 hours in the Ama Dablam expedition.
But while what he is doing as he climbs is complicated, he is not far behind the solidarity project in which four other Asturians are also collaborating. He allocates all the income from his book “Maybe This Is Living”, which has now been published in eleven editions. He explains what they do: “What we do is we sponsor children, we pay for their education, some of them also pay for food and subsistence for those who have to be hospitalized.” These are children who grew up in very difficult conditions: “If we didn’t help them they wouldn’t be able to study, public education there is very bad, some of the children come from the Makalu Valley, where Joëlle died, hence the name of the association and the opportunity to study until they are 8-10 years old, and then there “They participate in the working life, which is very difficult, carrying, carrying loads… The girls work at home and most of the boys are Sherpas.”
It’s a hard life in “towns that are 5-6 days walking distance from the road”, there is also “a very serious problem of alcoholism, which causes many deaths from liver cancer, many parents die young and children are left orphaned and desolate” “No matter what” explains the Asturian climber, hoping that soon they will be able to establish “partners” who will cooperate, because until now the association “was living on what I put in from my own pocket and everything I earned from the book”, ‘Maybe this is what living is’, everything, everything is 100% going there, but neither book goes further It’s not going away, nor is it in my pocket.
These days he has to return to a very different life in Oviedo, where he treats many different patients, but he has his own tricks to get used to it quickly: “Before, change was harder, but I’ve been doing it for so many years that I can’t do it anymore. It means everything to me; when I come here, I feel I know how to use mental tools to put it here and be there when I get there. The trick is, as soon as I arrive, I start work the next day. Moreover, last time I got to Oviedo at 5 and went to the consultation at 5.15 without going home or anything. Good job system, you don’t have a chance to think.”