• Report: How did Sherpas become mountaineering stars in just a decade?

  • News: Spanish Sergi Mingote dies while descending K2 with the historic expedition that has conquered it in winter

"We are very, very, very happy. We have reached higher than we could dream for the acclimatization process. But we feel so good that we want to continue dreaming of the summit. The homework is done. Obviously it's time to descend to base camp tomorrow and this is a dangerous mountain. "

In his latest newspaper, published the day before yesterday on Instagram,

Sergi Mingote

was enthusiastic despite being at an altitude of 7,000 meters, at 51 degrees below zero and only accompanied by the Chilean

Juan Pablo Mohr

.

As a group of 10 Nepalese from his expedition ascended to the top of K2, a historic milestone, the Spaniard was close to another success for mountaineering, becoming the first to achieve it without bottled oxygen, and above all, a personal success, reconcile with the second highest mountain on Earth.

Two years ago, in July 2018, Mingote already ascended K2 alone, but he was lost in the descent for four hours, he suffered the unspeakable - "I thought it was all over" - and he had a rather sad memory.

Despite having promised not to return any more, he returned this January to face the last great challenge of 'eight-thousand-year-olds' and lost his life at age 49 due to a fall from a height when he was already near the advanced base camp.

It was the tragic outcome of an adventurous journey that began on a bicycle.

As an official in charge of managing the Granollers sports facilities, he competed in several amateur mountain biking events until in 1996 he discovered climbing, mountaineering, and fell in love.

In 1997 he made his first expedition - to the volcanoes of Ecuador-, in 1998 he climbed for the first time an eight thousand, the Cho Oyu;

the following year he trampled the Shisha Pangma and in 2001 he reached the top of Everest on the north face and alone.

Arrival in politics

Already then he acquired some notoriety, but it was two years later, in 2003, with the broadcast of his return to Everest - this time on the south side - live through TV3, when he became known.

And when politics called him.

The then mayor of Parets,

Joan Seguer

, of the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) offered him to be a councilor and eight years later, in 2011, he jumped to the mayor's office, where he would serve two terms.

There he made friends like the Minister of Health,

Salvador Illa

, and was well regarded by the neighbors, but he stayed away from his eight thousand.

And after two legislatures he decided to step aside and continue with his dreams.

After projects such as the swimming crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar or the expedition to the Magnetic North Pole and already as president of the ONAT Foundation, which seeks to promote sports, Mingote returned to the roofs of the world in 2018 with ambition.

He wanted to be the fastest ever to complete the 14 eight-thousandths without bottled oxygen, but after hitting Broad Peak, K2, Manaslu, Lhotse, Nanga Parbat and Gasherbrum II in 367 days, the coronavirus gave him away. stopped short.

"And you know, I can't stand still," he commented to EL MUNDO last December, when evaluating his new project.

The Nepalese Sherpas of the company Seven Summit Treks offered to co-lead the project to the winter K2 and he could not refuse the offer.

"We will try to climb to the most extreme summit in the most extreme conditions," he summarized with the same enthusiasm that he exhibited the day before yesterday, before his fatal outcome.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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