My brother has been dreaming of Everest for as long as I can remember. He has always loved outdoor activities. Hiking, climbing, surfing, camping, snowboarding... if it is outside and it involves sweating, odds are he is into it. Everything he did however, seemed to be in preparation for Everest.
Living in Brazil doesn’t really give him a good head start. For starters, he lives at sea level. That’s pretty much the most oxygen rich environment you can get. Everest is 8848m (29,028ft) above sea level. At the summit, the oxygen level is 1/3 of the oxygen at sea level. Then there is the heat thing. Or lack there of. Where he lives 40 C (104f) is a summer norm. And humid. Everest averages -19C (-2f) during summer. And that is without wind chill. And Everest is a windy place. These are some of the reasons why only 17 Brazilians have summited Mt Everest. Ever. Brazil today has a population of 207 million.
Despite this “disadvantage”, he never stopped preparing for Everest. Always one step at a time, one challenge at a time, one difficulty at a time. He was the first Brazilian to climb Aconcagua in winter. He also did Kilimanjaro and Elbrus, both in winter. He has done so much I lose count. He has almost sumitted Denali, but had to turn around less than 100m (around 300ft) away from the summit due to extreme conditions. He has also done Puncak Jaya and Ama Dablam. Throwing these names together makes them seem trivial. But they are not. He has just done too much for me to go into detail. Also I’m a shitty little brother who lives in another country who doesn’t remember timelines and some of his accomplishments.
In 2011, after a lot of training and countless ever-increasing challenges, he was finally ready. Everything was set and ready to go. 40 days before his departure, while training on his bicycle, he was ran over by a car. Shattered his femur. After surgery and an enormous titanium rod and pins, the doctor told him he would never be able to run again. He had to learn to walk again. It took him years to recover. But he did.
When things were starting to look up, his throat started hurting. Headaches. After a visit to the doctor, another blow: Thyroid cancer. Back to the hospital, back to surgery, back to being horizontal.
I assume most people would have given up after the car accident. I probably would have. Then cancer? You would think that would stop the guy. But no. To prove to himself that he was “back in the game” he ran the El Cruce. A 100k 3 day run through the Andes.
It is now 2014 and Everest is in the calendar! The time has finally come. After decades of dreaming and training he finds himself at the basecamp of Mt Everest. It was early morning and he was getting ready to start his acclimation cycle and climb to camp 2. Then the avalanche happened. The most deadly avalanche in the mountain’s history took the lives of 16 sherpas who were preparing the route for climbers. The route my brother was going to be going through in about an hour. The mountain closed for the season.
For the following couple of years, he did some of the challenges mentioned above. I don’t know the exact reason he didn’t attempt to go back to Everest the following years, but I have a feeling the avalanche had something to do with it. Seeing the bodies being helicoptered out must have been a sobering reminder that Mother Nature is untamable. And even if you are in perfect health and do everything right, you still have a pretty good chance of dying.
By 2017 he was ready to go back. But then his asshole brother got married during Everest season. Being the supportive brother that he is, he tabled his lifelong dream once again to be my groomsman. And instead did one of the summits mentioned above. I believe the one in Indonesia. I was busy being married and selfishly worrying about my own life.
And now we are in 2018. It is Everest season. After car accidents, cancers, doctors saying he can’t, asshole brothers and other obstacles, my brother just become the 18th Brazilian to have summited Everest. He summited at 11:30am on the 16th of May, Nepal time.
He arrived back at basecamp today (18th) at around 3pm, Nepal time. Exhausted. Destroyed. Accomplished. Now he goes back to his anxious wife and kids. With his dream materialized.
Brother. You are the most inspirational person I have ever met. Love you bro!
As he always says: “Love the life you live. Live the life you love.”
TL;DR: After car accident, cancer and other obstacles, my brother fulfilled his lifelong dream of climbing Mt Everest.
Edit: Fixed a word
Submitted May 18, 2018 at 08:53PM by Filippopotamus https://ift.tt/2IsAYbV
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