How was HIMALAIASKI created?
In 2014, my 40-year gift was a trip to wherever I wanted. I began to assess options: Denali in Alaska, the fjords of northern Norway… but it was very easy for me to decide on Nepal; taking a trip to the Himalayas was a youthful dream that had never come true. When I thought of Nepal, I only imagined trekking trips and expeditions to 8,000-meter peaks, and I really did not feel comfortable with either format.
The teachers show you the way, it is up to you to follow it or not. Jordi Tosas, a childhood friend, had recently returned from the Himalayas from trying to climb Shisha Pangma (8,013m) with Kilian Jornet and Jordi Coromines in a very unorthodox style. When I spoke with Jordi Tosas, he immediately made me a travel proposal that was exactly what I was looking for:
“We will go on a trip to the Himalayas, specifically to the Langtang valley, very close to the border with Tibet, in the middle of winter and with mountain skis to try to climb some virgin peak. Then we will run back to Kathmandu”
Jordi Tosas explained to me that apart from the eight thousand, there are countless unknown peaks of five and six thousand meters, many have no name, and there are all difficulties. You just have to explore and find the trip to the Himalayas that best suits what you want to do.
The Himalaiaski team:
Lluís Bedós, a fellow adventurer, took less than two minutes to join the project. A few days later, my cousin, Pep Cuberes, who was studying image and sound at the time, asked me if he could come along with a photographer friend, Guillem Casanova, and record a documentary of the trip;
We were a very heterodox group, with very different knowledge: some apprentice filmmakers with some apprentice mountaineers and a guide, Jordi Tosas, who would start us on this new path. The strength of the teams is to add the experience and knowledge of all members.
After verifying that we could not find any maps or information about the area where we wanted to go, Lluís began to create itineraries and search for peaks with Google Earth, this would be our cartography. Pep encouraged some colleagues from the university to do various jobs that would promote the project, they found a name, Himalaiaski, a logo, they made a first promotional video and a web page. While Guillem took photos to promote the project, I took the most commercial part and gathering everything we had I started looking for sponsors.