He currently works as a mountain guide with his company Alpinism , bought some team, reported on the volcano and took us to the adventure . Now after all my experience, I think it was crazy because my father really knew any mountains and we ventured with few things, we could have killed ourselves! But incredibly everything went well and we managed to raise a 5,400 meters height volcano.
Y.M .- WhatIt caused that ascent to have allocated to the mountain?
h.p.l- I was completely fascinated by Mountain Ascent , with ambition to climb other mountains. I loved it.
Y.M.- How was it for your parents and relatives that you will be passionate about Adventure sport high risk?
h.p.l .- There was really no family controversy, my parents always supported me. I believe that my interest in the mountain was so genuine that they simply pushed me to look for what attracted me to this activity. They just worried about what the mountain gave me, trying to do it for pleasure. What was very important for them and that instilled me from the beginning was the importance of the preparation before an ascent. And the preparation at all levels, both in inform and study the mountain before uploading it, and equip correctly and train before climbing clear.
Actually, I could say that the cause or the main source of my hobby was my mother. My mother, tireless reader instilled me from an early age to the reading and above all it gave me read adventure books . All those stories filled my adventure head. In fact, when I have questioned a new project, she is always the one that gives me the final push.
Finally my two parents have been decisive in my passion for the mountain also thanks to the intrepidity of my father taking me to Popo at age 11 without anyprevious experience and with a lot of value.
Y.M.- If your parents supported you, did you ever think you would get so far?
h.p.l.- I don't think they thought about it. They were interested happiness that gave me the mountain and not the success that I could have.
Y.M.- Have you made competition promotions?
h.p.l.- no, I have never participated in competitions as is. I don't really have a competition level in Sports climb or anything. I love everything related to the climbing and the mountain and for the same I never specialized in any kind. As regards the mountain, as you know there is no this type of competences. The most that is approaching would be the altitude races or marathons that are held in the mountain but that was never what has attracted me personally.
But what I can tell you is where I like competition, it is above all about the competition with myself with a type of challenges that I have raised. For example, here in Mexico we have the advantage of having three great volcanoes that exceed 5,000 meters ( Popocatépetl, Iztaccíhuatl and the Pico de Orizaba ) and when I was 23, I considered climbing and lowering them all three in 24 hours including the transfer times from one to another. Then at two in the morning I started from the refuge of the Base of Orizaba that is 5,700 meters , I made a summit in 2h 30, I went down, I drove to the Iztaccíhuatl, I went up, I lowered it, I handled to the Popo, I went up andI went down, and ended about seven o'clock at night making a total 17 hours to upload the three volcanoes . Approximately 5,000 meters of accumulated slope. I described this because this challenge type I love! I propose personal challenges and especially promotion times.
Another example would be a mountain in Nepal called Ama Dablam which is 6,800 meters high which is well known because it is considered one of the most beautiful mountains in the world and represents an ascent that usually makes in four days with three camps and others. I did it from the base camp to the summit, which are 2,800 meters of unevenness in 9h 30 .
I have several promotions of personal challenges to have to climar and ascend large slopes in short times . I love this type of challenges! Because they demand a certain strategy, preparation and training . And since you are involved in it, it is for me very interesting the challenge that is found in the way you are managed in speed, in strength and rhythm . This is what would approach your question most about the competition for me. They are really against anyone but with oneself.
Y.M .- How and how long?
h.p.l. This is because unlike running the bicycle allows you to make a certain effort during along period of time. You can perform 200 km by bicycle training from 8 to 10 hours, and run (I also practice it, on the mountains by trails and others) Finally at a long 3 hours it is enough.
Living here in Mexico City, despite being a monstrous city, we have many close sites with heights of the 3,800 to the 4,500 meters or smaller mountains but with Walk routes Lares. And then a lot of this preparation consists of going and doing 1 or 2 promotions in the day or also combining things like climbing from the town to the bike shelter, throwing it out there and summiting speed for example. This makes me long days of 10 to 11 hours of training which prepares me very well for these challenges and of course for expeditions.
Y.M .- from what time did you get international recognition and what does this mean? h.p.l.
- One is as a climber , as climbing that poses its challenges that I try, sometimes I achieve and sometimes not, and there I have had certain achievements as a Mexican mountaineer, as a Latin American that have been of first level .
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Among these can be some promotions to mountains of 8,000 meters by Routes Difficult in the 100% alpine style . For example, I have made ice waterfalls in Canada, which no Mexican has done. Or the southern wall of Shisha Pangma thatHe had some resonance throughout Latin America we will say so. In this sense, it is something that I have never sought, recognition has not been one of my goals but it has given me a lot of satisfaction.
- The other facet that I have is as a guide that consists of bringing non -professional mountain people to the mountain successfully. Through my company Ponce de León expeditions I offer trips to different mountains in the world and also guide for European and American companies. And in this sense as a guide , because I have achieved things that no other Mexican has obtained and that they have given me a great prestige even more than as individual mountaineer . For giving you an example, in 2000 I was hired by a US company called Mountain Madness to be its Everest Guide . These people because they have the possibility of hiring anyone in the world and hired me ...
So to recognition level this has been a very important moment for me. That international companies look for me to be their mountain guide when in their own countries there are first level guides because today with the internalization of everything because this has been possible and for me it has been a great satisfaction. As a guide I have obtained a certain renown and look for me from different parts of the world to perform their expeditions .
y.m./> h.p.l .- yes sure, because I would say that first:
- Everest who really ascent on the north face in a small expedition without sherpas with a low budget and we really made a very simply. In 2000 I became the first Mexican to make guide an expedition to Everest and finally in 2002 I made expedition cameraman filming the entire promotion to the summit for Discovery Channel.
- Aconcagua (Argentina), the highest
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The Shisha Pangma , mountain of more than 8,000 meters on Tibet. It is a mountain quite frequented by the northern slope. In 1999 Andrés Delgado and I proposed something that seemed a madness forThe time. It was about doing this mountain of 8,000 by the southern face meters to the alpine style , without oxygen, without sherpas, without having pre -established camps on the route. It is to go to the wall and get on a pull, without having been before the routes, without knowing it, nothing. Without putting fixed strings and this forces us to Perform a rapid climb and rapid and risk more for granted. And perhaps what is worth noting is that once you have uploaded a certain amount of meters, you no longer have a way to return, you technically do not have the material to return. You have to summit and go down a simpler route. Andrés and I got in two and a half days climb 2,500 meters of wall and thus become the first and only Mexicans , Latin Americans who have done this in 100% alpine style. Instead of taking a day and a half as planned, it took us four, because the route was not so simple as we believed. Three of these days were without food without drinking anything because we no longer had gas to melt snow. It was a true survival decline .
h.p.l. What I love is climbing. For example, in the case of the southern wall of Aconcagua or the southern wall of Shisha Pagma, the top was just a fewmeters after I finished climbing the wall, and I did not go to it.
I began to descend because my goal was to climb the wall and not conquer the top. Of course I love to stop at the summit but I love the process in which you feel your performance for ascending a certain route in a certain way.
Y.M.- How is your interest in filming in the mountain?
h.p.l .- My interest in filming the mountain was born accidentally. When I was in Katmandú, capital of Nepal returning from an expedition where I guided, the discovery channel team was there investigating to do a documentary on a ascent to Everest and were looking for a cameraman.
A Sherpa with whom I had worked on occasions, he met them and recommended me with them. This is how Discovery hired me for to be a cameraman of this project.
They knew that filming was not my strong point but they were interested in my capabilities as a mountaineer and they gave me a previous training as a cameraman in Canada. Here my concern is born to start with the question of filming.
y.m .- is technically very complicated?
h.p.l.- the logistics change completely when you are going to film during an ascent.
To start it implies finding people trained to ascend and film at the same time. Not onlyhave capacities as climbers but the audiovisual knowledge for film production.
Obviously, is required more weight because you have to climb all material as gasoline generators or solar panels to have electricity. In addition the cold is the first enemy of the batteries causing them to use 1/5 of their normal duration.
This type of ascent implies organizing differently as well. Sometimes you have to send the cameramen ahead. All the ascent is dictated to get the material to make a visual work . Even sometimes the game has to be delayed so that there is enough light to film, etc ...
Really a rise filming has nothing to do with a normal ascent.
Y.M.- Speaking about the project, a summit , what inspired you interest in the issue of breast cancer?
h.p.l.- The direct antecedent of a step, a summit is a work that I did for a Canadian who inspired me a lot called Ben Webster . This man is dedicated to the documentary production in Canada, and he hired me to guide a group of Canadians in an ascent to the Kilimanjaro mountain in Africa. In this group of people are some survivors of breast cancer and with their testimonies I realize the force with which these women are promoted. I realized the value that have these testimonies and return to Mexico with an already very clear idea that I want to do this in Mexico.
This is how I came into contact with the Foundation CIM ab to propose this project which totally convinces the president of the Foundation and decides to finance the entire project. We work together with the lumatic producer which are very capable, very creative people and with many ideas on how to edit. We form a excellent film of filming and mountaineers together with a group of very brave women who had never promoted a mountain. After training months , the project was carried out successfully to the Pico de Orizaba with this group of women and making a documentary that transmits a very positive and hope message on the case of breast cancer.
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At the Alpinist level as a mountain guide, it gave me a lot to have taken a group of fifteen people with half being survivors of breast cancer and together with the entire team, have prepared them to get this great summit. On a personal level it was very nice to see a project like this in which we could have doubted its success in certain moments of difficulty.
Y.M.- What is your next project in filming and mountaineering?
h.p.l.- In filming my next project is called ascends Kilimanjaro . Working with the Alma Foundation that is dedicated to helping women who had breast cancer with reconstruction surgeries and psychological support, we are going to ascend the Kilimanjaro in the month of June 2012 with people who share the message to survive is not enough. It will look for capture testimonies during the rise of people who believe that in life you have to do more than the minimum necessary to survive and make a documentary that inspires others to risk trying more than expected of them.
In Alpinism I have a project that I have called 24 and that consists of doing three different promotions in less than 24 hours , Everest from the base to the top, the nose of Captain in Yosemite and the one considered the longest ice cascade in the world the slipstream in Canada. The ascents at speed have always been passionate because they require a good preparation, a strategy that allows you
Y.M.- Do you have any other sports passion?
h.p.l. As a young man participate in some races even in stages and I enjoyed it a lot. Today when I have the opportunity to go to the road to take a while and also when I can watch the tour on television, the turn, the return ...
Y.M.- What is your favorite book or movie?
h.p.l. Myfilm is between Apollo 13 and the mission .
Y.M.- How do you visualize yourself in the future?
h.p.l .- nothing different from as I am today . Someone looking for always a goal not because of the goal itself but for what to pursue it implies in terms of growth, satisfaction, fullness, etc. Someone who can contribute something to others regarding expand horizons and believe in oneself.
