MP: Fell in love with Mt Everest while scaling it, says Liaño Gonzalez

Ace mountaineer David Liaño Gonzalez (35) who is on a visit to India arrived in Indore on Saturday and shared valuable mountaineering tips with the children here.

Ace mountaineer David Liaño Gonzalez (35) who is on a visit to India arrived in Indore on Saturday and shared valuable mountaineering tips with the children here.

David Liaño Gonzalez with a child in Indore on Saturday. (HT photo)

Liaño Gonzalez who was born and brought up in Mexico City, Mexico , greeted the children in the Indian style by saying Namaste. Liaño Gonzalez said he started climbing with his father at the age of 11 as his father used to take him along for trekking and under his supervision, he got ample confidence.

He said that the confidence that he received while climbing with his father helped him scale all the top peaks of the world, including, the highest Mount Everest.

He became the first climber ever to double summit on Mount Everest in the same season via both the north (Tibet side) and south (Nepal side). He climbed Mount Everest five times.

Liaño Gonzalez who came to India at an age of 24 and decided to scale Mount Everest added that in Mexico there are several volcanic mountains and the highest peak in his country is at a height of 5,700 metres (above sea level).

Here in the Himalaya, there are several peaks which are more than 5,700 metres in height, he added. Liaño Gonzalez said he fell in love with Mount Everest, when he scaled the world’s tallest mountain.

“It’s like I’m top of the world and can see whole world from Mount Everest,” said Liaño Gonzalez when asked how he felt the first time he scaled the highest mountain in the world.

He also said that scaling Mount Everest from both sides are equally tough as mountaineers have to face different challenges on each side.

“When you go from southern side, you face loose ice fall and danger of frost bite and when you go from northern side, you may face rock fall as well as deep ravines. Adding to this, lot of wind could make your journey hell, especially, while you are going down,” he added.

Sharing one of his experience while he was climbing Mount Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) in Alaska, USA, Liaño Gonzalez said while climbing the mountain the morning the weather was clear, but when we covered half the distance it turned bad.

“At that time, we took our shovel and started digging ice to make a temproray cave to prevent us from windy weather. We stayed in the ice cave for several hours,” he added.