A peak for his little Iris, after silence: The last message of the climber Antonis Sykaris

– How often have you caught yourself saying, “I can not do it“;

– “This happens every three, five minutes, there you have to defeat yourself, for the desire of reason to prevail. You fight this battle, especially from 8,000 meters and up, constantly. This ‘conflict’ of your two ‘selves’ does not cease to exist within you. One to tell you to choose the security of normal life, your home and family, and the other to tell you that there is a dream to reach the top. It is a battle you fight with yourself, continuously, every moment, every minute and you have to prevail. This is what Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, said, “It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves” …

It was the summer of 2018 when Antonis Sykaris and Fotis Theocharis became the first Greeks to conquer Kangchenjunga, the most difficult peak in the Himalayas, a peak at 8,586 meters located between Nepal and India. For me, it was an interview that gave birth to a love for the images offered by the “roofs” of the planet, the peaks of the Earth, but also a friendship. A friendship from the few that life gives you and you record as precious. “Do not speak to me in the plural, you are my friend ..!” Antonis had hurried to … correct me, even since we had not even met, after that conversation on the radio. And that was to happen. To make Antonis Sykaris a friend of those you admire and appreciate, something rare and valuable at the same time.

The 2022 of the big dream

By the end of 2021, Antonis had climbed at 5 of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters. In the cafe of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, overlooking Thermaikos and after the end of the interview for APE BPE, he opens his cell phone and shows me his programming, his plans. The effort for the other nine eight peaks was scheduled to start with the 8,167-meter Dhaulagiri and the 8,485-meter Makalu in Nepal. The 3rd mission would follow in Pakistan, the Broad Peak of 8,051 meters and the 4th mission in K2 of 8,611 meters, while in 2022 Antonis wanted to be able to finish it with the 5th mission, the one in Cho oyu of 8,188 meters and the 6th at Shishapangma at 8,027 meters, in China this time.

The goal was for the top Greek climber to be back in Greece at the end of October 2022, with a break to go back, to see his own and most importantly, “… the little granddaughter. I have a wonderful granddaughter Sotiri, Iris! “You know another thing!” He told me then. The desire of Antonis Sykaris to be in his own eerie “… playground”, the high peaks. Many times he had told me this in recent years that he would never go out, even after the adventure in K2. Although it was his people, his family, who only loved him more than the mountain: “Through this great journey, I hope to have many successes, while the best, the best will be to reach all six peaks, something of course very difficult, although in any case I will try my best. “Besides, the hope, the love for this” … my playground, the mountains will continue anyway! “, He had said in our conversation on the APE-MPE radio.

And his joy, as always, was … contagious as he did not stop explaining in all the details of the project until we went to the restaurant where he was scheduled to eat a meal, prepared for mountaineering expeditions. He described them all with his gaze shimmering with joy but also a wonderful calm.

March 2022

“Everything is going well Sotiris …”. At the beginning of April, calm on the way to his new goal, Antonis was happy to have internet everywhere and so he could easily transfer images and voice to his homeland. He said he was ready to do us the honor of saying it on the air of the APE BPE radio, as we did so many times during and after missions. He knew that I love the descriptions he gave us on FM about the insurmountable landscape that those who love mountain ranges and peaks meet and we have already made plans for nice conversations from above in our Instagram conversations:

– “Hello my Antonis! Will I be able to get you out from above with this system you have ?! “

– “Yes you can. How are you my friend;”

Such was always the top Greek climber. The opposite of the egocentric, he cared first and foremost for the other. He would ask you about everything that concerns you. He was available to answer questions and would say “yes” when he felt he could offer. And it was something he did quietly, since he would not refuse to spend a day with a small child who had asked to meet him. He would not refuse to spend a day in front of a curious public about the experiences of the public, as he had done at the end of 2021 in Thessaloniki.

We are at the end of March and everything has gone as he wanted, down to the last detail, a Greek super-climber. From Kathmandu where he is for only a few more days, everything now shows the top for Antonis Sykaris who feels strong and ready. In fact, we were slowly preparing the implementation of a plan that started as a general idea. An idea we had to do something different, for people to enjoy in Greece, these mountaineering adventures. We are fermenting in our conversations on social media with Antonis:

– “Antonis, I will tell you something I thought … If you want, at some stage of the stint you start to be there, in Nepal and make a video … tribute – interview. To “breathe” your air and to make a beautiful and emotional tribute. Color, feeling, soul, “taste” from the Roof of the World … “

– «’What my Friend wants. It’s a nice idea … “he replied

April 2022

For a few days after Kathmandu, radio silence. Antonis Sykaris will prepare for the effort and he knows that the conditions are generally good so that the final push that he had told me so many times about will come soon. About four years after the first interview, yesterday afternoon of the 11th day of April 2022 – which we both knew – is our last communication and is done through messages on Instagram. I was very happy that the greatest Greek climber who ever appeared, had conquered another “eight” peak a few hours after the success, around 12:00 midnight Nepal.

Success! It was noon on Monday when Antonis sent me the public post in the course of our conversations, with the words he wrote for all those who watched him:

“Today, April 11, 2022, at 12:50 Nepal I am at the top of Dhaulagiri 8,167 meters.

I want to dedicate this top:

To Nikos Papandreou and his family.

To Babis Tsoupras and his family.

And to Hermes – Theofanis Theocharopoulos.

I still want to dedicate this peak to all Greeks, to all climbers and to my little Iris, my granddaughter.

Iris, I am at the top !!!

The “pa” is at the top !!!

Thanks to all my friends and acquaintances who supported me through social media and helped me reach the top!

Thanks to them I succeeded !!!

I love you all!!!”

I’m happy too, like everyone else and … a little more. His friend Antonis Sykaris had achieved the conquest of the 6th of the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters. So he had achieved another goal. She dedicated it to his whole family. It seemed that his joy to have at his disposal the technology with which he could be more in touch with the public in Greece was also based.

A few days ago he had described to me in a short conversation how important the descent to the camp is. I had decided not to bother him so I decided to respond to his message with a simple “Well done friend !!!!!”. A few minutes later comes a like of Antonis in my message to confirm that he has started the descent and that he is fine. In Greece it is already late at night. Unfortunately breakfast is completely different … It’s one of those things you do not want to believe …

“Where planes fly”

I read again the words of Antonis with which he had described to me those hours when his body “spoke” with the absolute limit: “Only during the final push, of the final effort to the top, that is, the body” consumes “40,000 calories in a few 24 hours … You climb where the planes fly. Such a climb is a struggle with your very existence, since your brain sends you a message to go back, when you face the hardships of the mountain there. That is when the love for the “above” must prevail over these messages of the body … “

With these words, Antonis Sykaris, the only Greek who participated in the international winter mission 2020/21 in K2 of 8,611 meters, had described to me the physical experience he experienced in the mission that made headlines in the media around the world, but without hesitation prepared the big plan he had for 2022 in his interview for .

And if the description can not “transfer” what the top climbers in the world experience, on the way to the airport after the interview last December, Antonis described to me the very strict … directives that he had set in his daily life to succeed them goals he had and I knew he knew what he was doing and how he was doing it. In order to achieve his goals, his diet, preparation, exercise, and, most importantly, the replenishment of forces he experienced from a major source, his family, were “… invincible weapons,” as he characterized them. With more love he would refer to the woman of his life, his children and his little granddaughter. Besides, yesterday, on April 11, 2022, he dedicated to them the peak he conquered …

Alas. The 12th day of April did not have the news that my smiling super-mountaineering friend wanted to be transferred to us in “… Greece whose flag” I want to raise in every success I have! ” as Antonis always said enthusiastically in our conversations.

“Dreams never end …”

Dreams, conquests, perseverance but also humility. “There are 14 peaks over 8,000 meters. These have been completed by only 19 people from all over the world, since 1955 … I do not hide that I would like to do more, without daring to say that I can complete them. But, we said. Dreams never end and the conquest of one reveals the next … This life … the life I have been living for 32 years is a whole adventure, such that I do not want to stop experiencing … “

It is a great fortune that something rare happens, the report of a journalist “meets” with the genuine friendship. A friendship with a top athlete and a man who has a lot to teach you.

If there is one thing that all of us Antonis Sykaris wanted to do, it was to conquer our dreams as well as to … be happy with the little things. “The main thing in life, of course, is to love … not to get into … battles. To smile, to be happy Sotiris … “. Yes, friend Antonis, we will put them high in our hearts …

* By Sotiris Kyriazidis

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