Opinion – It’s Logo Ali: Joel Kriger, the 68-year-old Brazilian who climbed Everest

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What to do when, at 50, you are immersed in the sedentary routine of a foreign trade office? For the engineer from Curitiba, Joel Kriger, the answer was: take a trip to the top of the world, himself, Mount Everest, a mecca for nine out of ten mountaineers, but a feat for few. Joel Kriger is one of those few. But he only arrived there on May 17, at the age of 68. And despite being advertised as “the oldest Brazilian to conquer Everest”, he doesn’t like that definition at all.

“I hate this ‘older’ thing,” says Kriger. “I’m in shape, I train a lot, I like being cited as an example for people my age who have settled down, don’t take care of their health as they should, and stop doing things because they consider themselves old.”

Kriger’s story on the highest peak on the planet began to be drawn in 2003, when he read the book “Meu Everest”, by Luciano Pires, which narrates his journey as a publicist one day out of shape from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp. , at an altitude of 6,000 meters. “The book has some exaggerations, but it is extremely motivational”, describes the engineer. “And I only knew how to swim, but at the time I was living a totally sedentary life when a friend invited me to share this trip,” he recalls.

In the beginning, Kriger says that his preparation for the journey was only based on swimming. Despite being considered a complete sport, the question remained: “Will I have the aerobic capacity for all this? How will I react to the altitude?”

To test themselves, Kriger, his sons and a friend decided to hike the Inca Trail from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, in Peru. “I had never camped in my life, I didn’t even know how to get into a sleeping bag, it was only on the second night that I discovered that it opened on the side, on the first I squeezed inside like a snake”, he recalls, who was the butt of jokes for his inexperience. .

As everything went well in Peru, in October of the same year Kriger went on a trekking to Nepal. The guide was Vitor Negrete, an experienced Brazilian climber who would die three years later on Mount Everest itself. The initial intention was just to walk the trail — which is already a good challenge, due to the accentuated altimetry, which is the difference in altitude between the different points of the journey.

“Negrete thought it was funny that we were so inexperienced, I didn’t even know how to store the sleeping bag in the compression bag, he had to teach me”, says Kriger, amused. “But the stories he told us about the mountain were so fascinating that it made me want to go up there too.”

Why not take a trip to Kilimanjaro?

Kriger took advantage of a trip he made in 2008 to Australia, where he would participate in a swimming championship for masters, to enjoy and “take a little hop” to Tanzania, Africa, and climb Kilimanjaro, with just over 5,980 meters.

“But it didn’t work, our guide drank a lot and we ended up getting lost on the way up, there was no time to reach the summit”, he explains. Thus, he continued swimming until 2010, when he went to Aconcagua, with the firm intention of climbing the seven highest peaks on the planet (Everest, in Asia; Aconcagua in South America; Denali, in North America; Elbrus, in Europe; Kilimanjaro, Africa; Vinson, Antarctica; and Carstensz, Oceania). On top of that, taking advantage of his passion for swimming, he added one more goal to the project: swimming across the English Channel, which connects France to England, an old childhood dream.

“We went five people in January to Aconcagua, in Argentina, but they all went, even though they were much younger, getting along the way, only I reached the summit”, he recalls proudly. He thought, then, that he would be ready for Everest. He then went to test himself on peaks in Bolivia and Ecuador before taking on the task.

“You can go with a guide, Sherpa, whatever, but if something happens to them, you need to know how to get out of there,” he warns. Only in 2013 did he return to Everest, ready to reach the summit. He has not arrived. He stopped at 8,500 meters and had to come back, a pragmatic decision but no less difficult for any mountaineer. “You have to know when to stop, an hour more or a few meters more when there is no proper condition can end your life”, he points out.

In 2017, Kriger made the second attempt to reach the top of the world. Again, he didn’t, this time because of weather conditions, which closed the climbing window ahead of schedule.

Only this year, always with the unconditional support of the family, that Kriger said goodbye to his children and grandchildren and finally fulfilled his challenge, taking the Brazilian flag to the top, even though the strong winds from the summit had destroyed it before the protocol photo. “Everything went well, the weather was very good, the moon was full, light winds even near the summit, and a pleasant temperature of -22°, and the clothes we wear hold down to -40”, he details.

Back to the English Channel

If Everest has already been climbed, as well as the other six peaks of the challenge, it remains now to fulfill the last step of your plan: crossing the English Channel.

Kriger has already tried the feat once, in 2014, but was forced to give up by the support team that watches the swimmers to avoid deaths like that of Brazilian Renata Agondi, in September 1988, due to hypothermia and fatigue.

“There were only a few hundred meters to go, but I was forced to abort and I only realized that they had pulled me out of the water 15 minutes after I was safely on the boat”, he says. “We think it takes it literally, but it’s not reality”.

To fulfill the plan, now scheduled for next year, Kriger maintains his routine of waking up at 3:30 in the morning, to be in the pool of the Gustavo Borges gym in Curitiba, where he trains (and of which he has the key, to be able to dive at dawn). , to be at work at 8:30. “We can’t let training get in the way of work, we have to show the team that we can handle everything”, he argues.

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