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On January 27, 1954, the members of the 1st Argentine Expedition to the Himalayas,
who would attempt to reach the summit at Mount Dhaulagiri,
depart from Buenos Aires to India.
At the last camp, at 23.000 feet,
we faced the unknown because we couldn’t see it from where we stood.
After two nights of temperatures below -30 Centigrades,
under a snow storm at a level of 7,600 meters,
the leader of the expedition Francisco Ibáñez suffered frozen feet, and was unable to walk.
Paco was ill, the doctor told us we needed to take him back as soon as possible.
A rescue is organized to bring Ibáñez down from the mountain...
and to take him to the nearest hospital.
Despite the efforts of his companions, Francisco Ibáñez died in Katmandú.
When he departed in the aeroplane we said: “well he’s out of danger now".
50 years later, the members of the 1st Argentine Expedition to the Himalayas...
rebuild the story that joined them forever.
Dhaulagiri. 1954: Argentines at the Himalayas
In the 50’s, mountain climbing in Argentina was limited to a few enthusiasts.
There was not a School, no special equipment, no published technology.
It was rare to find a mountain book.
We walked the streets with our backpacks...
and they looked at us as if we were basket bugs.
And besides we had the chance to not climb the mountains through the most difficult route,
rather to climb just to do it,
and if the mountain didn’t have a name we could name it the way we wanted,
that was beautiful and it is something today climbers can’t do...
because everything has been climbed and named already.
And it was a little more romantic because we did it because we wanted to, without sponsors.
Now, mountain climbing is sponsored by companies who demand success.
It is a greater responsibility that did not have, we were more free.
Today if you want to go to the Himalayas,
it is just a matter of personally training yourself and putting together the money for the trip.
In 1954 only 3 of the 14 8,000 meters summits in the world had been achieved.
The 1st Argentine Expedition to the Himalayas...
wanted to make Argentina the fourth Nation capable of reaching one of the highest peaks in the world.
The goal was Mount Dhaulagiri 8,167 mts. high.
Nowadays an expedition to the Himalayas was like going to Mars today.
It was very complicated to reach, too long, too complex.
Previously there was no organization in Nepal which could colaborate with the expeditions.
In 1953 the Swiss reached the 7,200 mts point, and found a rocky formation named “the Pera”.
They couldn’t continue because of technical and logistic difficulties.
A year later, the argentinians took into account the Swiss experience to organize the expedition.
In those days nobody knew much about the Himalayas.
If I had known then, what I know today,
I’m convinced we could have reached the summit without any major problems.
The leader of the expedition was First Liutenant Francisco Ibáñez.
In 1952 he had been the coordinator...
of the French expedition which for the first time reached the summit of Mt. Fitz Roy in Patagonia.
Juan Domingo Perón, then the argentinian President,
entrusted to Ibáñez the organization of the first expedition.
For those pioneers of the Andes who had never been over 7,000 mts,
the Himalayan Mountain Range was an unknown quantity.
Well when one is at the Himalayas one realizes that the Andes are small.
The little mountains are 7,000 mts.
I believe there are a hundred mountains as high as the Aconcagua.
So one is confronting an amazing thing.