Interview
Climbing Nanga Parbat: one of the hardest climbs in the world
Esfandiary: Nobody knows my name
Shirzanan – Elaheh Habibi /translated by Roja Najafi: Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest mountain on Earth, known as the "Killer Mountain." Everyone thought choosing this peak to climb was madness, but after years of practice she was confident that she could climb Nanga Parbat, one of hardest eight-thousanders. Leila Esfandiary motivated by the rocky appearance of Nanga Parbat, decided to become the first woman from her country to climb this deadliest of mountains.
There is 10 percent chance of victory but she had made her mind; later on some men climbers also joined her in this quest. Damavand Club along with Narvan Company has sponsored this group. Leila was the head of a group of 7 climbers, all besides her are men; unfortunately Saman Nematie, one of the climbers, is lost in Nanga Parbat. God rest his soul!
Leila Esfandiary is 38, single and a biologist. It has been long sine she climbed Nanga Parbat. Now she is thinking of climbing another Himalaya peak. She has caving [spelunking] two of the hardest caves, and she has climbed mount Damavand in winter and summer time.
She explains, “ In 2000 I was climbing mount Tochal and Palang-chal regularly. There I got to know Parvaneh Donyavy, who was a member of Damavand Club. I was god in climbing but I did not have enough technical knowledge; I became a member of Damavand Club and I started to learn more and more. And naturally I became interested in more technical forms of climbing; Rock climbing and caving.”
About her childhood and family Leila says, “ I didn’t have a happy childhood. My father was an extremely protective man and bigoted in his believes.” Because of her disagreements with his father Leila decides to move out when she was 23. She was a Microbiology student then. She explains, “ My family did not like my decision. The first room I rented was 6 square meter not kitchen and not shower. It was hard: I had a very wealthy family.”
Leila says, “ My father is the one who chose what I should study in university. He said Biology is good for girls. I wanted to become a lawyer. He believed being a lawyer requires rudeness and that is not appropriate fro a girl.”
Leila starts by tutoring and teaching and later she got a good job in a Tissue making company. Then she got a job in a hospital and she worked there, full time until a year ago. Leila remembers, “ When I first thought of climbing Nanga Parbat, I had just returned from Russia with a broken heart, since the authorities there did not let us to spelunk because we were Iranian. I talked about Nanga Parbat with others who had climbed it before us. It was extremely dangerous. Before us 170 people climbed it and 70 people had died. We needed to practice hard. I resigned form my job and we practiced 5 days a week.”
She had always dreamt of climbing 24-7, she says, “ When I had my job. I worked from 7 to 3 pm and then I would go swimming and bodybuilding. I climbed on weekends then. For seven years this was my life. I had found a sponsor and I gave all the money to the group.”
About Nanga Parbat, Leila remembers, “ Three times I got close to death. The first time was when a huge rock fell on me, it pass my face and landed on my thigh. I had to take off for two days to get better. The other time a mass of rocks started to fall on our group. I thought that’s it, we are gone. The last time was when I decent 100 meter, I was tired and careless. It was horrible.”
When I ask her about Saman’s death and that whose fault it was. Leila explains, “Look. It was no one’s fault. Everyone has a limit. Some can climb long distances for more than 3 days and still not be tired, and some are different. Saman was perfect when we had 2 to 3 days plan. We would climb for 2,3 days and we would be back to the base camp II or I and started there for 4 days. But when we got to 4-5 days climbs Saman didn’t do well. He got behind the group. He was a head of us before he would open the road and he was very active. He was a quiet man. He did not tell us that he is not feeling good. He had diarrhea and he was very week. About 10 am we told him he has to go back. We were very close to the peak. Climbing up to the peak was very important to him, but if he went higher up it would be worst for him. It was sunny and calm day and the road to the base camp was very clear and easy. It didn’t need any ropes. Some of the group mates told him they would go back with him but he didn’t want that. He promised he would go back to the base.”
Leila continues, “ We continued towards the top. But he did not return to the base. They had seen him and his movements from the base camp. They said that Saman had come down for a little bit, but then when the snowing had stopped he had started to climb up again. He had thought that he could stay there tonight and climbed back up tomorrow. In our way back from the peak we saw him. He waved to us and congratulated us. We hadn’t seen Saman, our track made us to go up and down from time to time. When we were towards up we didn’t see him. We thought he has gone back to the camp. He had hidden himself behind a rock, so we couldn’t see him. He was healthy and good then. But he did not do as he promised. He shouldn’t have hidden from us. If we knew he will go up we would have helped.”
“ That night a storm came. We waited until the morning before we could find our tents. We were hungry and thirsty and the weather was very bad. We couldn’t see Saman and I was impossible to find him in that weather. I wanted to die there and not come down. I envy Saman. He had passed away while climbing up a mountain. I don’t know where I will be when I am dying.”
Leila says, “ I was alone most of my adult life; no one took care of me when I came back from climbing. I tried hard to get to where I am today. Nobody knows me. I like to be myself, I like to be free.”
