Robin Trygg – aims for the top…

I moved to Corsica right after high school and started a job. I had never climbed before; I used to lay football when I was younger. By coincidence people I had got to know were climbing, so I tagged along and was really bad at it, but I enjoyed it. So back in Sweden I told my one year younger brother (who does everything I tell him to do), that Kilimanjaro would be cool! You could walk up that mountain so it wouldn’t be too hard. But it was

No and after that it just continued with higher and higher mountains. I took one step at the time and learned to use an ice axe and a climbing iron etc.

Not at all. So this has been a completely new world for them.

Absolutely. It is one of the major parts, the most important part. I have never gotten myself in to things that I don’t feel I can handle. Before the Cho Oyu tour I reserved four years to be able to implement it in a safe way. When you’re talking about climbing most people just think about the expedition it self, the two months you’re away. But there’s an enormous amount of training and preparation behind.

I would say that the larger part is mental. I was in hard training before this tour, the muscles I worked to get; all disappear after a while anyway. I lost fifteen kilos during the climb, so most of it is mental training. To have decided, to turn around to make a decision when you are close to your goal, in case it’s too dangerous.

These days the forecasts are quite good, although you can’t be 100% sure. I have always looked at several forecasts, so I can put them together and when all look good at the same time that’s when I try to go. But naturally I have ended up in bad weather and it’s been everything but fun.

Yes, cold and windy. Like the time I tried Cho Oyu without oxygen. I had reached about 8,000 metres when four of my fingers turned black from frostbite. I had to use oxygen in the end.

Exactly. If this had happened when I was younger I had probably continued anyway since I decided to go without the oxygen. But when you’re older and prioritize different, I chose to use the oxygen. This time around it all went well and in retrospect I am glad, so one has matured a little bit.

A lot, especially on Everest. We first climbed Cho Oyu which was awesome since we were nearly alone on the way up. There were no set ropes since no one had climbed there in a year and a half. It felt like a new tour, incredibly beautiful. And then we came to Everest and it was the total opposite. So crowded, old ropes and a lot of people that actually couldn’t climb or knew how to use their equipment. It is an entire industry on that mountain that doesn’t exist on any other. So a lot of the charm gets lost because of this.

It was me and my friend Chhiring who’s very skilled. He grew up in a mountain village in Nepal on 4,200 metres.

Yes, from Nepal and Tibet.

One has to be quick there and catch your breath afterwards, ha, ha. But it’s beautiful as well.

We go up as far on the mountain as we can without having to start climbing. You reach the base camp from where all the expeditions start. It is a seventeen day tour; you start by landing in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital and visit some sightseeing’s. Then you go with a small propeller aircraft to a little village called Lukla. You land on a cliff ledge and get picked up by yaks and carriers. And then you walk up all the way to Everest and sleep in the Sherpa villages. My friend Chhiring is with us and it is good since he grew up in the area and speaks the language. The tour has been appointed to one of the world’s most beautiful hiking trails and I totally agree.

You don’t need any knowledge. There’s no climbing involved, just ordinary hiking. You would need to be used to walking, but you don’t have to be a superman.

No, no. People are usually happy, it is high. However the two last tours we hired a helicopter and flew over the ice fall and we could see the camp sites and the pike of Everest.

A prusik sling is a rope sling that you can tie, I have several of them. On one of them I have a safety hook on that I can tie the other ropes in. If you would fall when you cut off the jumar, which is a handle that you have on the rope and which you can feed upwards but it locks downwards. You would be hanging in the handle.

Exactly. But sometimes you have to remove the jumar to swap rope and then you have a second safety so that you are safe all the time. I fell through a crack at Cho Oyu. I had very capable people around me that could help, but if you were to be alone you must be able to climb up the rope that is safe. That’s when you use a prusik sling and stand in that. You have two slings and put your weight on them and feed upwards. So there are many different areas to use the prusik slings.

I haven’t found one yet. K2 which is in Pakistan is one I think is beautiful and the challenge appeals to me. But after this year I feel very happy with Everest.

The nature experience is one thing and then the self-realization. I used to be very shy and thought most things were scary when I was a kid. I have tried to challenge myself and looking back on my travels and all the experiences, all the people I have met and I have learned s much. Not just the climbing but to have lived in other cultures and met people that you think are so different from you and discovering that they are quite similar. It is a very social job. Many believe that climbers are hermit, but I like to spend time with other people.

Exactly. They cost me half a cheek. I had a major blister on my cheek. I had to stand and wait, but it looks good.

Chhiring who I climb with is very religious. He believes that inside all of these high 8,000 metres mountains there are Gods living. So prior to you climbing the mountain or the God you ask for permission. You built a stone pyramid and put a pole in it and tie a lot of Nepalese prayer flags on it. Then you sit next to a lama and pray for different amounts of time. Afterwards you receive a red ribbon around your neck to show that you are blessed. I have done this so many times now and it’s gone good, so I will continue with this. It would be foolish to break a winning concept. But it is so awesome and beautiful when you are in these grand environments. I still don’t understand much of what is said, I just do what Chhiring does.

Absolutely. I am an ambassador for this project called Saving Everest which started in 2011 when the mountain was cleaned from six or seven tons of garbage. Everything was brought down to base camp on the southern side, but the problem of how we would get it down from there remained. Then the Sherpa’s came up with the idea of making souvenirs as art from this and sell it to tourists. In this way we receive money to the project and they are carrying the garbage down for us. Three souvenirs/artwork was brought to Sweden and sold for quite a lot of money.

Svip.se would like to thank Robin Trygg for sharing his thoughts and look with envy at the pictures and longing to go there.