May 2012
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Biography
From an Asturian mother and a Catalan father, I was born on the 31st of July in 1988 in Barcelona.
It is said that Barcelona is one of the cities with more trees and green areas in Europe, or that?s what my parents used to tell me when we went out on strolls or when they took me to play to Nen de la Rutlla Park with my sister. A 20-minute walk, maybe a little bit longer back then, where we could walk by banana tree and ginkgo- bordered streets, or we could let our imagination run free in the ?Indian trail?, a trail towards the Rovira Hill, right above our home. It first went up to give us a panoramic view of Barcelona and later went down again in between bushes and pine leaves to lead us directly to the park.
When I was 3 years old, my parents started spending the holidays in Farrera, a tiny village in Pallars Sobirà in the Pyrenées. It was there where I took my first steps on the mountain, together with my sister and other children, steps on the muddy river edges and the high-grass meadows. The place where, throughout countless weekends, holidays and whole summers, I kept discovering corners and more corners and infinity of games that nature was hiding.
Curiosity and impatience have always been two of my best virtues, the opposite of my sister. It?s curious that despite having the same upbringing, our tastes and life-paths have been so different. A model to follow, a mirror to see the flaws, a crutch to walk, a springboard to jump. And one being Leo and the other Sagitarius, we have always liked difference. One is pure nerve, fire; the other is perfectionism, calm water. One is action, passion and ambition; the other is strategy, intelligence and patience. It looks as if we were antagonistic, but it is said that opposites resemble: we have always liked doing things right.
I always said ?a lake is a lake, and when you have seen one, you have seen them all?, but despite my rebelliousness I kept going out to the mountain with my parents and my sister and my parents? friends, testing myself and challenging them, climbing some peaks and visiting new lakes. It was a day of I don?t know which year, in I don?t know which path of which mountain. I was in Pallars, with my dad, returning to the car from one of many excursions we did when I said the following words: ?-dad, I want to do more mountaineering.? It was like saying: ?I don?t have enough with you, a lake is a lake, but it?s not enough to discover new lakes, I want to see what these walls, these crests and all the corners where you don?t take me are hiding?. And that?s how, at the age of 12, I enrolled the 3rd Initiation Group in UEC de Gràcia .
A typical school, a typical neighbourhood, a typical city, typical anecdotes, too. My leisure time was also quite mainstream. Having practiced swimming for 9 years, extracurricular English even more and discovering the world of martial arts first with Hapkido and later on with Taekwondo, maybe the only thing that set me apart from my 15-16 year-old classmates in that school, from my neighbourhood, from my city, were not the anecdotes, but that I enjoyed going out to the mountain at the weekends. And that, in such environment, wasn?t typical.
But, as it has always been a constant in my life, I wanted something more. So a Wednesday afternoon, on the third week of September 2005, one of many afternoons that I comfortably sat down in front of the computer to surf on the net and chat with my friends, to find which concert we could go at the weekend, I went into the FEEC website.
On summer we had gone with a friend to climb the Naranjo de Bulnes, ?el Urriellu?, and it had awakened my interest on what they called ?Technification Centres?, a good way to feed my ambition.
The first to pop-up on the screen was the rock-climbing one: the tests were in December. ?Pfft, in December? That?s too far away!?
The second one was mountain climbing: minimum 18 years old. ?18? That?s a bugger! I?m too young to sign up for it!?
The third and last one was the ski mountaineering: ?Oh, the tests are this weekend. Let me think... no trips with UEC, no concerts... I bet it?s better than staying at home and put up with my parents all weekend long!?
On the train trip that was taking me to La Cerdanya, my thoughts were clear: ?If I don?t like the atmosphere, I?m out; if I don?t like the people... I?m out and if I don?t feel comfortable... screw them!?
Two years after this train trip, my feet stepped on Font Romeu, a village located at 1800 metres high in the French La Cerdanya, 15 minutes away from Puigcerdà. I was starting over, in semi-unknown place and language, with Marc Pinsach and Kilian Jornet, a new adventure: my studies of STAPS (an equivalent to INEFC), where I specialized in Adapted Sport.
Font Romeu gave me the chance to study and train at the same time. Luckily, it was a great advantage to practice a sport like ski mountaineering.
After 3 years studying, I again felt that my time there was over. With a degree and many more medals that I could have ever dreamed of stacked in my pocket, my ?affairs? in Font Romeu had reached their ceiling. I felt inside me that something bigger was awaiting for me, and just like my mother always tells me, I?m a ?free spirit?... routines have never convinced me and when I have an anxiety I have to listen to it.
And I found it: at the end of a very steep road after taking a 50-metre dirt track, in a small wooden three-storey cottage. If I turned left, there was Kilian; if I turned right, there was Leti; if I looked up I was blindsided by Mount Charvin, La Tournette and L?Étale, and if I looked back I could still see the ski traces I had just left on the snow in the skiable land of La Clusaz. My path as a sportswoman was beginning, without many luxuries, but with great satisfaction.
?Resilience?: Ability to adapt to adversities. I have never been able to adapt to rigid situations, shouts or strong noises. I have never been able to make plans that wouldn?t change every day. A result of my personality, of this ?free spirit? of which my mother talks so much, like a ball, I?d rather bounce before breaking. Now I set my foot in a restaurant and I still have trouble deciding. There are dozens of dishes I?d like to taste, dozens of places I could visit and dozens of parallel lives I could be leading. And I... I get the steps next to muddy rivers, football games amongst the high grass and a big cup of warm chocolate next to the fire, if that?s where my spirit has decided to take me.
It is said that Barcelona is one of the cities with more trees and green areas in Europe, or that?s what my parents used to tell me when we went out on strolls or when they took me to play to Nen de la Rutlla Park with my sister. A 20-minute walk, maybe a little bit longer back then, where we could walk by banana tree and ginkgo- bordered streets, or we could let our imagination run free in the ?Indian trail?, a trail towards the Rovira Hill, right above our home. It first went up to give us a panoramic view of Barcelona and later went down again in between bushes and pine leaves to lead us directly to the park.
When I was 3 years old, my parents started spending the holidays in Farrera, a tiny village in Pallars Sobirà in the Pyrenées. It was there where I took my first steps on the mountain, together with my sister and other children, steps on the muddy river edges and the high-grass meadows. The place where, throughout countless weekends, holidays and whole summers, I kept discovering corners and more corners and infinity of games that nature was hiding.
Curiosity and impatience have always been two of my best virtues, the opposite of my sister. It?s curious that despite having the same upbringing, our tastes and life-paths have been so different. A model to follow, a mirror to see the flaws, a crutch to walk, a springboard to jump. And one being Leo and the other Sagitarius, we have always liked difference. One is pure nerve, fire; the other is perfectionism, calm water. One is action, passion and ambition; the other is strategy, intelligence and patience. It looks as if we were antagonistic, but it is said that opposites resemble: we have always liked doing things right.
I always said ?a lake is a lake, and when you have seen one, you have seen them all?, but despite my rebelliousness I kept going out to the mountain with my parents and my sister and my parents? friends, testing myself and challenging them, climbing some peaks and visiting new lakes. It was a day of I don?t know which year, in I don?t know which path of which mountain. I was in Pallars, with my dad, returning to the car from one of many excursions we did when I said the following words: ?-dad, I want to do more mountaineering.? It was like saying: ?I don?t have enough with you, a lake is a lake, but it?s not enough to discover new lakes, I want to see what these walls, these crests and all the corners where you don?t take me are hiding?. And that?s how, at the age of 12, I enrolled the 3rd Initiation Group in UEC de Gràcia .
A typical school, a typical neighbourhood, a typical city, typical anecdotes, too. My leisure time was also quite mainstream. Having practiced swimming for 9 years, extracurricular English even more and discovering the world of martial arts first with Hapkido and later on with Taekwondo, maybe the only thing that set me apart from my 15-16 year-old classmates in that school, from my neighbourhood, from my city, were not the anecdotes, but that I enjoyed going out to the mountain at the weekends. And that, in such environment, wasn?t typical.
But, as it has always been a constant in my life, I wanted something more. So a Wednesday afternoon, on the third week of September 2005, one of many afternoons that I comfortably sat down in front of the computer to surf on the net and chat with my friends, to find which concert we could go at the weekend, I went into the FEEC website.
On summer we had gone with a friend to climb the Naranjo de Bulnes, ?el Urriellu?, and it had awakened my interest on what they called ?Technification Centres?, a good way to feed my ambition.
The first to pop-up on the screen was the rock-climbing one: the tests were in December. ?Pfft, in December? That?s too far away!?
The second one was mountain climbing: minimum 18 years old. ?18? That?s a bugger! I?m too young to sign up for it!?
The third and last one was the ski mountaineering: ?Oh, the tests are this weekend. Let me think... no trips with UEC, no concerts... I bet it?s better than staying at home and put up with my parents all weekend long!?
On the train trip that was taking me to La Cerdanya, my thoughts were clear: ?If I don?t like the atmosphere, I?m out; if I don?t like the people... I?m out and if I don?t feel comfortable... screw them!?
Two years after this train trip, my feet stepped on Font Romeu, a village located at 1800 metres high in the French La Cerdanya, 15 minutes away from Puigcerdà. I was starting over, in semi-unknown place and language, with Marc Pinsach and Kilian Jornet, a new adventure: my studies of STAPS (an equivalent to INEFC), where I specialized in Adapted Sport.
Font Romeu gave me the chance to study and train at the same time. Luckily, it was a great advantage to practice a sport like ski mountaineering.
After 3 years studying, I again felt that my time there was over. With a degree and many more medals that I could have ever dreamed of stacked in my pocket, my ?affairs? in Font Romeu had reached their ceiling. I felt inside me that something bigger was awaiting for me, and just like my mother always tells me, I?m a ?free spirit?... routines have never convinced me and when I have an anxiety I have to listen to it.
And I found it: at the end of a very steep road after taking a 50-metre dirt track, in a small wooden three-storey cottage. If I turned left, there was Kilian; if I turned right, there was Leti; if I looked up I was blindsided by Mount Charvin, La Tournette and L?Étale, and if I looked back I could still see the ski traces I had just left on the snow in the skiable land of La Clusaz. My path as a sportswoman was beginning, without many luxuries, but with great satisfaction.
?Resilience?: Ability to adapt to adversities. I have never been able to adapt to rigid situations, shouts or strong noises. I have never been able to make plans that wouldn?t change every day. A result of my personality, of this ?free spirit? of which my mother talks so much, like a ball, I?d rather bounce before breaking. Now I set my foot in a restaurant and I still have trouble deciding. There are dozens of dishes I?d like to taste, dozens of places I could visit and dozens of parallel lives I could be leading. And I... I get the steps next to muddy rivers, football games amongst the high grass and a big cup of warm chocolate next to the fire, if that?s where my spirit has decided to take me.
