The moving story of the Chilean who reached the top of a volcano in a wheelchair (and to which 10 years later he returns walking)

The promise was sealed 10 years ago, in a bar in the city of Concepción, in the south of Chile.

After several drinks, Gabriel Roa, a young man who had been in a wheelchair for five years, looked at his friends and said: “My dream is to see the sunrise from a mountain.”

At that moment, the rest of the diners knew that they had no other alternative: whatever it took, they would have to conquer a summit with Gabriel.

Thus began this adventure that involved complex logistics, which included the construction of a special sled to transport Gabriel and prepare for any weather eventuality.

Despite all those who warned them of the dangers, they ventured on an unprecedented journey and succeeded: on October 2, 2011 they reached the summit of the Antuco volcano, located about 600 kilometers south of Santiago de Chile.

Between the excitement and the hugs of the mountaineers, Gabriel launched a phrase: “Let it be repeated”.

Ten years later, the Chilean decided to take his word for it. And this is how he brought together the same group that will begin the ascent of the Antuco volcano again at dawn on October 7.

This time, however, the journey will be different: thanks to various treatments, Gabriel can walk today, and although he does it in short distances and at a slower speed, he wants to do it on foot.

“In 2011, a team of people pulled Gabriel over. Now it is the other way around: it is Gabriel who will transport us; we will go at your own pace. Well, in the mountains, the pace is dictated by the slowest, not the fastest ”, he says. Claudio brito, friend of Gabriel and head of the expedition called “Project Panzer”.

“He wants to convey a message: that you should never lower your arms, because the daily struggle makes people achieve what they really want,” he adds.

At BBC Mundo we talked with Gabriel about his illness, his motivations for climbing a mountain as complex as this one, his dreams and his fears. This is his first-person testimony.

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I am a user of a wheelchair due to a disease that I was diagnosed with when I was 10 years old.

I was born without any problem, I was a healthy, active child, I really liked soccer. Until some discomfort in the ankles and knees began.

At first they thought it was an injury, but then my hands and hips started to hurt.

They took me to a specialist and he told me I had Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

It is an autoimmune disease that mainly affects the joints. Over the years, if you don’t have a good treatment, it is very disabling, because it causes a lot of pain and inflammation.

In 2011, when I had been in a wheelchair for at least five years, I worked in a company where my colleagues were all mountaineers.

Every Monday they shared photos of their weekend outings to the mountains and I thought how much I would like to go.

Until one day, between drinks, I told them to take me.

What he most wanted was to see the sunrise on a mountain.

The idea became more and more real, and we challenged ourselves to climb a volcano, the Antuco.

We had to plan for months how they could wheel me to a summit, because it had never been done. There were no similar experiences in the world.

We had to make sure of everything, be attentive to any eventuality.

“I wanted my parents to be proud”

The day we left you could feel the positive energy. We all knew that what we were doing was going to mark our lives.

I remember thinking mainly about my parents.

I think that only then did they realize that this was not a walk in the snow but a sporting event that implied a huge challenge, that I was going to spend two nights in the mountains exposed to those climatic conditions that, with my illness, they didn’t mix well.

And I think it filled them with pride. “Wau, our son is doing this despite all the difficulties he has,” they thought.

I wanted my parents to be proud of me.

I have thought a lot about the issue of parents with children with disabilities. The main fear they have is what will become of their children when they are not there.

And I wanted to show them that I could fend for myself, that I had a lot of friends who were going to help me with whatever I needed. Somehow, this trip gave them that peace of mind.

I went through a very difficult stage years ago. In 2005 I fell into a depression and spent almost two years in bed, bedridden. I couldn’t find a job, there were no job offers.

But I managed to get out of that and it seemed to me that climbing the volcano was the final chapter of that dark stage and (the beginning of a new one, that of) feeling that I am capable of doing more things. That my life was not going to be conditioned by my illness, but by what I wanted to do.

How was the expedition in 2011

To climb the volcano there were four teams: the dogs, which were the ones that dragged this chair where I was going; the carriers, who carried the load; a fire rescue squad; and the base camp.

The first day we try to advance as much as possible. I remember that we arrived at the first camp at five in the afternoon.

I never felt paralyzing fear but that afternoon we were filled with clouds, it was completely covered and you could not see beyond five meters.

More than my safety, I was worried about the members who were carrying material, because they were coming behind. But then it cleared up and we confirmed that they were all fine.

The next day, Sunday, at one in the afternoon, we managed to reach the summit. About 30 people arrived.

We all celebrate it. We were very happy, we hugged.

It struck me that they thanked me when it should have been the other way around.

The new challenge (and on foot)

When we were at the top, I told them: “Let it be repeated”.

And this year, a decade later, I decided to contact the same team to take my word for it.

But I wanted to do it in a different format: no longer in a wheelchair.

Luckily, despite all the consequences, I managed to finance a good treatment. And while I will never regain mobility in my joints, I am no longer in pain. That was the most disabling thing.

Now I can walk indoors and physically I am better than 10 years ago.

We worked for five months on the design of the prototype that will allow me to move, a system of parallels.

This is still symbolic, since, in a rehabilitation process, the natural progression is to go from the wheelchair to parallel bars.

It will be four days of intense exercise and I have been told that it can be dangerous.

But I believe that in the city there are greater risks.

In Chile there is a lack of culture regarding disability. The authority must implement infrastructure and the citizen must respect it.

After climbing the summit in 2011 I felt stronger. I don’t know if physically, but I do know emotionally.

Now I hope to feel the same, because with determination, determination and persistence, whatever you want to achieve in life, you can do it.

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