In 2016, Silvia Vásquez-Lavado became the first Peruvian to climb Everest, a milestone for mountaineering in South America, and in 2018 she completed the Seven Summits, the ascent of the highest mountains on each continent.. Her book In the Shadow of the Mountain has been translated into a dozen languages, including Spanish, El embrace of the mountain (Planeta 2023), and will soon become a film with Selena Gómez as the protagonist. Today the mountaineer lives from the conferences she gives around the world, runs her own NGO called Courageous Girls and is especially known in the United States, where she previously worked as a director of multinationals such as eBay and Paypal.. All that shines at the top. But… What was in the chasm?
«My story is a vulnerable story, a very intimate story. It is a story of survival,” he confesses to EL MUNDO in a telephone conversation from San Francisco, where he lives, and the narrative begins..
Vásquez-Lavado suffered sexual abuse from the ages of six to nine by an acquaintance of his family in Lima and in the following decades, although he went to study at Millersville University in Pennsylvania with a Fulbright scholarship, although he achieved success among Silicon Valley companies with positions of responsibility, the trauma of that violence haunted him. Alcoholism threatened his professional career and even his life, with several hospital admissions.. Until he stepped on the mountain.
What happened? It was medicine for me. In a vision [of ayahuasca, which he used as part of his psychological therapy] I saw the mountains and a girl who took me to walk through them.. At that time I had no interest in the mountains, but I decided to go trekking to Everest Base Camp.. That was 18 years ago and today the mountain still continues to teach me.
In 2005, at the age of 41 and after his first trip to the foot of the highest mountain in the world, Vásquez-Lavado embarked on a career as a mountaineer that took him to Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Aconcagua and Vinson before returning to Everest in 2016 and trampling its summit. «I did it for myself and with a lot of respect for the mountains. Everest is a relic, we must respect it. At that time I had no intention of telling my story, of explaining myself in public, quite the opposite,” Vásquez-Lavado admits about his writing process..
The writing process
Suddenly, in 2020, during confinement, he found himself facing the harshest loneliness and, with his stability and sobriety at stake, he put his heart into it: he wrote his biography. «The pain, the shame, the fear…. I experienced very strong emotions in the writing process. I have not seen a mountain higher than that. I had the support of my therapist, but it was still a very painful process. Luckily, afterwards I felt a liberation, a lightness, a reconciliation with myself. Today I see the book as a blessing,” says the mountaineer.
In the book he narrates very difficult episodes, especially from childhood. Many women thank me for explaining it this way. There are abuse survivors who tell me that my current life gives them hope for their own situations. The book is complicated when I tell about my childhood, but I also talk about my addiction in a strong way and I have received comments about it. Many professionals see themselves reflected. I worked very hard, I had many goals, but I also destroyed myself and at that time, going in and out of clinics, my book would have helped me a lot. The shame he felt, so strong, would have subsided.
Today Vásquez-Lavado, who in recent years has overcome a brain tumor, plans to return to Everest accompanied by a young Nepalese woman she met in 2016 and, if possible, with a chain that begins at Nuptse and ends at Lhotse, the Triple Crown. As he travels the world thanks to the success of his book, he prepares his ego for the popularity that the film will bring him and continues giving lectures and more lectures. He is at the top years after knowing the chasm.