Portuguese-Canadian skier abandons Everest for health reasons

Portuguese-Canadian skier Emma Dantas has announced that she has given up climbing Everest and, if successful, would be the first Portuguese woman to climb the seven highest peaks in the world.

You have given up on Everest. Making that decision was very painful, difficult and a decision that I thought well. I cried between the “walls” of my tent and prayed.Portuguese-Canadian skater wrote on social media.

Emma Dantas, 53, was trying to climb to the world’s seven highest peaks, an adventure that began in 2017 and should end in mid-May of this year, 8,848 meters above sea level, on Everest.

I am not yet the first Portuguese woman to climb the Seven Summits of the World, but I am satisfied with my decision and I am relieved., He said.

In Canada Since she was four years old and born in the municipality of Miranda do Douro (province of Braganca), the Portuguese-Canadian businesswoman claims she has been unable to recover from “stomach problems”.

The Portuguese-Canadian traveled to Nepal on April 4, aiming to reach the summit of Mount Everest. If he succeeds, he will be the first person with Portuguese citizenship to reach the Seven Summits in both versions; Richard Bass and Reynold Messner.

The highest seven mountains on every continent, turned eight, as the Meissner version, which many consider more legitimate climbers, swaps the Kosciuszko summit (2,228) in Bass-listed Australia, by the Pyramid of Carztenes, in Indonesia with 4,484.

For the past three and a half years, the Carstens Pyramid (Indonesia, 4884), Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, 5895), Elbrus (Russia, 5642), Mount Vinson Massif (Antarctica, 4892), Ancontagua (Argentina, 6961), Denali (United States) , 6190) and the Kosciuszku Summit (Australia, 2228).

It is funded by the private sector on various expeditions, including the US $ 67,000 (55.4 thousand euros) needed for the trip to Nepal, on the trip to Mount Everest.

The businesswoman and translator intends to raise C $ 700,000 (€ 459,000), funding for the Center for Addiction and Mental Health – CAMH in Toronto and raise public awareness to reduce stigma on mental health.

We couldn’t achieve our goal of raising $ 700,000 for CAMH. This demonstrates that many of us are ashamed of our faults, of our fears, our fears, our demons and our inner anxieties, and thus of our mental health. ”Lamented.

In 2017, Emma Dantas founded Peaks for Change, a mental health nonprofit that has since climbed to the highest points in the world to raise money.

“This is not a failure on my part. I am true to myself and thank Jesus for the courage to be honest and accept that things did not always go as we planned for them and that it is reasonable to be afraid. I felt the noise of the icefalls and I am not ashamed to admit,” he confessed.

Just as it is okay to be open and understanding about our mental health, to seek professional help, to talk about it freely and to be able to do so without condemnation. ”papacy

Only two Portuguese have reached the highest peaks in the world, mountaineer Joao Garcia (1999) and pilot and climber Angelo Villagueras (2010). Maria da Conceicao, in 2013, was the first Portuguese to climb Everest.