Record climber calls it a day at 64

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — For more than 30 years Oscar Cadiach risked life and limb to conquer some of the world’s most unforgiving terrain, driven by a desire to join the ranks of mountain climbing’s elite.

Now aged 64, the Spaniard will finally retire after summiting the world’s 14 tallest mountains without bottled oxygen, with his undisputed ascents set to propel him into the record books as the oldest mountaineer to complete a feat achieved by just a handful of others before him.

The quest saw him narrowly avoid plunging to his death. But in July, after three consecutive failed attempts, the Alpine Club of Pakistan confirmed he had topped Pakistan’s Broad Peak — and, some 33 years after he began, he was done.

“It’s like a huge burden being taken off my shoulders. I have done my part and it’s time to retire,” he said, adding that he will still teach climbing and plans to publish his story.

A mountaineering instructor by profession, Cadiach was first drawn to the “eight thousander” challenge in 1984 after topping Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat, known as the “Killer Mountain” due to the number of people who have died on its slopes.

Cadiach then set his sights on blazing dangerous new trails across the world’s highest peaks as a freestyle climber — without the aid of oxygen or the use of ropes.

During an expedition to summit Nepal’s Kangchenjunga in 2007, he almost met his demise.

Half freezing and weathering 100 km/h winds with frostbite, he clung to the mountainside ropeless for an entire day and narrowly escaped falling to his death.

“My hands almost slipped off the rock but I succeeded in pulling myself up,” said Cadiach.

Others on the expedition were not so lucky.

He said: “It was only after that I realized my friend, who was dangling from that cliff with me, had fallen and was gone forever.”

Pakistan’s K2 has provided the Catalonian with his steepest challenges, including the loss of his climbing partner Manel de la Matta, who died in 2004 of pulmonary edema and was buried at K2’s base camp.

“K2 has given me the best and the worst,” Cadiach said. “Being on the top of K2 on a full moon night was the best moment of my life, I stood there motionless looking at the stars and the moon and the world below me, it was eternity.”