Alex Txikon (Spain)
Stars of Bansko film fest 2019
Alex Txikon (Spain) – winter alpinist – Presentation day – 23th of November, 21:00h., Big Hall, Culture center “Nikola Vapcarov”, Bansko
Born in Lemoa (Bizkaia, Basque Country), on 12th of December 1981, Alex Txikon is the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters. When he was no more than 3 years old, his brother Javi, the one who taught him to love mountaineering, took Alex to the top of Gorbea mountain, one of the most emblematic peaks in Basque Country. He joined Ganzabal Mountain Club at teenage and could try himslelf in Pyrenees, Picos de Europa and Alps for the first time. In his 17 travelled to Pamir Mountains and he was just 21 when reached the summit of his first +8.000m mountain: Broad Peak (8.051m) in Pakistan.
Alex Txikon’s taken part in more than 30 expeditions so far, has climed up to the summit of 12 of the 14 highest mountains and, chiefly, has lived the most incredible experiences in wonderfull places all over the world and with the most amazing people he could never had imagined.
The first important step in his career came in 2005 when joining ‘Al Filo De Lo Imposible’ spanish TV programme, working as a high altitude cameraman also for Edurne Pasaban’s ’14’8.000′ project.
But, in 2011, although having recieved the invitation from Pasaban’s team for Everest, Alex Txikon felt having completed a stage and needed to start a new one looking for different ways of practicing mountaineering. That’s how he began to lead winter expeditions for which he is specially wellknown nowadays. These last years he has opted for projects that probably are less successfull but much more valuables in terms of technicality, difficulty and commitment. North faces, new routes, alpine style, big walls’ it’s a risky but immensely satisfying choice.
As well as alpinism, Alex Txikon practices rock climbing, BASE jumping and basque rural sport such as wood cutting; he’s an insatiable adventure man, loves exploring, travelling and meeting new friends, something which must be part of any project or goal that he faces.
Alex Txikon will present also the film “Pumori the daughter of the Mountain”
This documentary film featuring Alex Txikon, pays tribute to the young mountaineers from Spain who died during the 2011 expedition to Pumori peak, telling in parallel the awesome story of the young Nepalese girl Suku Maya and the bond generated between her and the family of one of the boys who lost his life in that tragedy.
