WorldcrunchPablo Batalla Cueto is a Gijón-based journalist who collaborated or still writes with several local and national Spanish outlets, such as Asturias24, La Voz de Asturias and La Marea. He also wrote several books, including one about slow mountaineering.
As Spain prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of dictator Francisco Franco’s death and the return of democracy, fascism is returning around the world. It’s proof, as philosopher Walter Benjamin said, that nothing that has once happened should be considered lost to history.
Setting mountaineering speed records is a way for trail runners to add their names to history books to stay in the spotlight now that almost all the world’s mountains have already been climbed. But this desire to push limits is not ecological — even for a man who recycles or foregoes airplane travel.