Five hundred days spent alone in a cave about 70 meters underground: the record beaten by the 50-year-old Spanish mountaineer Beatriz Flamini, who returned to see the sunlight on Friday in Motril, in the province of Granada, is an incredible record after overcoming a challenge. extreme. “It was an excellent, unsurpassed experience,” she commented to journalists present on the spot. Flamini is back in the sunlight with a smile on her lips and her eyes protected by dark glasses. In addition to some friends, there were also several reporters waiting for her. “I was waiting to go out to take a shower,” she commented. You, the mountaineer, explained that you wanted to test your “mental strength” and exercise it in view of future adventures. “I’m an elite sportswoman, I practice extreme activities,” she underlined. “Actually, I didn’t even want to go out.”
“I stayed on November 21, 2021”
In the period spent underground, Flamini had no direct contact with other people: food was supplied to her from outside through a previously prepared tunnel and her main occupations were “reading, writing, drawing, weaving, existing and having fun”. According to the Efe agency, her stay was interrupted for about eight days just over halfway through the challenge, due to a router failure through which she sent information outside (but without receiving any). While waiting for the problem to be resolved, the climber remained isolated in a tent set up next to the cavity. In all this time, Flamini has therefore not been aware of what has happened in the world, not even of the war in Ukraine. “I stayed on November 21, 2021,” she told reporters. But she admitted to the microphones of Cadena ser radio that the event that surprised her the most was the death of Elizabeth II. “It is an experience of extraordinary value, which has involved great courage”, commented the Spanish Minister of Tourism and Industry Héctor Gómez in connection with TVE.