{"id":413,"date":"2017-03-15T13:26:40","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T13:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/?p=413"},"modified":"2017-03-15T15:35:50","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T15:35:50","slug":"six-degrees-of-mountaineering-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/2017\/03\/15\/six-degrees-of-mountaineering-separation\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Degrees of Mountaineering Separation"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This article contains bold\u00a0clickable links<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

When the KNS published a story about my friend Alan Arnette\u2019s fall<\/a> <\/strong>descending Twin Sisters peak several weeks ago (be sure to click the link, it actually shows him getting blown sideways)<\/em> , it brought back memories not so fond. \u00a0Alan took\u00a0a serious screamer in a 100 mph gust that blew him almost clean off a Colorado spire. For perspective, I have been friends with Alan for several years via the web.\u00a0 Well before his fame as a tireless Alzheimer\u2019s Champion and summiter of infamous K2.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, prior to my own, well documented K3 debacl<\/a>e<\/strong> in which my climbing partner, Brian Moran suffered similar injury, Alan advised me to use another ground logistics outfit.\u00a0 He had dealt with Field Touring Alpine in the past and I ignored his advice with predictable results.\u00a0 Brian\u2019s injury and evacuation consumed but one week of some of the darkest days ever seen in Pakistan\u2019s Karakoram Range.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the account of Alan\u2019s mishap crossed the Knoxville media, I was already reading an article in Rock and Ice Magazine about another friend from the mountains, Kyle Dempster.\u00a0 For those of you who may think he sounds familiar, I wrote about him in my last book, Father of Ice Mountains<\/em><\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0 Kyle and I happened to be seat mates on a flight from Seattle to Beijing in 2011 as Brian and I headed to the Tien Shan mountains for a summit of Muztagh Ata.\u00a0 Kyle was already famous by the time we had met and we killed a great deal of time swapping mountain tales in our flight to the Orient. \u00a0Kyle\u2019s frostbite injury figured prominently in the narrative about my own frostbitten digits.\u00a0 At one point, when I was able to get stateside, my physician prepared me for the eventual loss of a finger. \u00a0I could only think of Kyle, who had lost the same end of his finger in nearly the same spot. That was my big personal brush with mountaineering injury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kyle was embarking upon an unassisted bike tour through the Karakoram and we said goodbye as he pedaled off into a dusty Beijing smog-scape.\u00a0 Kyle had already been granted a Piolet d\u2019Or, climbing\u2019s highest honor for his ascent of the North Face of Xuelin in China\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0in 2010.\u00a0 Kyle\u2019s climbing partner was Bruce Normand.\u00a0 In 2013, while sitting in a remote part of Pakistan called Skardu, I shared several afternoons in the beautiful riverside town being regaled by Bruce\u2019s 209 ascent of K2 documented in the film, Shared Summits<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0I asked about Kyle and Bruce told me that he was planning to come join him on this trip.\u00a0 One week later, while Brian and I were hiking into Broad Peak basecamp, Taliban, disguised as police, stormed base camp of nearby Nanga Parbat and killed 11 aspirant mountaineers.\u00a0 Kyle assessed the situation and said \u201cF%$# it!\u201d via a well -documented open letter to the Pakistani government.\u00a0 Brian, Bruce and I had no such option.\u00a0 We were halfway into an 80 mile walk to one of the most remote places on earth.\u00a0 Taliban or not, we were heading to the highest peaks on our planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2015.\u00a0 I\u2019m in Talkeetna, Alaska with John Davis, Neil Murphy and Lee Whitten.\u00a0 We are making final preparations for a flight onto the Kahiltna glacier for an attempt on Kahiltna Dome.\u00a0 The weather was bad and we couldn\u2019t fly into basecamp, even had an aborted attempt on the Otter wherein we had to circle around and return for another day.\u00a0 Two ladies were shadowing us,\u00a0 Chantal\u00a0 Astorga\u00a0 and Jewell Lund.\u00a0 We made jokes with them about our bad luck and when we finally landed together, had apparently stolen their crampons which set about another line of jokes.\u00a0 Our team was developing a reputation on the Kahiltna even before arrival.\u00a0 Apparently the weather had cleared late one afternoon and everyone was looking for us to re-board the ski planes.\u00a0 Problem was, we were sitting in a movie theater one hour away watching something on a big screen.\u00a0 By the time we landed on the glacier, Base Camp Annie greeted us on skis, saying, \u201cHow was the movie?\u201d\u00a0 Now these two gals were convinced we were thieves.\u00a0 (Our gear had become intertwined, I promise!) Those Uber fit women would continue to make the first all- female ascent of the Denali Diamond<\/a> <\/strong>while we flailed about unsuccessfully on Kahiltna Dome.\u00a0 I was proud to say we had been alongside history in the making.\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t know about Jewell was uncovered in the Rock and Ice Magazine mentioned at the beginning of this missive.<\/span><\/p>\n

News outlets generally don\u2019t write about climbing unless something bad has happened.\u00a0 And although most of the time this isn\u2019t the case, the article about Kyle is a posthumous dedication to a life lived on the edge.\u00a0 You see, last year Kyle and Scott Adamson\u00a0\u00a0 repeated their attempt on the Ogre 2 in Pakistan with disastrous results.\u00a0 They were overdue for a week and a gofund me raised almost a quarter million dollars to no avail.\u00a0 They were likely avalanched off that mountain never to be seen again until a big melt.\u00a0 It was how Kyle would have wished it.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until this week and the Rock and Ice piece was published that I discovered Lund was Kyle\u2019s girlfriend.\u00a0 He got her into climbing in 2007 and she obviously took to it with felicity.\u00a0 She was slated to join him\/us in Pakistan in 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n

Strange are the paths that bring climbers into the big mountains.\u00a0 Sadly too are the ways in which they take people out.\u00a0\u00a0 My partner, Brian Moran, still suffers from his 100 foot fall at 18000 feet on Broad Peak in 2013. There were three members of our team who did not return from Broad Peak<\/a>. \u00a0As an airline pilot, Brian was\u00a0was forced to miss one year of work.\u00a0 There were times when it wasn\u2019t certain whether or not he would keep the leg with infection an ever present nemesis. To this day, he still cannot run and climbing has been relegated to a thing of the past. Here is a clip that summarizes our experience there.\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=42um-dpYDyk&t=2s<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It sounds like Alan Arnette will make a predictably strong recovery, he is a strong and seasoned climber, veteran of dozens of Himalayan expeditions.\u00a0 At one point, in 2007, while descending from the summit of Denali\u2019s West Buttress route, my team almost suffered a similarly great tragedy as my rope mate, Dan Walters fell 30 feet into a bottomless crevasse. \"IMG_20170315_111440\u00a0 After this four hour rescue, all 11 of us bedded down without tents in a growing storm at 9500 feet.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to me, we were beside a tent that housed Alan Arnette who was making his second attempt of the \u201cHigh One\u201d. \u00a0Alan\u2019s luck on Denali mirrors that of mine on all 8 thousand meter peaks.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was on this Alaskan expedition that I first made the acquaintance of Brian with whom I would go on to share many similar trips throughout the world.\u00a0 As we skied and snowshoed back to Kahiltna basecamp in the ever present midight sun in 2007, snowflakes covered our wearied bodies as my team limped into the landing strip for what would prove to be the last flight out for days.\u00a0 Brian was stuck at high camp, having made his summit bid just one day later than us.\u00a0 His team suffered greatly and they almost lost a guide to exposure in winds that created -20 temperatures.\u00a0 His summit shots look like true Alaskan epics while mine could have included an umbrella drink.\u00a0 Such is the variance within one day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rock and Ice piece on Kyle emphasized the impact this young man had upon a burgeoning sport. He pushed himself to limits and affirmed the mountaineering adage, there are old climbers and there are bold climbers.\u00a0 But there are no old bold climbers.\u00a0 Jim Whittaker said, \u201cIf you\u2019re not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s easy for Whittaker since he is pushing towards 90.\u00a0 All of us have had close calls in the mountains, the key is to take those lessons and make sure they aren\u2019t repeated.\u00a0 I wish Alan a speedy recovery. It is events like these that remind us who is really boss on high peaks and no matter what your preparation, experience or skill, there is still a great deal of luck that brings us back intact. \u00a0For those preparing for Denali or the Himalaya this spring like my friend Andrea, I wish Godspeed and good luck.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(This article contains bold\u00a0clickable links) When the KNS published a story about my friend Alan Arnette\u2019s fall descending Twin Sisters peak several weeks ago (be sure to click the link, it actually shows him getting blown sideways) , it brought … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":430,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413\/revisions\/430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southernhighlanders.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}