DISPATCHES

Heilprin

	click for dispatch photos

"We're four separate teams on one thread, and we've got to talk. That's all there is to it," said K2000 American North Ridge Expedition leader Jeff Alzner.

"What it comes down to is we need to communicate maybe before we go up," emphasized Paul Teare, one of K2000's best and most experienced Himalayan climbers, "since we are wanting to be all one team and work together."

Those were the conclusions of a two-hour meeting, by turns friendly and acrimonious, held inside the six-meter-wide Mountain Hardwear dome tent at the 5120-meter (16,800-foot) Advanced Base Camp. The four-person Mexican/Spanish team confirmed it will honor its pledge to pay the K2000 expedition $4,000 for the use of fixed ropes.

"We are willing to pay our share of whatever the rope costs, and whatever it cost you to bring it in," Héctor Ponce de León of Mexico, the expedition leader, told Alzner. "We're very willing to work and to fix [rope]. The only thing that changed is we don't have the cash. But we can wire you the money." Ponce de León had called Alzner on his cell phone a day before the K2000 expedition departed in May to offer $1,000 for each of the four climbers' costs.

"I would have never showed up here without any rope if I hadn't called Jeff first," he insisted. "I'm not that irresponsible, [betting the success of our trip on nothing more than unspoken wishes] like 'I hope that the Americans take us under their wing.'

Now, he said, the money had been spent on "contingencies," but continued discussion about that struck some as crass.

"It's the money?" chimed in Araceli Segarra of Barcelona, the first Catalan woman to climb Mt. Everest. "Let's finish this here. It's ridiculous to have these bad feelings because of $4,000. I really think so. It's settled."

But with the money still unpaid there had been some concern on the American team about whether Ponce de León's team also would acknowledge what the money represented — their dependence for equipment and manpower. "It's not the cost of the rope," explained Jeff Rhoads, National Geographic television's director of photography for the expedition, "it's the use of rope. We want you on our team!"

"We are an independent team," Ponce de León answered.

He said they wanted to be safe more than they wanted to reach the summit.

"The priority on our expedition is to go back home alive," said Ponce de León. "I'm not here to summit. That's like an extra bonus. That's why I also made a small team of four friends because we're going to have a great time, which so far we've had."

"Now you're on a big team," countered Teare. "This route's really brilliant, but the bottom is really dangerous. We've been watching it for two weeks. It's really dangerous. We need to treat it with some respect."

Saturday's meeting also illustrated some of the tensions that can result from a growing trend in Himalayan high-altitude climbing: Opportunistic climbers hoping to piggyback on the efforts of larger teams that arrive earlier, have more resources and put in most of the effort to fix ropes.

"It's pretty much limited to the 8000-meter peaks. That can be an okay thing to do if they're willing to pay for what they use. Mostly though, it's just a big scam," said Mike Bearzi, one of K2000's best climbers and a veteran of five previous Himalayan expeditions, who did not attend the meeting.

"It's a real trend for climbers to come in late and offer money to jumar up someone else's rope," Heidi Howkins, K2000's sponsorship coordinator, who has climbed 8035-meter (26,351-foot) Gasherbrum II and led expeditions to both Everest and K2, echoed after the meeting.

Some Americans also worried about the Mexican/Spanish team's decision to climb to Camp I on a day when there was evident avalanche danger, particularly from sun on the slopes in the late afternoon that kept other teams off the mountain.

That was on Friday, the day before the meeting. During their climb one member of the Mexican/Spanish team, Marty Schmidt of Denver, said he missed being hit by a big slide by less than 10 feet.

His near miss caused particular concern. "Do you know why we're not [rushing to go] up there and [uncovering] the ropes? Do you know why?" Teare rhetorically asked of Schmidt.

"Because we know there's avalanche danger up there, and we don't want to risk any of our team members getting hurt or killed that's why," he said. "It's not the slopes you're climbing on, it's the slopes 500 meters above. A point release turns into an avalanche."

The Mexican/Spanish team has ample big mountain experience to make their own determinations about the safety of climbing conditions, however. Ponce de León climbed to 8000 meters on K2's South side in 1992 and has reached the summits of Everest and Broad Peak. His teammate and fellow Mexican climbing guide, Andrés Delgado Calderon, also has climbed Everest and was the second to traverse all three Broad Peak summits.

Both have been on expeditions to three other 8000-meter peaks.

Schmidt, a longtime guide to the Western Hemisphere's highest mountains, has been on previous expeditions to K2 and Everest. He and his teammates were indignant about having their judgement called into question— and about the confrontational nature of the meeting at which they were met by an array of American television and print news media.

"Do you look at us as a threat or as someone who can help?" Schmidt asked toward the start of the meeting. He acknowledged that his teammates, who were immediately put on the defensive, felt a bit "intimidated" about coming to the Americans' camp.

He said their purpose for climbing that day was honorable. "The idea was to clean the route for the next team of Americans," he pointed out. "So we felt honored, actually, to go up there and work on the lines."

They dug out space and left behind gear, he said, but did not replace Americans' coveted ledge space at Camp I with one of their own tents. "We have no tent there!" insisted an exasperated Segarra, who then spoke heatedly in Spanish with Calderon.

K2000 expedition leaders say they appreciate the help and hope to coordinate efforts so that all four international teams can succeed on the mountain. Yet with an expedition budget of about $250,000, most of the 18 Americans have each spent an average of $7,500 to $12,000 to get here with much of the rest picked up by corporate sponsors.

"I know that we can cooperate. It's really just an issue of whether or not we're unified. And the $4,000 is almost like a symbolic thing. We've got a hell of a lot more time and money invested in this and that's what people are feeling," Alzner said.

Prior to the meeting, Alzner spoke of adopting the Mexican/Spanish team, which brought no ropes of its own, to help fix the more than 5000 meters of line needed on the route. Alzner also has held out the possibility of bailing out or adopting the Japanese four-person team that apparently has only about three weeks of food left.

He maintained that diplomacy at the meeting with the Mexican/Spanish team. "We need to work together. As far as I'm concerned, you guys are part of my team. That's the way I've felt."

Teare also said that was the case. "According to the Chinese, you guys are basically on our team. Am I right?"

"In a way," Schmidt replied.

The American team brought 5000 meters of eight-millimeter rope custom-made for the expedition by PMI Ropes, while the Chinese and Japanese expeditions each carried in nearly 2000 more, though the Japanese rope is of dubious quality.

That may sound like a lot of ropes but already some of the fixed line on the avalanche-prone sections of the lower part of the route has needed replacing.

Heavy snows daily since June 30 have put a damper on Americans' climbing progress, which has included establishing fixed lines nearly up to Camp II, about halfway up the 8616-meter (28,267-foot) peak. For the past two days the snowfall intensity appears to have increased.

Even on days the sun blazes for hours at a time— sending down spasmodic snow slides high above the slopes that ring camp— it tows along billowing gray clouds of precipitation that seem spawned by a wandering portion of the seasonal monsoon.

Ponce de León's team met in Islamabad in early June to travel through Pakistan and China and trek with camels into Base Camp. The American team began its journey from Pakistan the third weekend in May.

Both groups plan to remain in Base Camp, for possible summit attempts, until the third week in August.

"K2's so friggin' hard to climb and maybe the weather won't even give us a chance," Alzner mused during the meeting.

"You guys fit in pretty well with us," he said to the Mexican/Spanish team with a nervous laugh, "because you're arguing with us the same as we would if you weren't here. I don't know if you like that or not."

— John Heilprin, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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