DISPATCHES

O'Fallon

Maybe the Himalayan climbers I see here know their bodies at 8,000 meters and can measure their strength better than I at altitude but if they are climbers I will stick to climbing in Alaska and South America in relative anonymity. I know how arrogant this will sound to many but don't condemn me yet.

Yesterday, a two man climbing team showed up at our Advanced Base Camp. They have no rope, borrowed a shovel to dig a tent platform, wanted to borrow a tent to shelter their camel drivers turned porters, want to use our camp 1, and asked to use our computers to email friends. They did offer to do "chores" to pay for use our ropes, computers, sat-phone and tent.

We have thought long and hard as to what 'chores' they could do. We already have porters to do dishes, cook, and carry loads from Camel Dump (yes we are spoiled) but we do make our own coffee, wash our own clothes and re-make our tent platforms when needed. In addition, we have no high altitude porters. We carry all our own equipment, ropes, protection and food. We could use them as high altitude porters, I guess. The only problem with that is we are pushing ropes to camp 4 tomorrow, have all our ropes and protection at Camp 3 already and most of our high altitude personal equipment is at camp 2. I am also quite sure they would not be willing to sit at ABC doing laundry (four month old underwear would likely be a particularly sticky problem), flattening tent platforms and making coffee while the weather is good.

Don't think me ungrateful for the offer but it seems disingenuous when I think about what they could possibly do 3 months after we start climbing. All that is left for them is to jug already established ropes, acclimatize and go for the summit.

In measuring the teams that are here, none would be here but for us and only the International Team is capable of climbing this mountain unaided (or at least contributing significantly to the effort). The other teams have been happy to jug our ropes. They have helped carry ropes and the Japanese teams have made great efforts to break trail while putting in a few ropes.

My gripe is this; we will all be measured equally by attaining the summit yet nothing will be said of the three months of putting in ropes, carrying loads and the incredible load of work done just to put ourselves in position to summit (the same position the other teams are in without doing the work).

It is not just the other teams. Some among us have shown little initiative for carrying loads and are not willing to lead out ropes. How will we be measured? I guess, we need to be secure in our knowledge of what we have accomplished but I find myself less than secure enough in myself for that. I tire of others living off the work of some of my team. I tire of seeing the incredible efforts put in by some and seeing many who will claim the same accomplishment (or worse - a greater accomplishment as we weaken ourselves and diminish our chances at the summit).

Poser - one who pretends to be what he or she is not. That is my simple definition. We have posers in our midst and we have posers on the periphery. I have found myself to be stronger and more capable than I ever thought and I feel I have contributed greatly to our effort. I feel I am one of maybe five or six that deserve to summit and could claim so in admirable fashion but even I would be a poser to claim my accomplishments are the same as everyone. While I have done my share of leads and loads I have lived off the experience of Mike Bearzi and Paul Teare. They were the only ones, initially, on the team with enough knowledge and skill to really climb this mountain (National Geographic cameraman Jeff Rhoads should be considered also). I have been but an intern.

Paul Teare once said, "If you can't lead and you can't solo how are you going to climb K2?" Perhaps summit day will weed out some of the posers but some of us will attempt it with three months of work behind us while others will acclimatize and go for it. If Paul Teare or Mike Bearzi and a few others summit their accomplishment will truly be exponentially greater than others. I suppose any summit of an 8,000 meter peak is worthy of note but for myself I will never be impressed again without an account of style.

— Shawn O'Fallon, MountainZone.com Correspondent

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