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Unsung Heroes Back Home Skardu, Northern Pakistan August 2, 1999
When climbers left home in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, their families left behind endured months of silence. Lila Bishop, my motherinlaw, told me what it was like when her husband, Barry Bishop, left for months at a time to the Himalayas, Greenland, or Polar regions, 'Once he was out the door, that was it.' Email and satellite phones make communication easier now, but nothing can make up for the separation.
Alex Lowe is considered to be the world's best alpinist. But in order to make his North Facesponsored climbing career happen, he leaves his Montana home for six to eight months a year. His wife, Jennifer, is left to raise their three sons and keep the house running. Alex is fortunate to have such a resilient companion. In her own right, Jennifer is an accomplished artist who uses cattle markers to create magnificent paintings. Brent Bishop's wife, Kim, keeps busy with their two sons, Bear and Reed. She is an expert equestrian and previously worked as a successful contractor. Brent loves nothing more than to spend the day with his boys in tow. But with Brent's frequent absences on speaking engagements and climbs, Kim is the rock of the family. When I spoke with Kim recently, she only had one thing to say to Brent, 'Get up the mountain and get your butt home!' Steve Swenson's wife, Anne, will probably not hear anything for eight to ten weeks while Swenson makes his bold attempt on Gasherbrum IV (7,925 meters). It's no different for his partners, Charles Mace and Steve House. Their shoestring budget expedition could not afford a satellite telephone. They are limited to sending postcards by porter, jeep and snail mailthree weeks back to Seattle. Swenson is a devoted family man who delayed his departure to Pakistan to attend his son's high school graduation. 'I wouldn't have missed that for the world,' he told me in Skardu. As for Anne, she wishes her husband, 'Clear skies, good rock and ice, and all my love.'
In Chris Bonington's book, Great Climbs, alpinist Peter Habeler describes his angst on a 1975 trek up the Baltoro Glacier to Gasherbrum I ( 8,068 meters): 'Here now, in the middle of the night, it suddenly became clear to me just how much I was in love with Regina, my girl back in the Zillertal. I loved her presence, her nearness, and longed vehementlyeven more vehemently than for our summitthat these joint lives of mine would find a place, a home. But how could they be combined: my powerful drive to be off to the world's mountains and the just as clearly perceived and strong tie with life at home? Was such an apparent contradiction really irreconcilable?'
To the unsung heroes back home, the Karakoram climbers send their love and thanks.
Greg Mortenson, MountainZone.com Correspondent
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