Saw a story I had not heard about before. It was about a woman mountain climber, said to be the best female mountain climber in the world. The U.S. did not know her because she was Russian and this was the 1970s. She decided to put together an all-female team of mountain climbers and successfully scaled a few peaks. Now they would try one of the tallest peaks of Russia - Mount Lenin.
She was making a huge deal about not wanting any advice or help from the men. When at one point if began snowing, she said that was great because then nobody can accuse her of following the men’s footsteps.
They reached the top late in the day as the snow became heavier. They decided to bed down for the night at the peak and come back down the next day. Only it was snowing even harder the next day and they could not see.
Beyond 18,000 feet, you cannot process enough oxygen to sustain yourself. They were at approximately 20,000 feet. One by one, the women began getting sick. The leader called down to the base camp to ask the men what they should do.
An expedition, including the woman’s husband, began to ascend towards the peak. By then, some of the women had died and the others were becoming very sick. The women were finally located but they had all perished. The bodies were brought down the mountain and all were buried at the base under a monument.
I kept thinking “they died of hubris”.
Excellent set up. Weak punch line.
To place your story in context please define women. ;-)
Mt Lenin used to be Mt Stalin, tallest peak in the Pamirs. The Soviet Union’s all round smart ass know ir all Bukharin made a point of climbing Mt Stalin every summer (among his multi talented skills Bukharin was an alpinest). Of course his expeditions into the Pamirs all had a virtual army of support to make sure wonder boy had no problems. He always carried a bust of the Great Leader with him to leave on the top of Mt Stalin. All this did not help the great wiseacre, Stalin had him shot in the Great Purge. The Vozd hated grossly obvious suck ups and smart asses. Bukharin was both.
No, my money’s on exposure and hypoxia.
CC
Ed Viesturs: “Going up is optional, coming down is mandatory”