Posted on 09/25/2004 11:21:04 AM PDT by wyattearp
Ian Ith, Staff Reporter of the Seattle Times.
Pete Schoening's name will forever be etched in the annals of mountaineering for his conquests of many of the highest and most treacherous peaks on Earth.
For being one of the first two Westerners to summit the remote Pakistani peak Gasherbrum I, a 26,470-foot monster also called "Hidden Peak," Mr. Schoening is listed among such luminaries as Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to scale Everest, as one of the world's renowned climbers.
But whether the famously humble man wanted it this way or not, climbers will forever associate the name Pete Schoening with a single heroic day in August 1953, when he alone held a rope that kept six climbers from plunging to their deaths from the icy crags of K2.
It's a moment climbers simply refer to, with reverence, as "The Belay."
"I'm sure we would have all gone down," recalls climber Dee Molenaar of Burley, Kitsap County, who is alive today because of a thin nylon rope that connected him that day to his dear friend, Mr. Schoening.
"He was a prince of a human being."
Mr. Schoening, a successful businessman and the father of six, died Wednesday (Sept. 22) at his home in Kenmore after a long fight with blood cancer. He was 77.
(Excerpt) Read more at archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
I have read so much (with utter disgust) about the people that climb Everest recently. In one such story, no less than five people were standing next to a prone woman who would die if she didn't get down from the altitude. They all stood there for awhile, decided that they didn't have the strength to help her down, and then they all pushed on for the summit. This is the norm, not the exception.
On the Houston expedition on K2 in 1953, when a man was dying, all thoughts of the summit vanished. The only thing on the team members minds was how they were going to save his life. This is a typical mindset on K2, and almost unheard of anymore on Everest. On Everest, all that most everybody thinks of is summitting, while on K2 what weighs the heaviest on climbers minds is getting down alive.
The more that I read about Paul Schoening, the more I realize that the world has lost a bit of greatness in his passing.
"On the Houston expedition on K2 in 1953, when a man was dying, all thoughts of the summit vanished. The only thing on the team members minds was how they were going to save his life. This is a typical mindset on K2, and almost unheard of anymore on Everest."
IMHO, this is more a commentary on the selfishness of people today rather than the differences in the mounains.
Make that Pete Schoening, not Paul Schoening. Good grief. I can't believe that I did that.
Schoening was such a stud...He has a long Mountaineering history, the whole family were talented climbers.
Um... perhaps... From what I've read on K2 and Everest, the people that climb K2 still climb with the same human morals as they always have. I just can't say the same for the majority of the people climbing Everest. Everest has become so commercial, and so over-climbed, that many of the people that are going up there are thinking only of themselves. It is not a team effort. It's all "me, me, me."
That's interesting. I really don't know anything about mountain climbing, so I'm sure you're right. I was just comparing the events of 1953 to the more recent one that you mentioned. I didn't know that there was a difference in behaviors in people climbing Everest and people climbing K2.
My guess is that the majority of people climbing Everest are not capable enough to think of anyone else; they have a hard enough time just getting themselves up and down the mountain (and they paid huge $$$ to summit). I read Into Thin Air a while back...that book speaks to the issue.
It really is interesting. I am not a mountain climber, I'm more of a winter hiker that likes to play in the snow and ice. I have read numerous accounts of climbers on K2 recently. It is an extremely difficult and highly technical climb. Because of that, you don't get people that are paying somebody to take them to the summit. Nobody can. Either you have the technical ability and physical strength, or you don't.
I think that may be the difference. People climb K2 to prove something to themselves, whereas people climb Everest to prove something to somebody else. Greatness isn't just in making the summit, it isn't even in coming down alive, it is how you behave while you're up there. I read an article about Alex Lowe (deceased) and how he went to climb Denali and never had the opportunity to attempt the summit. He spent his entire time on the mountain rescuing people that had gotten into trouble. He did it because that is what a human being does.
Schoening was climbing as a member of an expidition, hence part of an internationally recognized team undertaking a record setting challenge. The people on Everest today are largely tourist on an exotic tour. For one thing, their skill and ability, may only be marginal at best; for another, they have paid a large amount of money for the pleasure of making it to the summit. They are pampered amatures, while Schoening was a professional and a selected team member; and, the difference shows.
I think that you're right. I haven't read the book, but I've seen the movie (and others). A buddy of mine has the book, and I get it when he's done.
People are going into an extremely hazardous situation and they don't have the correct tools. Tools being physical strength and technical ability.
Have you seen the picture of Mallory's body on Everest? He's been up there for 80 years, and still has more muscle mass than most of the people climbing today!
It's a good metaphor for life in general.
I really enjoyed the book. Sandy Hill Pittman, in particular, comes to mind as someone who couldn't even take care of herself much less anyone else. Krakauer alleges (and Pittman denies) that she had her a sherpa short-rope her up the mountain for until he was so physically exhausted he couldn't do more. It's that kind of person who must be a huge liability to everyone on the mountain...
Just want to echo what Nittany Lion said. A good lot of the people who are on Everest aren't qualified to be there. To summit Everest has become a purchaseable ''trophy'' for rich folks who don't have any business on that mountain, who can't carry their own weight (without tons of assistance from guides) and certainly are in no position to assist other climbers.
I was thinking of buying that next. The copy of Into Thin Air I purchased had a lengthy response from Krakauer to the claims raised by Boukreev's book. Without having even read The Climb it was obvious there are some serious differences of opinion...
Thanks, I will. There is always more than one side to a story, and they really did trash Boukreev. Haven't read the book, but I've read abstracts and excerpts.
I am one of the few people who read The Climb first I think so I have always been partial to Boukareev's side of the story.
Surely proves a lot of unqualified people are up there on Everest though.
Boukareev made some of the Greatest Saves in Moutaineering history.
Amen to that.
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