DREAM MERCHANTS

I N V E S T I G A T I N G T H E M Y S T E R I O U S D E A T H S O F T H R E E J A P A N E S E C L I M B E R S ON IN 1989

BY JON WATERMAN

Kahiltna Pass, 10,000 feet, lower left with trail to 11,200-foot camp and up West Buttress; Denali Pass visible upper left. TOM FALLEY

22 ASCENT 2020 ASCENT 2020 23 This photograph and another shot from the The 17-man rescue team hauls the bodies of air show that none of the deceased climbers Yamada, Saegusa and Komatsu to a waiting helicopter. Cyclonic winds delayed the body recovery held their knees or burrowed or assumed for over a month. The three climbers were found just the fetal position of those trying to shelter 15 minutes from their last camp. from the extreme cold. Nor had they begun removing their clothing in the frequent final act of “paradoxical undressing” by translated), were weirdly incomplete. It was hypothermic victims flushed by dilated blood as if Yamada’s deferential Japanese supporters vessels that cause a burning sensation. could not dig up or divulge how the men really From my experience as a Denali perished. WHEN NORBORU YAMADA and his two ranger performing scores of Several accounts of successful winter Japanese companions didn’t return from searches for climbers, rescues or recoveries— climbs on Denali serve as noteworthy and theW West Buttress, Denali’s easiest route, in along with a study of accident victims for even inspirational models, such as the book February 1989, no one could understand my book Surviving Denali—I wanted Minus 148 (detailing how three climbers what had happened. Known as “the Dream an explanation and conclusion for every survived a similar storm at Denali Pass Merchant,” Yamada was famed for his misadventure on the mountain. Even long by digging a snowcave). But tragedies like visionary Himalayan climbs including the after I gave up working on the mountain, that of 1989 garner most of the attention. South Face of Annapurna and Everest in I wanted to prevent tragedy. But with the Disaster, after all, stimulates empathy. And winter. Several years earlier he had led the Japanese team’s demise, the report (written by on another level, comprehensive accident race to climb all 14 8,000-meter peaks. His the South District Ranger) was unintentionally reports (which, as far as I was concerned, many admirers (including me), friends and mysterious and inconclusive. I needed to hadn’t been completed for Yamada) expose family wanted to believe that the climbers understand what really caused their deaths. human error, ultimately evoking coping were sheltering out the lengthy storm in a Teruo Saegusa—eyes wide open like his BOTH ARMS HUNG mechanisms—allowing other mountaineers snowcave. The official park service report and the autopsies noted that Norboru Yamada and his two companions, partners’—alone escaped broken bones. All of to ask themselves if they could have survived More than two weeks after the Japanese Teruo Saegusa and Kozo Komatsu, died of hypothermia. But the three, as seen in the page from the book the team appeared to have perished quickly in similar straits—teaching us how to avoid Death Wind, were highly experienced. For them to die on Denali’s easiest route just didn’t make sense. SUSPENDED IN THE team’s disappearance, supporters had to and were dead before arrival—they made similar mishaps. Yet regardless of nationality, accept the inevitable when the bodies were no attempt to crawl to one another. Their AIR AS IF HE WERE climbers are essentially members of an spotted from fly-overs. In one attempted days into spring, the mercury still plunged wasn’t the only one who cringed about friends exposed skin, whiter than the surrounding extended family, and losing three brethren recovery a military Chinook helicopter flew to -40 F. The rescuers also observed that the and family hearing the tuna-locker elucidation snow, was not bloated or badly distorted, IN THE MIDST OF A can hit hard. half out of control and at full throttle, with wind blew even harder here than it did on or seeing the image, showing Yamada with a preserving each man’s facial features, as if As a lucky survivor of a winter climb on the veteran pilot breathing bottled oxygen and their storm-swept Mount Fuji in , where peculiar, bared-teeth grin. The photograph they had been sprayed with liquid nitrogen. DANCE STEP. DenaIi—up the Cassin Ridge in winter 1982, trying to break out of a 2,000-foot-per-minute wind speeds exceeded 100 mph. did not show that he was roped to his partners Hence the notation “Flash Frozen.” As if similarly accident-prone and exposed to downdraft.Rescuers strapped inside the Denali insiders will never forget the Teruo Saegusa and Kozo Komatsu. mountain weather alone could explain what Compared to 44 other climbers who have inhumane conditions—I knew that someone bouncing fuselage could see three red-suited photograph taken by the body-recovery team Yamada was seen with straightened legs really killed them. disappeared on Denali, the bodies of the as talented as Yamada Norboru, my winter and motionless figures lying below, spread up and leaked from a thick, yet still unfiled atop a several-inch snow pedestal, which Given their body positions and the autopsy Japanese team at least could be examined, brother, wouldn’t simply flash freeze in to 100 feet apart in the shape of an upside- folder that remains—until this writing— the weight of his body held in place as the showing that their limbs were broken after and this was only by luck. If not for their rope his tracks because he underestimated the down isosceles triangle. Cyclonic winds on in the South District Ranger’s office in surrounding snow had been blasted away. DEATH WIND death, the photo shows signs of human flight: catching in the sastrugi, the trio would have mountain. There had to be a more thorough frozen snow had carved abstract sastrugi Talkeetna. Normally, climber accident These winter pedestals suspend everything The leading Japanese alpinist had landed continued being blasted down by the winds that explanation that would allow closure. And I that, from the aerial perspective, looked like narratives, called Case Incident Reports that can’t be pried off by the wind: amber here after a long ride through the sub-Arctic blew away their packs, ice axes, video cameras, confess that the sardonic smile frozen on his texture on a skip-troweled sheetrock wall. (CIRs), are filed three hours north at Denali colored urine stains, mummified human feces, night, blown from the wind-machine of Denali hats and mittens down past blued hanging face has haunted me for years. Since the violent weather and thin-air flying National Park headquarters with a century’s and footprints left over from more than a Pass. Meteorologists agree that the pass, a low seracs, down the two-mile-long, elevator-shaft and landing were deemed unsafe, the Japanese worth of mountaineering arcana. After a thousand Denali climbers who make this same funnel between the two summits of Denali, steep plunge to the Peters . Down there, TO MOST JAPANESE CITIZENS the name remains lay on the 30-degree slope for more few years, most accidents are forgotten, but pilgrimage from May through July. In summer, could, due to the Venturi Effect, triple the in the catch basin of the winds, all is buried in Denali elicits respectful recognition. In than a month. the Talkeetna rangers and Alaskan old-hand when the wind eases and it starts snowing, all 100 mph winds commonly buffeting the upper deep-snow remnants of the last Ice Age. Japan the mountain’s name happens to Finally, on March 26, a 17-man Japanese climbers still see the 1989 tragedy as an is once again blanketed over. mountain. To be lifted and bodily blown off At the time, the tragedy had been briefly be synonymous with that of Japan’s most rescue team climbed to the accident site after unsolved enigma. It didn’t make sense that Yamada’s blue flap hat had long since would take winds greater than that of terminal covered by newspapers, lamented in climbing famous mountaineer, Naomi Uemura. The being pinned down by another prolonged Yamada, a veteran at high altitude and who blown off, while one-wool mitted hand was velocity—or 120 mph—the maximum speed a journals, detailed (but not resolved) in that thick story of Japan’s knight errant of cold weather storm with wind they described as a “devil’s had done technical 8,000-meter peaks in crooked toward his heart because of a broken human can reach while falling through the air. CIR file, and expanded upon in a respectful adventure, killed on Denali five Februaries roar.” The rescuers were shocked to see that winter, would perish on what was essentially arm. Since either a fall or wind had partially Due to the climbers’ lack of fatal injuries, book, Shi-fù, or Death Wind, published only in before Yamada, is also cloaked in mystery—

Yamada’s team all lay on their backs on an a steep ski slope. unzipped his jacket and blown back the fur- DEATH WIND and given the cold location, through process of Japan. The authors had only concluded “it was a except to those alpinists who understand the innocuous-looking snowslope merely 15 The troubling photograph captures a supine ruffed hood, his signature red bandana could elimination most coroners would call the causes fatal mistake for them to adapt their experience oddities of this mountain in winter and the minutes away from their last camp. Panting in Yamada at 17,400 feet on a slope guides be seen neatly tied around his neck. The of death hypothermia—as stated in the three in the low-latitude Himalaya” to Denali’s techniques used to climb it in such extremes. the thin air, casting repeated looks up at the had long ago and portentously dubbed “the waxen white and bare left hand extended autopsies. The lack of obvious clues about what harsher, higher latitude. Yet Yamada knew the Born in Kaminogo, Hidaka Town, in 1941, sky in case the wind would begin anew, the Autobahn.” The “Flash Frozen” description straight out, with no apparent relationship to really killed them and why the three expert mountain well, having climbed it repeatedly in Uemura remains Japan’s version of Neil rescuers stood over bodies “stiff as iron” and that circulated with the photo had been the rope wrapped around his shoulder. Both climbers chose to ascend into one of Denali’s previous years, and wouldn’t have overlooked Armstrong. Although he could have been said a prayer for their “piteous death[s].” Even intended to warn aspiring climbers about the arms hung suspended in the air as if he were infamous winter storms is why the accident Denali’s lethal weather. first of his countrymen to step atop Everest, with good weather and daylight returning five ferocity of North America’s highest peak. I in the midst of a dance step. report remained a cold case that needed to be To a Denali expert, all the write-ups, in 1970, when after leading almost all of the COURTESY DENALI NATIONAL PARK, BOOK IMAGE COURTESY KUNIAKI YAGIHARA/

COURTESY KUNIAKI YAGIHARA/ resolved. particularly Death Wind (which I had way to the top, facing the final few yards, he

24 ASCENT 2020 ASCENT 2020 25 his fall, he plunged all the way to the remote Peters Glacier (or somewhere along the way, perhaps, he dropped into a crevasse). Uemura was first in the world to climb the . highest peak on five continents, ahead of the curve in the now popular quest for the . While Uemura had been following his dreams as one who relished solitude and loved nature, he was hardly a “collector” of mountains. If he had survived, he likely would’ve been perplexed by many who now chase the seven summits as if mounting trophies on their walls. There’s no question that Uemura—as the original Dream Merchant—had inspired Yamada, Saegusa and Komatsu five years later. Still, even if Yamada had been obsessed with a Seven Summits quest, by following in the vanished Denali Pass, where the Japanese were likely blown off by 200 mile-per-hour winds. The “Autobahn” (traverse trail Japanese mountaineers have long thought of Denali, footsteps of the respected elder and well- seen diagonaling up from right to left to 18,200 feet) is the site of more fatalities than any other location on Denali. seen above, as spiritually connected to their own sacred Mount Fuji (upper right). Lower right: Yamada sponsored legend of Japan would have made him poses for a hardman shot. THIS IS BACKED UP proceed with great caution and respect. Fuji-san summit. In the story the mountain is pilgrims sought on Fuji-san. So if Naomi Uemura’s disappearance can be called fu-shi, which means never dead. This Although a rising star in thin air on beckoned a respected Japanese elder behind BY TAOIST BELIEFS explained, surely there was a more definitive is backed up by Taoist beliefs that the secret the most difficult climbs under the worst him to go first. In less than a decade, the cause for the deaths of Norboru Yamada, to immortality is found on Fuji-san. conditions, Yamada still found himself a soft-spoken, shy Uemura—who stood 5 feet THAT THE SECRET Teruo Saegusa and Kozo Komatsu. And since The summit of Fuji-san, a 5,000-foot, six- step behind more accomplished Europeans. 3 inches tall in his stocking feet—would a team of Austrians who repeatedly ran into hour hike from its base parking lot, is not a Two years before his death on Denali, become larger than life in Japan for his epic TO IMMORTALITY Yamada on Denali but were not interviewed challenge for alpinists. But the mountain during a bold winter ascent up the most dogsled trips and solos of the highest peaks in depth by the park service for its accident persists throughout Japanese culture because technically challenging route on the most on five continents. These included the first- IS FOUND ON report, I knew they would have their own of its symmetrical form and its depiction dangerous 8,000-meter peak—the South ever solo of Denali, in stormy August when opinions on the disaster. in literature and art since ancient times: Face of Annapurna—he summited with three climbers had abandoned the mountain, several FUJI-SAN. framed by the cherry blossoms on wood-block companions. During the descent to high months after he became the second Japanese JAPAN’S 12,380-FOOT MOUNT FUJI, or carvings; or seen on flags, greeting cards and camp in roseate alpenglow, one teammate, gentleman to climb Everest. He spent 363 Fuji-san (Fire Mountain), falls more than the 1,000-yen note. Toshiyuki Kobayashi, vanished through a days dogsledding from to , Today Japan honors the lost adventurer more time on the mountain than his Japanese a mile and a half shorter than Denali and is Long after Norboru Yamada climbed Fuji- cornice. Shortly after, in an unforgettable a journey that he described as “pure bliss;” with two Naomi Uemura museums. They counterpart. So he is familiar with its biggest 3,500 miles distant. But to volcanologists, the san as a teenager, he had built his confidence moment that would long disturb Yamada, he solo rafted down the Amazon River; and display his many adventure books, postcards challenge: “The wind on Denali is a freight magma-fueled and seismically active Ring of and found himself pursuing greater goals.The his old friend and partner Yasuhira Saito he became first to solo to the North Pole, written during his journeys, the tattered train,” he messaged me. “Get out of its way or Fire, fringing the Pacific Ocean Basin, links youngest of six children, he had been named dropped from exhaustion into the dark void, while stalked by a polar bear and repeatedly Japanese and American flags that he left tied die.” But he’s certain that this wasn’t Uemura’s the peaks like sisters. Norboru—literally “one who is to rise”—by a his crampons sparking against rocks while rescuing his sled dogs. As famous at the to a tripod with a spare pair of underwear on issue. Denali is the elder mountain, a pluton, prophetic priest. Although briefly on track as shouting, “What’s wrong?” time as the great Italian alpinist Reinhold Denali’s summit, and the diary that he left in “Naomi’s boots killed him,” Vern said, melted down by magma 56 million years ago, an electrical engineer, he despised routines Neither Kobayashi nor Saito were ever seen Messner, Uemura enjoyed support from a snow cave at 14,300 feet. Scores of Uemura referring to the toasty but floppy white rubber cooled under the earth and crystalized, then or any sort of mediocrity and committed again. Purina and National Geographic—among his relics are displayed from his journeys— boots (aka Mickey Mouse Boots, as coined by pushed up by tectonic-plate activity. Fuji-san, himself to climbing as a self-taught 16-year- Despite the incredible yet star-crossed many sponsors. He even went back to Everest Everest summit rocks, clothing, and a life-size the military, which developed them during the a stratovolcano, was explosively created—its old Dream Merchant.Eventually climbing accomplishment of the Japanese team, Jerzy in winter 1981, and missed the summit by cutout of the adventurer—but the 20-man Korean War) that he and Naomi wore but that magma spewing up out of the Ring of Fire and nine of the 14 8,000-meter peaks, he put Kukuczka and Artur Hajzer’s first winter ascent several hundred meters after a companion fell Japanese search team on Denali could not find lacked rigidity. The soft boots “were notorious onto the earth—less than three million years together a new Denali winter climb as a 10 months earlier on an easier Annapurna to his death. the body of their beloved Naomi Uemura. for squirming out of your crampons,” Vern ago. Compared to Denali, there are no steep much more ambitious and unprecedented route is what sticks to the record books. Then on the eve of his 43rd birthday, Another unsolved cold case then? Not quite. wrote. “It happened to me, fellow guides and climbs up the evenly sloped Fuji-san, which project: climbing the highest peak on each This lack of recognition on the world Uemura returned to Alaska and made one of To close this file I first turned to Naomi’s our clients many times, especially on the routinely smokes, shudders and, according to continent in winter. Sponsored by Japanese mountaineering stage was not new to Yamada. the most audacious climbs in the world: a solo, diary. A week before his disappearance, down Autobahn. We finally redesigned the heel of seismologists, could soon blow its top again. corporations, Yamada had already knocked In 1984, another large Polish expedition had winter ascent of Denali by the West Buttress. at Windy Corner, a breezy spot where most our crampons by adding a small strap that DEATH WIND In the large national park surrounding Denali, off winter ascents of Everest, , claimed the first winter ascent of Manaslu, He reached the summit on his birthday, climbers avoid overnighting, he wrote about the ankle strap went through.” But Naomi, there are more than 600 seismic events per Kilimanjaro and . After Denali in a winter climb Yamada had tried but failed February 12, 1984. He even made it back his crampons repeatedly falling off and how he new to these specialized Alaskan climbing year, usually directly beneath the mountain; winter, he had only Carstenz Pyramid, Elbrus when he broke his leg in a crevasse fall two down to Denali Pass (the windiest place on nearly froze his fingers tying them back on. boots, would not have known about this occasionally the bigger temblors cause and Vinson left on the tick list. For him to join years earlier. The December after the Poles’ the mountain) and radioed out the next day Then I consulted Vern Tejas, first to survive strapping system. So Vern and I believe that avalanches. Both snow-clad peaks can be seen the expanding ranks of the “Seven Summits winter ascent, Yamada and his good friend to announce his success. Then he vanished. a Denali winter solo, in February 1988. Vern on February 13, 1984, Naomi Uemura had a towering 130 and 60 miles distant from their Club” as its exclusive winter member, the only Saito sprinted up Manaslu in a phenomenal Bush pilots and the park service and would-be respects Uemura, and in his honor planted a crampon pop off on the Autobahn. Unroped respective cities, Anchorage and Tokyo. one to complete the Frozen Grand Slam of three-day ascent. Since winds made the rescuers believed that he fell off further below Japanese flag on top when he summited, but on the tricky-angled ice traverse, and probably A 10th Century Japanese folk tale describes world mountaineering, would be a modern- summit ridge too dangerous, they resorted to

from the crest of the West Buttress. as a seasoned Denali guide he had spent a lot buffeted by the wind, with nothing to stop COURTESY KUNIAKI YAGIHARA/ COLBY COOMBS a smoking love poem that burns forever on the day equivalent to the immortality olden-day an unusual tactic: they roped up and belayed

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