42 rockandice.com 4 10 September By Devon o’neil For going on 50 years, one thread has connected every major expedition to the nepal Himalaya. elizabeth Hawley has become a mountaineering icon, revered by the likes of Hillary, Bonington and Messner. Her words have changed Himalayan history. But now people wonder: As someone who does not climb, is she playing too big a role? n April 27, tiny Oh Eun- It didn’t matter that the Nepal Mountaineer- to Humar and House. Unintimidated by the male- Sun crawled to the summit ing Association had already anointed Oh. “If dominated culture, she is famous for calling an of 26,545-foot Annapurna Ms. Hawley’s further investigations lead her to expedition’s trekking agent no sooner than the ex- in Nepal, exhausted and ex- change the status of the 2009 ascent to ‘unrec- pedition has stepped off the plane in Nepal to set up hilarated, her every wheeze ognised,’” the BBC reported, “Ms. Oh would not the pre-expedition interview. She arrives with her broadcast live in her home be internationally regarded as the first woman to native driver, a serious man who wears fatigues, in nation of South Korea. The have climbed all 14 8,000ers.” her bright blue 1963 Volkswagen Beetle. Every time. ascent ended a nearly 13- When Oh returned to Kathmandu, on May 3, She walks inside the meeting site, usually the year quest and made Oh the Hawley interviewed her for an hour, challenging team’s hotel, sits down at a table and whips out her first woman—and only the every assertion. Accounts said she told Hawley famously detailed forms, which cover everything 20th person—to summit all she would send video and photographic proof from one’s relationship status (“So, Alan, are we still 14 of the planet’s 8,000-meter peaks. of her Kangchenjunga summit, but that she ap- divorced, single and living with girlfriend?” she’d Simultaneously, halfway across the Himalaya, the peared to have answered all other questions to chide the British bon vivant Alan Burgess) to where Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban was on her way to Hawley’s satisfaction. At the end of the debrief, ropes will be fixed and camps set. If the intended climb Shishapangma in Tibet, having summited An- Hawley posed a simple question: “Did you climb route is remotely common, she knows about it and napurna earlier in the month. Shishapangma was all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks?” asks pointed questions about the team’s plans. Last the only 8,000-meter peak Pasaban had yet to climb. “Yes,” Oh responded without hesitation. fall, when I accompanied three ski mountaineers on In the following days, as the world celebrated “Congratulations,” Hawley said. a 40-day expedition to pioneer skiing in western Ne- Oh’s feat, a controversy began to boil. Pasaban And just like that, Oh’s place in history was pal, Hawley presented a decades-old Japanese map claimed she had spoken to Oh’s Sherpas and that confirmed. Hawley said she would still mark of the area that none of the three knew existed— they told her, contrary to what the record cited, the Kangchenjunga ascent as “disputed,” a node and they had done more than a year of research. Oh had not summited Kangchenjunga the previ- to Pasaban’s contention, but she credited Oh How climbing found her, however, is a story that ous year—an assertion that Pasaban said was fur- with summiting. began before most of today’s elite climbers were born. ther supported by Oh’s summit photograph, which As the news made its way across the globe, re- <> <> <> seemed to have been taken lower on the mountain. porters magnified Hawley’s “judge-like” status in The dispute undermined a huge title in climbing, Himalayan climbing and how she is recognized as It was the sprIng of 1963. For a nation popu- one of the biggest “firsts” still up for grabs. the sport’s “arbiter”—a venerable American expat lated by some of the greatest climbers in the world, In each story about Oh’s climbs and the ensu- who seemingly discovers the truth when no one else the fact stood out like a black snowflake: 10 years ing controversy, one name kept coming up: Eliza- can. What the reports largely missed was that Haw- after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s historic beth Hawley. Pasaban told the press that she had ley never desired such a title, nor does she believe first ascent of Mount Everest, still no American had informed Hawley of her doubts by phone, lead- that she, a non-climber, has the right to fill it. stood on the same summit. ing Hawley to change her designation of Oh’s Elizabeth Hawley has been covering Nepalese Norman Dyhrenfurth, a Swiss-born photogra- Kangchenjunga summit to “disputed” in her Hi- climbing for nearly five decades, interviewing more pher who carried one of the biggest names in the malayan Database, pending another interview elite mountaineers than probably any person ever nascent Himalayan climbing world, had been cho- when Oh returned to Kathmandu. will—from Bonington to Viesturs to Hargreaves sen to lead a National Geographic Society-spon- G A Lord John sored team of the strongest Hunt, leader of the 1953 British mountaineers America could everest expedition offer. The goal was not just to that put edmund put the first U.S. man on the Hillary and Tenz- ing norgay on summit of Everest; Dyhren- the summit; furth also intended a bold and Lisa choegyal of Tourism resource creative full traverse of the consultants, peak, including a first ascent kathmandu; A chris Bonington, of the terrifying West Ridge. veteran of over 20 “If we can pull it off,” b F first ascents in the greater ranges; Dyhrenfurth was quoted as F ed Viesturs, first american to climb and elizabeth saying, “it would be the big- Hawley at the 40th all the 8,000-me- everest anniver- gest possible thing still to be ter peaks of the sary, may 1993. accomplished in Himalayan world, calls seeing Photo: Lisa Choeg- elizabeth Hawley yal Collection. mountaineering.” part of going to The expedition, launched nepal: “You don’t b Hawley and want to blow dear friend Tomaz in February, employed 900 her off.” Photo by Humar, of Slove- Jimmy Chin. nia. Humar would porters, required 29 tons of phone her the day supplies and cost $400,000 to G Hawley with Sir edmund Hillary, before leaving for stage—equivalent to $2.8 mil- Langtang Lirung, new Zealand High on which his body lion in modern money. But the commissioner to india, may 2003. was found. Photo: siege style paid off: Not only C D e Sergeja Jersin / Hu- Photo: Lisa Choeg- mar Collection. did Jim Whittaker become yal Collection. H Lydia Bradey of C Liz Hawley the first American to reach new Zealand at today, at home in the top of the world, on May 1, kathmandu. Photo: everest basecamp by Kris Erickson. but three weeks later Willi Un- in 1988. She was the first woman D oh eun-Sun of soeld and Tom Hornbein com- to climb everest South korea, who pleted the first traverse of the without oxygen, on april 27 sum- in a solo ascent mitted annapurna, mountain. After summiting that was disputed last on her list of late in the afternoon, they biv- at the time but the 14 8,000-me- which Hawley ter peaks. Photo: ouacked at 28,000 feet, guided supports with courtesy Black Yak. downwards by Lute Jerstad clarity. Photo: Lydia Bradey Collection. e edurne Pa- and Barry Bishop, who had saban of Spain atop annapurna climbed the South Col to meet “Two of them went up the West Ridge and came april 17, with only them, where all endured tem- down the normal route on the southeast ridge, the Shishapangma left to tick. She peratures of minus 20 and the south col,” she said. “Well, two other members went would challenge uncertainty of survival as the up the normal route, because the West Ridge people oh’s claim to a prior ascent of first ever to bivouac so high. didn’t know the route down. And they were supposed kangchenjunga. Bishop later lost 10 toes and to meet on the summit and they didn’t. But they got birthday, “I started meeting expeditions, all the ex- Photo: RTVE Al filo de lo imposible. Unsoeld nine to frostbite. together eventually, and they made it down.” peditions that came here, and I’ve been meeting all Upon the team’s trium- Hawley’s mountaineering interest swelled in the expeditions that came here ever since.” phant return to Kathmandu, Dyhrenfurth agreed the wake of her meeting with Dyhrenfurth. She <> <> <> to an interview with a former Fortune magazine got to know the thoughtful and questing, yet hu- researcher who recently had begun stringing for morous, Unsoeld—who lived in Kathmandu with every now and then, some of the great- Reuters, covering Nepalese affairs. Her name his family and became Peace Corps director in est alpinists in history ponder a question. What was Elizabeth Hawley. She was 39. She had never Nepal—particularly well. would we know were it not for Elizabeth Hawley? climbed a mountain in her life. “He got hepatitis after the expedition,” Hawley And then they wonder, what will happen when But Hawley—who through her dogged dissec- said, “so he was not able to go to Washington to she is no longer around? tion of Himalayan mountaineering would become be greeted by President Kennedy and receive his The climbs still would have happened—Reinhold a polarizing figure—was one of the few journalists award.