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reddirt
climber
subarwu
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 3, 2008 - 07:09am PT
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/freddie-wilkinson/false-summit-china-the-ol_b_103734.html
False Summit: China, the Olympic Torch, and the Politics of Climbing Everest
Freddie Wilkinson
Posted May 27, 2008 | 03:40 PM (EST)
This spring, the world watched as the Olympic torch made its way on an 85,000 mile journey from Athens to Beijing. The event was a PR nightmare from the start: the flame began its 130 day "Journey of Harmony" only weeks after Tibet erupted in the most violent political crackdown seen in a generation. In Paris, London, and San Francisco, the fabled flame was met with angry demonstrations over China's human right record in general and its forty-nine year old occupation of Tibet in particular. The ensuing global drama made for what must have been some awkward moments for the Chinese delegation and great evening news footage for everyone else. It's ironic then, that one of the very few locations the flame visited without incident also happens to be the most difficult to reach: the summit of Mount Everest.
The flame's ascent to the 29,028 foot apex of the world's highest mountain on May 8th was a singular triumph for the Communist Party of China's propaganda machine. Spring is the traditional season to climb Everest, and typically the mountain's northern (Tibetan) and southern (Nepali) sides swarm with an international mix of expeditions vying for the top. Would-be summiteers pay peak fees of 5,000 - 10,000 per person to each respective government for the right to climb Everest. Moreover, they are a vital source of money for the local economy, through the hiring of cooks, porters, and logistical services. This spring, however, the rules of the game changed. Citing several reasons, including "increased environmental pressures", the Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association issued a ban on all expeditions until after May 10th. The CTMA "requested" that their Nepali neighbors to the south do the same.
Poor Nepal. It's not easy being a landlocked country in Asia -- especially when you're sandwiched between two aspiring hegemons like China and India, and have to deal with the public humiliation of being the only country in the twenty-first century to undergo a communist revolution. How embarrassing. The Nepali government appeared to waffle for several weeks in March, during which time the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism made conflicting statements and as many as thirty different expeditions waited in Katmandu for a definitive decision. By early April, the Ministry of Tourism announced that it would be issuing permits for Everest, but with a few strings attached. All expedition leaders were forced to sign a document stating that "the team shall not carry and exhibit any things like flags, banners, stickers, pamphlets or any audio visual devices that may harm bilateral relationship between Nepal and China." It went on to specify that until after May 10th, all electronic equipment - satellite phones, computers, and video cameras - was to be temporarily held by the police in base camp and no climbers would be allowed beyond Camp 2 at 21,000 feet onto the upper mountain. All news reports broadcast from base camp first had to be approved by the Ministry of Tourism. To enforce these rules, a garrison of soldiers was dispatched to the mountain.
As spring progressed, rumors of censorship and escalating tension on Everest flew through the global mountaineering community: Nepali soldiers were cleared to use deadly force on any climber interfering with the torch's ascent, Chinese security guards and plain clothes policemen were flooding base camp, snipers were stationed at Camp 2. A few voices in the mountaineering community criticized the media censorship surrounding the Olympic torch's Everest climb and China's blatant meddling in Nepal. Reinhold Messner, the grandfather of modern Himalayan climbing and a former member of the EU Parliament decried the ascent as an insult to the people of Tibet. The prestigious French organization, the Groupe de Haute Montagne issued a statement calling on all mountaineers to condemn the ascent.
What's truly remarkable, however, is the degree to which Everest climbers willingly submitted to these strong arm tactics. Hardly any major expeditions voluntarily canceled their plans to climb Everest from Nepal on moral grounds, and there was virtually no talk of boycotts or organized protest in the Everest climbing community. So far there's only been a single report of a climber being arrested for civil disobedience: a twenty-six year old from Virginia was forced to leave the mountain and given a two year ban on climbing in Nepal for carrying a small flag that reportedly read: "Free Tibet / f*#k China".
The Himalayan climbing community's tacit acquiescence to the will of corrupt Asian regimes is nothing new. In 2006, a young Tibetan nun attempting to flee into Nepal was murdered by Chinese soldiers at advance base camp on nearby Cho Oyu, the eighth highest mountain in the world. Despite the fact that tens of Western climbers were on hand to witness the murder in broad daylight, it took days before the story was reported to the international media.
The changing demographics of Himalayan climbing has something to do with this appalling sort of abdication of moral responsibility. Once the domain of a few iconoclast, counter-culture adventurers, the Himalayas of today are overrun by commercial expeditions, with wealthy cliental paying a premium to be escorted all the way to the summit by a small army of high altitude Sherpas and western guides. Expedition leaders, anxious for a smooth, hassle-free climb, are highly conscious that they are obliged to cooperate with the government's demands. Today Mount Everest means big business, and few appear willing to put their livelihoods on the line for political conviction.
Others are quick to point out that the dollars they bring to the local economy are the best possible thing for the impoverished people of the region. After all, Nepal isn't hosting the Olympics and it isn't occupying Tibet, so why should it be punished for the actions of its bullying neighbor? The essential point here - engagement over isolation - parallels wider western attitudes towards the Olympics this summer. With the Games only ten weeks away, talk of boycotting the event has been largely deflected by those scheduled to compete or attend. Many athletes have publicly stated that they are against a boycott and will compete in the Games, not as any endorsement of China's policies, but as a statement that athletic excellence and global unity should transcend politics.
But this argument does little to absolve those climbing on Everest this spring of some small share of complicity in China's human rights violations, and its systematic attempts to cover up those abuses. The Olympics are a chance for global athletes to come together and compete on an even playing field regardless of their race, nationality, or background. These principles stand in rank contrast to current cost of doing business on Mount Everest, where enough money, and a willingness to sacrifice a few ideals along the way, can buy you a place at the top.
Freddie Wilkinson is a New England-based professional climber, mountain guide, and outdoor writer. He has made numerous first ascents on difficult peaks in Alaska, Patagonia, and the Himalaya. In 2007, the American Alpine Club awarded him the Robert Hicks Bates Award for outstanding accomplishment by a young climber. His writing frequently appears in the climbing media, including Climbing Magazine, Rock and Ice, Alpinist, and the American Alpine Journal.
Wilkinson lives in Madison, New Hampshire, in a 12 x 12 cabin with no running water and a "super-fast" wireless internet connection.
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Conrad
climber
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Sounds like more of a personal rant against commercial Everest climbers than anything else. On Huffington Post, none the less?
As a guide and professional climber Freddie is totally justified in hammering away at "wealthy clientle". They don't hire guides. They don't purchase equipment. They don't fund grant programs for the AAC. They are soo evil!!!
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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A question to beg here: why does any respectable, true mountaineer go to that pest hole anymore? Yes, it's the highest mountain in the world. So what. The whole enterprise has become obscene: mobs, crime, filth and a mountain climbed a few thousand times.
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jnut
climber
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Jun 18, 2008 - 08:33pm PT
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wow, rough crowd here! money really talks though, i guess. the lack of interest in protesting the torch is part of the same old story all climbers are guilty of to some extent; blindly reaching for glory (or money, depending on your role)...stepping over dying bodies, underpaying porters, keeping the eyes focused only on that summit, with no questions asked, as long as the path is clear to get there. seems worth pondering, since alpinists and mountaineers travel far more than most (and to far more underdeveloped areas of the world). no one's asking anyone to become another greg mortenson (though he is my hero), but just think about how much effort you make to stay aware and be involved in the ranges you are lucky enough to travel to. and props to freddie for getting it mainstream!
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climbrunride
Trad climber
Durango, CO
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Jun 18, 2008 - 09:58pm PT
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Hello! What about me? I'm refusing to climb Everest from the Chinese side. And I'm glad to tell that to everyone who cares...
...all three of them.
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tradmanclimbs
Ice climber
Pomfert VT
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Jun 19, 2008 - 07:20am PT
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Dude, Fix up that cabin!. I lived in a rustic cabin for 21 years. No flush toilet ( privy in the back of the woodshed) but I had gravity feed water from a spring to a sink with a hand dug drywell/septic. Just dug a big hole and filled it with crushed stone. The shower was on the outside of the house. You had to drain the pipes after every shower in the winter to keep them from freezing but it's no big deal, just solder a valve at a T junction at the low point. You can run coils arround the woodstove and put a holding take behind it for hot water.
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Doug Buchanan
Mountain climber
Fairbanks Alaska
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Jun 19, 2008 - 08:10am PT
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Let me crawl back up to the keyboard and wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes.
In the past mountain climbers were leaders among the world's freedom fighters against powerful tyrannies, inherent to the nature of human mind's challenging the perception of impossibilities.
But the old fighters form the new tyrannies, get rich and buy off the kids in their social circle, and defend against those damn kids outside the circle, challenging the new tyrannies.
What real mountain climber would accept a mutual flattery award from the disgusting American Alpine Club that supports the National Park Service tax on climbing Denali, that turns the climber's RIGHT to walk on public land, into a costly PRIVILEGE, grantable and deniable by petty government thugs, and then turns to criticize climbers who do not adequately object to that other government over there? Your answer?
Freddie is just an establishment-flattered puppet darling of the AmerAC and US climber news media, supporting their lucrative Park Service tyranny, identical to his ilk in China supporting their tyranny over common people.
The US mountain climbers were, but are no longer, the free thinkers, except for a very few denigrated by the establishment, and never allowed to invade its information fortress. That is just a normal evolution of social phenomena.
If the establishment is praising him, in any country, he is not what is claimed, a concept proven by the bare denials of the establishment always fleeing related questions.
Ask the American Alpine Club dolts if it is lawful under prevailing law for the government to demand permission or charge a tax (fee) for the exercise of a right, and why they have remained dutifully silent on the Denali climbing tax, at command of the Park Service, and laugh yourself to tears at the gullible AmerAC members.
Enjoy the show.
How did it get to be 4:15 AM? Oh well, there will be time to sleep this winter when it starts to get dark.
Doug
AlaskanAlpineClub.org
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jnut
climber
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Jun 19, 2008 - 09:45am PT
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The existence of fees for parks and the censorship and seizure of personal equipment are quite different topics I think. This general eye-turning of climbing parties once they leave on expeditions is typified in story after story of himalayan experiences. Its a social phenomenon that makes for great reporting. Does it hit too close to home though? People won't let themselves consider where their moral boundaries lie or when they will decide to stand up for other peoples' humanity? Interesting that debates on bolt chopping or other climbing related subjects stay on topic but this one veers off into personal attacks on the reporter...
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reddirt
climber
subarwu
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 19, 2008 - 10:06am PT
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Buchanan's forum farts are long & really stinky... boo!
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