Équipe Journal 4
Ambition, Folly and Luck on Nanga Parbat’s Rupal Face
Lately, it seems like I start a small project that grows and spreads until it’s finally as big as it needs to be. Or maybe I just need an editor. There’s an idea swirling, something big enough that I unconsciously resist it because I know how difficult it will be to execute. I hesitate to start the journey such a project will require. Rather, I don’t want to admit I’ve already taken some first steps, test-driven the memories, examined a few stories to see how rosy my glasses are, and brutally dissected others, and myself.
One climbing story is so big that my compressed, two-minute punk rock version of it was just that, and demanded much of a reader. It’s where I was at the time and marks that. Two versions of it have been published, and I’ll claim the definitive edit is in “Kiss or Kill - Confessions of a Serial Climber”. My spoken word version of it at the Banff Mountain Film Festival in 1995 was the apogee of my telling; vital, comedic, entertaining, deadly serious, and something I could not put into writing. I am grateful there is an audio record of it, and even a grainy, handheld Hi-8 video tape that I’ve never watched or digitized. I should probably do something with that someday.
Barry told the big story in his first book, “The Calling”. He started the book with it and tells it well. It is gripping, he draws the reader in to the rest of his wild origin story, and hooks them with a rich and enriching memoir. I’ve wanted to write a longer version from my perspective but found it daunting enough to procrastinate. Scanning and cleaning the slides I shot on the climb 38 years ago gave me the idea to tell my story by using those images and long captions. What I thought could be done in 36 pages ballooned to 76 and had kept me occupied for some time. The sheer quantity of good, worth-a-thousand-words images relegates this project to digital presentation because print costs would be insane.
The time and emotional cost of building this PDF also means I’ll only give it away to Founding Members and then offer it for sale on my website where $17 will get you a digital zine suitable for viewing on a desktop screen or tablet but a phone won’t do it justice. I’ve posted a few pages below as teasers.
Buy the PDF here.
Looking forward to reading this and looking at your amazing pictures. It’s one thing to survive an epic, it’s another level to take pictures during the epic.
As my old skiing and climbing partner always said, ALL the time; “It’s better to be lucky than good”. I never really thought about that phrase much until I got lucky on a couple ski descents.
I have vivid memories of the letter you sent to me right after coming off the face. I think I still know where it is if you ever need a copy.
Your writing was visceral and in the moment as you had just gotten down, I could virtually tell the story right now.