Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a pay cheque? Which of us was tempting fate? Was I jealous? Voytek, Alex and
René had made their ascent of Dhaulagiri and so far this year I'd done nothing but
work and help Al Rouse with food and finance for Everest that winter. Now
Everest was in doubt as we were far short of the minimum budget needed. Was
this 'coming out' of ambition in Alex to be admired or feared? His friends, and per-
haps me more than anyone, believed that Alex had already achieved the status he
sought. But the respect of friends was no longer enough for him. He had crossed a
divide; he had not only joined the professionals, he was pushing through the ranks
to a higher level.
The only way to get there and to stay there was to continuously climb at the
highest standards. You were only as good as your last climb. His future decisions
on where to go and who to climb with would, from now on, be shaped and directed
by different factors than just friends and whims. He was mapping out the faces in
the Himalaya as he had mapped out the last great problems in the Alps. It's no co-
incidence that he left the BMC during this period of change.
At the end of October, we got a last-minute break with finance for Everest. New
Era homeopathic medicines came up with £2,500. Our total budget for eight on
Everest for three months was a staggering £12,000.
I phoned Alex to let him know.
'Hey kid, I'm off. Look after yourself. What are your plans for next spring?'
'Makalu's west face with Voytek and Kukuczka pre-monsoon.' Again, I felt a wave
of trepidation mixed with jealousy; this was something big and different. But I was
off in a week's time and had my own worries and preparations to make.
Alex went to Makalu twice in 1981 with Voytek. The attempts were unsuccessful
in terms of climbing, but they provided Alex with additional knowledge that
helped shape his tactics during the final year of his life. Alex described their object-
ive, the massive unclimbed face left of the French Pillar, as a bit like the Eigerwand
but a grade harder than Bandaka in difficulty and higher. The pre-monsoon trip
was a bit of a non-event. Just getting to the face was a major trudge over long mo-
raines and not at elevations high enough to help them to fully acclimatise. After a
couple of sorties to 7,000 metres, bad weather forced a close of play.
The post-monsoon trip with Voytek and Jerzy Kukuczka might just have suc-
ceeded but it failed because of some fundamental weaknesses in the lightweight
approach. It proved to be a far harder climb than the ascent of Dhaulagiri the pre-
vious year. When they reached the difficult climbing near the top of the face, they
did not have enough equipment or food for the additional three or four days it
might have taken.
