Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 28
TIME AFTER TIME
After René and I made the decision to leave Alex's body on the mountain, we
reached Pokhara in two extremely long days from base camp, well ahead of our li-
aison officer. We had sworn him to secrecy. I knew I had to break the news to Jean
and Sarah. It was my last duty on this expedition. René settled in at a hotel with
some French climbers who were going on a high trek to get fit for their winter at-
tempt on Everest. René looked shattered and unhappy, but he would be joining
them. I gave him my winter sleeping bag knowing he would need it, and said good-
bye. It was the last time I saw him.
I took an overnight bus to Kathmandu and spent most of the night desperately
rehearsing what I would say when I got through. I went straight to the British em-
bassy when I arrived, expecting to be able to use their phone for this awful emer-
gency. I was stunned by the reception I received. The first secretary told me that if
we were stupid enough to get one of our friends killed in the mountains, it was no
fault of theirs and they had no duty of care. The only thing of value he told me was
that we had done the right thing to leave the body on the mountain since there was
no facility to repatriate bodies from Nepal. With that, I was told to use the interna-
tional phone service at the post office. It was the only way to communicate with
the outside world. Twice that day I booked a call to Jean and twice the phone sys-
tem failed during my allotted time. I returned to the embassy to plead for help,
and was told that unless I could contact Jean immediately, they would be forced to
contact her through the police. I managed one more attempt next morning, which
also failed. The embassy then sent the details to London and the first Jean
MacIntyre knew of the death of her son was when a local bobby knocked on her
door.
Dennis Gray was in town as part of a UIAA gathering, and he and Mike Cheney
tried to console me, but I went into a state of total depression waiting for my flight
home, knowing how Jean, Sarah and Libby had received the news. A week after I
got home, I wrote to the first secretary at the British embassy in Kathmandu en-
closing the full-page obituary about Alex that appeared in
The Times
. I asked if
anyone in the embassy expected to get such a glowing tribute when their time
came. I never received a reply.
