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had the south face of Dhaulagiri as a possible target, but dismissed it as too dan-
gerous. Tomaz Humar, far fitter and faster than Alex could ever have been, took it
on solo despite the known dangers.
What if all of those faces had been climbed by the time Alex was born? I believe
that the love of climbing still rules both head and heart in some individuals, Alex
among them, and that enables all other considerations to be blocked out when the
moment comes. Alex belonged to the mountains even if the mountains did not be-
long to him.
The 1982 interview between Alex and Ken Wilson in
Mountain
finishes with the
familiar 'why do it?' discussion. And so, as was often the case throughout the time
I knew Alex, I will let him have the last word.
Ken:
Given that climbing in general is good fun, physically challenging, spiritu-
ally uplifting, cliché, cliché, what is the real pay-off? Is it the competitive instinct,
not only that the mountains themselves throw down a challenge but also that in
succeeding on them, you gain recognition from your peers?
Alex:
I am competitive in that I am always watching other people and trying to
learn from them, but I do not think people do this sort of thing just for public ac-
claim. Basically, I just enjoy climbing big alpine and Himalayan faces. It is
something hard that I can do well. I like the whole environment, the going away,
the coming back, the contrasts and the constant change from expeditions to civil-
isation.
Ken:
But isn't that putting it too simply? Isn't it true that Western civilisation has
given these peaks some quantum of prestige? A whole environment of value has
developed around them and without your 'civilisation' to return to, to cash in one's
chips so to speak, the activity would have less meaning. Obviously climbing moun-
tains has a basic pull, but would people go back time and time again to do harder
and more dangerous things if these things didn't have some value in terms of
prestige?
Alex:
I think I would carry on climbing regardless … If I saw a picture of a big
nasty face in deepest Xinjiang or Siberia, and I thought I could sneak in and climb
it and never tell anyone, I would be off in a flash.
Ken:
Because it's there?
Alex:
What else?
1. On 6 August 1995 Paul Nunn and Geoff Tier were descending from the summit of Haromosh II (6,666 metres), in the Karakoram, when they
were overwhelmed by a massive serac collapse and buried.
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