On June 5, Jack Kuenzle, a 27-year-old former Navy SEAL, set a new fastest known time (FKT) on Alaska’s 20,310-foot Denali, going airstrip to airstrip in a stout ten hours and 14 minutes. His effort bested the existing FKT held by Swiss-Ecuadorian climber Karl Egloff by an hour and a half. Kuenzle has been steadily picking off FKTs on popular snowy peaks in the lower 48 over the last year: Hood (1:31:31), Rainier (3:04:31), and Shasta (2:30:48). This year, he set his sights听on Denali.

鈥淚t鈥檚 Denali, it鈥檚 the highest peak in the U.S., it鈥檚 ultra-prominent, and it鈥檚 skied a lot from the summit,鈥� said Kuenzle, while hiding from a thunderstorm in the bathrooms at Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado, after finishing a run on Green Mountain, a week after he set the record. 鈥淗aving a competitive record was also a really big motivation鈥t鈥檚 a couple steps up from what I鈥檇 been doing.鈥� To Kuenzle, due to the peak鈥檚 scale and high altitude, Denali felt like much more of an alpinism record and made his other records听look more like 鈥�skimo racing in a resort.鈥�

The Seven Summits, the highest peak on every continent, each have their own individual challenges and require different skills, but they do share one element that sets them apart from most other objectives鈥攈igh altitude. The shortest peak is Puncak Jaya/Carstensz Pyramid at 16,023 feet. (We鈥檙e including both 7,310-foot听Kosciuszko and Puncak Jaya on this list because both count for Seven Summits records, but the latter has emerged as the consensus summit as it鈥檚 the highest peak on the continent of Oceania while the former is the highest on mainland Australia).

A few athletes best known for trail running are now concentrating on making bids for speed records across all Seven Summits, like Tyler Andrews and Fernanda Maciel. Kuenzle, who on trails before getting bored and deciding to develop his skills on more technical, mountainous terrain, says he has no interest in attempting FKTs on any of the other Seven Summits after Denali. Nor is he planning to defend his new Denali record. 鈥淚 just don’t know if I’ll ever get that lucky on weather again,鈥� he said on the phone.

As far as FKTs go, the variability of conditions and other factors often make the records difficult to compare cleanly. Kuenzle would rate his weather as a 10/10. He basically wore the same outfit the entire time (tights and a sun hoody), which is indicative of how favorable conditions were. On , Kuenzle wrote that while his effort was 90 minutes faster than Kilian Jornet鈥檚, he is 鈥渋n no way 90 minutes faster than him on this terrain.鈥� Given all of these variables, says Kuenzle, it鈥檚 important that style between attempts is matched. Meaning things like whether an effort is unsupported (no outside help) or supported (help allowed), but mainly that the location of the start and finish are the same. On Denali, the airstrip structures at basecamp move every year, which is why Egloff, Jornet,听and Kuenzle all started in slightly different spots. Additionally, while Jornet and Kuenzle attempted the record in the same style and both used skis, Egloff听employed a different style and did the whole thing on foot.

The website FastestKnownTimes.com (owned by 国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 parent company 国产吃瓜黑料 Inc.) verifies and chronicles FKT attempts in the U.S. and many around the world. The most popular ones (including California鈥檚 211-mile听John Muir Trail and the 42- or 48-mile听Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim route in the Grand Canyon) are running/hiking paths on well-marked dirt trails, but many of the routes on the Seven Summits are far more difficult or have unique challenges that set them apart and require specific skills.

Below, we break down the FKTs on these peaks as they stand and dig into the challenges each one poses. While most of these FKTs were done on foot, a few of them were done on touring skis鈥攍ike Denali and Elbrus. Over the years, as gear gets better and lighter and streamlined tactics continue to be honed, it鈥檚 likely that the times will continue to get faster. 鈥淭he worst case scenario is 50 years from now, all these records still stand because nobody ever attempted them again,鈥� says Kuenzle.

Denali

Continent: North America

Height: 20,310

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length: 21 days

Route: West Buttress

FKTs: Jack Kuenzle (); Katie Bono ()

Kuenzle, who cut his FKT teeth on gnarly long-distance routes like the 66-mile Bob Graham Round in the UK (beating Kilian Jornet鈥檚 time by just shy of 30 minutes), had never climbed Denali before. On the day of his record attempt this year, the highest he鈥檇 been on the peak was 17,000 feet. While guided parties climb the mountain on foot, Kuenzle鈥檚 attempt was on skis. Kuenzle took Karl Egloff鈥檚 2019 record, and Egloff had bested Jornet鈥檚 2014 record by only four minutes. Katie Bono, the female record-holder, set her FKT in June 2017.

That鈥檚 not to say that Denali isn鈥檛 a huge challenge. It鈥檚 a serious peak that has fatalities every year from its various hazards: crevasses, high altitude, icy conditions, and severe weather. Guided parties typically spend at least two weeks on the peak dragging heavy sleds, ferrying loads, acclimatizing, and waiting for a weather window. 鈥淚t鈥檚 intimidating. The terrain is just so huge,鈥� says Kuenzle, adding that given the breadth of the route (spanning 33.61 miles round trip from around 7,000 feet to over 20,000 feet), it鈥檚 almost a given that you鈥檒l encounter challenging conditions somewhere on the route.

Everest

Continent: Asia

Height: 29,035 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length: 65 days

Route: South side ascent (Base Camp to summit)

FKT: Lakpa Gelu Sherpa (10h 56m); Ada Tsang Yin-Hung (25h 50m)

Everest is the world鈥檚 highest peak and the only summit that requires spending time in the so-called 鈥渄eath zone,鈥� or above 26,000 feet where the oxygen level is too low to sustain human life (climbers typically try to minimize the time spent above that altitude). Everest is also tall enough to contend with the jet stream, which means that the top of the peak can be subject to winds as high as 70 miles per hour.

Lakpa Gelu Sherpa holds the record for the fastest ascent of Everest, with a time of 10 hours and 56 minutes, climbing from Base Camp to the summit via the South side in Nepal on May 25, 2003. In 2004, Pemba Dorje Sherpa claimed that he completed the same route in 8 hours and 10 minutes鈥攅arning a Guinness World Record title that stood for 13 years. But Lakpa Gelu challenged the veracity of Pemba Dorje鈥檚 claim, and ultimately a Nepalese court sided with Lakpa Gelu. Pemba Dorje was stripped of his record and Lakpa Gelu鈥檚 speed record is now acknowledged as the FKT on the mountain鈥檚 South side. Ada Tsang Yin-Hung notched the women鈥檚 FKT on this route in May 2021.

Kilian Jornet holds the record on the North side, which is accessed via China and sometimes poses bureaucratic hurdles. On May 22, 2017, he went up the North Face from Base Camp without fixed ropes or supplemental oxygen (both of which Lakpa Gelu and Pemba Dorje used), and then returned to Advanced Base Camp in 26 hours, setting an FKT on a route that previously had no speed record. 听There鈥檚 been some dispute over Jornet鈥檚 feat, however, due to what some call inadequate verification.

Aconcagua

Continent: South America

Height: 22,841 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length: 21 days

Route: Most have been on the route from the Horcones trailhead to the summit and back

FKT: Tyler Andrews (11h 24m 46s); Dani Sandoval (20h 17m 0s)

Aconcagua is not a technical summit, but its high altitude and frequent harsh weather make it a difficult undertaking. The climb is pretty straightforward, but it鈥檚 not a gimme. There鈥檚 no guarantee that commercial parties, who spend a few weeks on the mountain, will get a weather window. It is often cold, dusty and windy, but you could also get snow.

Tyler Andrews set his FKT this February, breaking Karl Egloff鈥檚 record by about 27 minutes. Dani Sandoval set hers in January 2018.

Kilimanjaro

Continent: Africa

Height: 19,340 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length: 15 days

Route: Any round trip

FKT: Tyler Andrews (6h 37m 57s); Fernanda Maciel (10h 6m 0s)

Kilimanjaro, a non-technical climb with a slightly lower elevation, is often considered the easiest of the Seven Summits. requires athletes to run a little over a听marathon (26.4 miles) with almost 14,000 feet of elevation gain at altitude, but one of the biggest hurdles is logistical. Climbers have to have a local guide and a permit to climb. When Tyler Andrews set the FKT in March he wrote about a 鈥渂ureaucratic nightmare鈥� with his guiding company that required him to leave the park and re-enter it, which 鈥渘early cost us the opportunity to even attempt this record.鈥�

Female FKT-holder Fernanda Maciel set her record in September 2017.

Elbrus

Continent: Europe

Height: 18,510 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length:听 14 days

Route: Round trip from Azau Valley

FKT: Karl Egloff ()

Elbrus is a snow-covered peak that鈥檚 moderately technical. The route is about 15 miles with almost 11,000 feet of elevation gain. Egloff set his record while he was racing the Elbrus Skymarathon, in which 500 athletes run to the summit of the peak and back every year, in May 2017.

Vinson

Continent: Antarctica

Height: 16,050 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length: 20 days

Route: Round trip from base camp to the summit and back via the Branscomb Shoulder

FKT: Fernanda Maciel ()

Of the Seven Summits, Vinson is the most remote. Getting to Antarctica typically requires flying to Punta Arenas, Chile, and then taking another weather-dependent flight to the snowy runway at Union Glacier. Vinson is not particularly tall, but it鈥檚 snowy and steep in places, and requires crampons, an ice axe, and roped travel. One of the most difficult parts of the climb is contending with the extreme cold (as chilly as negative forty degrees) and harsh weather conditions on the continent. Self-care is crucial as errors, like exposing bare skin for too long (or at all), can result in frostbite.

Fernanda Maciel set her FKT, the only known speed record on Vinson, in December 2022.

Carstensz Pyramid (Punta Jaya)

Continent: Oceania

Height: 16,023 feet

Average Guided Commercial Trip Length:听 11 days

FKT: none

Carstensz Pyramid, on the south coast of New Guinea in Indonesia, is a high-altitude rock climb and the most technical of all the summits. It entails scrambling, fifth class rock climbing up to 5.6, an airy Tyrolean traverse, and a series of rappels to descend. In addition to the physical difficulties, there are other challenges that have nothing to do with climbing. There鈥檚 the fickle equatorial weather to deal with, and political and bureaucratic problems. When he climbed it, mountaineer Alan Arnette wrote that he heard of climbers being 鈥渟tranded at remote airports, porters abandoning teams, malaria and more.鈥� We haven鈥檛 found any records of the FKT on this peak. (Note: if you have this record, please reach out and we will update this piece.)

Kosciuszko

Continent: Oceania

Height: 7,310 feet

Done Easily Without Guides

FKT: Ben Plunkett (10h 55m 42s)

We鈥檙e including Kosciuszko because it鈥檚 traditionally been counted as one of the Seven Summits鈥攊t鈥檚 the highest peak on mainland Australia鈥攖hough mountaineers are increasingly considering Carstensz Pyramid as the true highest point on the continent of Oceania. Kosciuszko only takes four to five听hours to hike on an easy-to-follow path. On the main route you can take a 15-minute chairlift to get to the start of the climb. On the other side, hikers can follow an old road that goes almost all the way to the summit. The FKT we have listed here is actually for 15 peaks in the area (Kosciusko was the 11th peak on the attempt) so we include it given the absence of a straight Kosciuszko FKT. (Note: if you have this record, please reach out and we will update this piece.)

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Two Everest climbers died high on the mountain during their summit bids yesterday.听Over 50 other climbers summited successfully the same听day.

Both climbers were being guided by Seven Summits Treks, whose cofounder 听posted about the deaths on social media.听, 41, of Switzerland, died听near the 28,500-foot听South Summit.听鈥淢r. Abdul successfully reached the summit but began experiencing issues during his descent. We sent two additional Sherpas with oxygen and foods, unfortunately Sherpas couldn鈥檛 save him,鈥� wrote听Dawa Sherpa. Although Dawa Sherpa attributed the death to general exhaustion, the exact听cause is unclear. However, altitude sickness is a common cause of death on the mountain.听Waraich had previously climbed six of the Seven Summits, and the听Everest climb marked his seventh. He worked as a consultant for Swisscom in Zurich.

The second climber, Pakistani-American Puwei Liu, 55, reached the Hillary Step at 28,800 feet before suffering exhaustion and snow blindness, a condition in which a person loses much of their vision in the bright snow. Sherpas were able to guide him to the South Col at 26,300 feet, where he died. Liu had summited Nepal鈥檚 26,759-foot听Manaslu in 2017 and China鈥檚 24,757-foot Muztagh Ata听in 2016.

Seven Summits Treks intends to retrieve both corpses听as conditions allow. It usually takes five to ten Sherpas to bring a body down from those altitudes. Since 2000, an average of almost four people have died each year on the Nepal side of the world鈥檚 highest peak. The weather was excellent on May 11 and 12, when over 100 climbers听summited.

Nepal issued a record 408 climbing permits to foreigners for the spring 2021 season after being closed last year due to the pandemic. COVID has impacted multiple teams at Base Camp, with over 30 people evacuated to Kathmandu with symptoms.听There have been no reported deaths related to the virus in the Everest climbing community.听

Low winds and clear skies this week have allowed more than听150 foreigners and Sherpas to summit safely. There were no summits today.听Strong winds are expected to return to the mountain for the next ten days, stopping all progress.

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Colorado-based mountaineer听听first summited one of the Seven Summits, Tanzania鈥檚听Kilimanjaro, as a man in 2011. In 2016, she came out publicly as a woman and has since challenged herself to become听the first transgender mountaineer to complete all of them. Transending, from ,听with support from , provides a glimpse into how she鈥檚 preparing for that feat.

The post Erin Parisi’s Historic Seven Summits Bid appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

鈥淪mile,鈥� the doctor said.

One half of Henry Horvath鈥檚 face obeyed, but the other remained motionless. A red flag. Paul Tirrell, a doctor of 33 years, continued to assess the 13-year-old. Hours before, the teen had been Tirrell鈥檚听climbing partner,听but now he was his patient. Henry鈥檚 father, Tim Horvath, looked on as winds whipped the frame of their yellow expedition tent perched at 18,000 feet on the north-facing slope of , in Argentina. It was February 2019, and the team was two days away from its听planned summit bid on the highest point in South America when everything changed.

The Horvaths are longtime family friends of mine, and I had joined them on this expedition.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 her name?鈥� Tirrell said, pointing at me.

鈥淕a-ma, Ba-ra,鈥� Henry garbled. He looked down at his sleeping bag and tried again, unsuccessfully, producing another mouthful of word salad. I put my hand on Henry鈥檚 back. He knew my name.

Tim sat near the entrance of the tent cradling a radio in his hands. His face was ashen, lost in a thousand-yard stare. An active mountaineer in the 1990s and early 2000s, with ascents of Mount Everest, Denali, and Kanchenjunga, Tim knew what peril looked like at high altitude. In 1996, he descended Lhotse during the notorious storm that killed eight on Everest, chronicled by Jon Krakauer鈥檚 .听

He knew the risks of bringing his young son on a high-mountain expedition. He also knew the rewards. That was why he chose Aconcagua. Tim knew the mountain well, having guided three previous expeditions here. The so-called Colossus of South America听tops out听at 22,840听feet above sea level. It is not a highly technical mountain, if you follow听the standard route, and the objective dangers are low. The major challenge is the altitude. Even though Henry was a teenager with a developing brain, it had not occurred to us that he might be at听a higher risk to develop altitude-related illnesses.

鈥淐lose your eyes,鈥� Tirrell said.

鈥淚 can鈥檛,鈥� Henry stammered. His brown eyes bulged, alarmed that he couldn鈥檛 complete the task. Even with rest and hydration, Henry鈥檚 condition was worsening. Tim pushed his six-foot frame from the ground pad to a squatting position.

鈥淚鈥檓 calling in the copter,鈥� he said听and left the tent.

Tirrell dug into his medical kit and gave Henry doses of two drugs, Diamox and dexamethasone. The former helps听acclimatize听climbers by听raising the blood鈥檚 pH and increasing the body鈥檚 ventilation drive, while the latter is a steroid that reduces inflammation and intracranial pressure. If Henry was experiencing a severe migraine, stroke, or high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), medicine could only do so much at 18,000 feet. It was critical for Henry to descend.

Al Mason, a leader with a British-army expedition that was on the peak who had strong Spanish-language skills, assisted Tim with his radio call to base camp. Meanwhile, Henry struggled to move and get dressed, so I helped his arms into his puffy jacket, his hands into mittens, added a hat, and guided his feet into a pair of boots that his father had worn on Everest. Tim returned to the tent, leaned down, and pulled Henry鈥檚 lanky teenage frame to a standing position. He propped his son against his shoulder and descended toward听the helicopter pad just as alpine glow struck the jagged summits. The thudding helicopter approached听but听couldn鈥檛 land due to听poor weather conditions. The only option was to get Henry down on听foot. I began gathering his things. Tim, with help from the army team,听began slowly helping Henry down the steep, rocky terrain, steadying him between two sets of shoulders at all times.听

Six hours and a mile of elevation loss later, Henry arrived at base camp, where he was given supplemental oxygen and another dose of medication. He could speak, and his coordination improved. With the first rays of dawn, the helicopter returned, taking Henry for further treatment in Mendoza, Argentina. Word of his rescue spread quickly, and reporters came to his hotel after the hospital discharged him. After the brief moment of fame came a longer conversation around minors climbing Aconcagua.

The permit age to climb Aconcagua is 14. So why was Henry, who was three three months shy of his fourteenth birthday, allowed to climb? Two reasons. He was almost fourteen and had an impressive mountain r茅sum茅:听at seven, he鈥檇听completed a 50-mile backpacking trip in Wyoming鈥檚 Wind River Range; at 12, he climbed the South, Middle and Grand Tetons; at 13, he finished听205 miles of the John Muir Trail in 11 days, quite literally running up Mount Whitney at the end. He also had high-altitude experience, having climbed Ecuador鈥檚 15,354-foot Pichincha听volcano.

Still, it鈥檚 easy for the general public to jump to conclusions when a minor is plucked off one of the Seven Summits: they were simply too young to be there.

But is that a fair听assumption? Is there something about being younger that makes you physically less capable of tolerating higher altitudes?听

In the modern age of mountaineering, ascent times are getting faster and climbers are younger.听Jordan Romero made headlines in May听2010听when, at age 13, he reached the summit of Everest. Then, in December听2011, at only 15, he completed the Seven Summits, finishing with16,067-foot听Vinson Massif, in Antarctica, that year. The record for the youngest ascent of Aconcagua belongs to a fellow American, Tyler Armstrong, who reached the peak听on Christmas Eve in 2013, when he was nine.听听

Even though Romero and Armstrong summited Aconcagua, along with other high-altitude mountains, without issue, some experts have suggested听that a developing brain and body may be more susceptible to altitude-related illnesses.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a question that comes up a lot,鈥� said Dr. Peter Hackett, , in听Telluride, Colorado. 鈥淧eople want to take their kids to Everest Base Camp or Kilimanjaro, and nobody knows what to tell them. The problem is that there鈥檚 not much information on kids.鈥�

Therein lies the challenge. When it comes to scientific altitude studies, a relatively new field, there鈥檚 only a small pool of case studies available.

Back in 2001, Hackett and more than听a dozen colleagues听issued a consensus statement on children at altitude. It recommended that children follow the same acclimatizing principles as adults: a slow graded ascent rate in which climbers ascend听no more than 984 feet per day above 8,200 feet, and a rest day for every 3,280 feet of elevation gain, both听key to preventing听altitude-related illnesses.

Tim used this formula to plan his team鈥檚 itinerary on Aconcagua.听When I later asked him if he would have done anything differently, he reflected听on the above-average pace of his team and said, 鈥淚 would have slowed people down more.鈥�

When a symptom of altitude sickness comes on, such as headache, nausea, or vomiting, generally rest, descent, or medication can correct the situation. But a climber has to report their symptoms immediately. Usually, children over the age of eight have reached the developmental level necessary to communicate altitude-illness symptoms. And in some cases, children are even stronger reporters than adults. A good number of altitude causalities occur听with听fit, healthy adults on a fixed group itinerary who withhold vocalizing symptoms.

But even if there鈥檚 not a known correlation between youth听and a heightened risk of altitude illnesses,听climbing high poses inherent risks for anyone. This leaves parents and guides facing a big question:听Are the risks worth the rewards for younger climbers?

Even Tim Horvath debates the issue.

鈥淚n every category, Henry was ready to do that mountain, and some things you can鈥檛 know until you go up,鈥� he says. On Aconcagua, Tim knew the altitude was a risk but believed he could听get any of his team members down the mountain听if necessary. 鈥淚t could鈥檝e happened to anyone,鈥� he added.

Still, Tim can鈥檛 forget the听worst moment, when Henry could not close his eyes.

鈥淚 remember thinking that if something happens to him, it will ruin the rest of my life,鈥澨齢e said. 鈥淪omething I enjoy so much doing with him could kill him.鈥�

Three months later, the family was听home in central New York, where the grass was greening. For the Horvaths, Aconcagua was a distant yet powerful memory. Elizabeth Horvath, Henry鈥檚 mother, remembered听when she got the call.

鈥淢y heart dropped, I went cold, I sat down,鈥� she said. She was shocked听but not angry. 鈥淚 never thought a 13-year-old shouldn鈥檛 be on the mountain,鈥� she said.

The fact that Henry has听been taking trips in the mountains since a young age is perhaps听a big reason he鈥檚 such an听impressive kid with a solid sense of himself.听Back with his eighth-grade class, he was听going to school dances, acing tests, and training hard for track season. He just watched The Dawn Wall and is itching to get out on some rock routes in the Shawangunks.

When asked if he would return to Aconcagua, he paused.

鈥淚 would.鈥�

And I would go back with him.

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On April 23, 2019, Wui Kin Chin and Nima Tshering Sherpa stood on top of Nepal鈥檚 Annapurna, the deadliest 8,000-meter peak in the world.

It was 4:40 in the afternoon, late in the day for a summit, and the sun was getting low on the horizon. Still, 30 other climbers accompanied the men on top of the 26,545-foot peak, 17 of whom were Sherpas hired by Seven Summits Treks, a Nepal-based guiding outfit.

The 32 climbers were not part of a unified team under a single leader, which is the usual approach on bigger budget commercial expeditions to popular mountains like Everest. Instead, the climbers had joined a single permit to share the overhead costs and expenses like base-camp cooks and fixed ropes. It鈥檚 a common tactic on the less frequently visited 8,000-meter peaks.

On this trip, Seven Summits treks had done the organizing, paired most of the climbers with a Sherpa, and then鈥攍argely鈥攍eft them to their own devices. Chin had specifically requested that the outfitter hire the 31-year-old Nima to guide him up the mountain based on recommendations he鈥檇 gotten from other climbers.

A bespectacled anesthesiologist from Malaysia, Chin was a careful and meticulous man. Before taking on Annapurna, the 49-year-old had climbed all of the seven summits and 26,759-foot Manaslu, and run 41 marathons. But Chin climbed slowly to the top, and on the way down he began to lag further and further behind the rest of the climbers who鈥檇 made the summit. After descending about 2,000 feet, he ran out of supplemental oxygen. He looked lethargic, his steps becoming uneven. Finally he sat down in听the snow and told his guide that he couldn鈥檛 go on. Nima鈥檚 English isn't听great, and the two men had difficulty communicating. But it was clear that Chin was in serious trouble. Nima gave his client the rest of his own oxygen, and took off to get help at the next camp, about 1,300 feet听below.

Chin settled in for what he hoped would be a short wait.

Though Chin had paid Seven Summits Treks to guide him up the mountain, he had also purchased a membership with , a New Hampshire-based company that provides emergency medical evacuations,听to get him out of any life threatening situation he might encounter. (Full disclosure: I鈥檓 a Global Rescue member.)

Both companies tell different stories about what happened after Nima staggered into Camp 4, at 23,300 feet, a little after midnight. He had fallen and hurt his back on the听descent to the camp and had taken much longer to get to there than he鈥檇 hoped. He听relayed information about Chin鈥檚 condition down to his boss, Dawa Sherpa, at Base Camp.

Dawa is one of three brothers who founded Seven Summits Treks and currently serves as the outfit鈥檚 director. Dawa says he called Global Rescue, gave them Chin鈥檚 GPS coordinates, and asked for听helicopter assistance.

But Dan Richards, the CEO of Global Rescue, says that his response team was not told precisely where Chin was and that, as far as they knew, his exact location was unknown. (Strangely, Mingma Sherpa, Dawa鈥檚 brother and chairman of Seven Summit Treks, told the , that听鈥渨e will conduct an aerial search to locate the missing climber.鈥�)

Lacking a location, Global Rescue considered the operation a search, not a rescue. It鈥檚 an important distinction. Global Rescue calls themselves a 鈥渕embership鈥� company and facilitates extractions of their members due to health issues, natural disaster, national conflicts, and plane crashes, among other events. One thing the company does not do is participate in search attempts, presumably because they can be open-ended and cost large sums of money. A clause in every member鈥檚 contract states (emphasis mine):

鈥淔ield Rescue鈥� 鈥� The transport of a Traveling Member by ground, air, or sea to a hospital, clinic or other medical provider capable of providing care to a Traveling Member whose condition requires Hospitalization or is likely to cause serious permanent injury or death, but they are unable to get to a hospital. Field Rescue does not include any activities related to search and the Traveling Member鈥檚 location must be known.

If Chin was missing, it would be up to someone else鈥擲even Summits Treks or, say, the government鈥攖o find him before Global Rescue could begin a rescue.

Nevertheless, Global Rescue immediately initiated the same procedure they had fine-tuned over hundreds of Himalayan emergencies and reached out to all of their contracted helicopter companies in the country.听Seven Summits Treks had asked Global Rescue to drop six oxygen cylinders at Camp 4 so they could use it to reach Chin, give him oxygen, and bring him down. But if Chin was somewhere around 24,600 feet, he was much too high for the operational flight limits of most helicopters, which top out at 23,000 feet.

Critical information about Chin鈥檚 location and who was going to go get him appears to have been either miscommunicated or ignored.听Dawa says that over 30 phone calls were exchanged between the two companies but that 鈥淚t took almost 24 hours [for Global Rescue] to confirm that they are not helping us.鈥澨鼿e听went on to suggest that his company would have taken charge of the rescue using their resources if Global Rescue had immediately said they couldn鈥檛 help. Global Rescue, meanwhile, says that they immediately told Seven Summits Treks that they could not help until Chin's exact location was known.

High on the mountain, Chin鈥檚 condition was getting worse.

Seven Summits Treks contacted Chin鈥檚 wife, Thanaporn Lorchirachoonkul, to let her know what was happening. Richards says that Global Rescue also called Lorchirachoonkul, who was in Singapore, to discuss a ground search operation.

Meanwhile, Seven Summits Treks and听Lorchirachoonkul听reached out to听Simrik Air, a Nepalese听helicopter company. After Lorchirachoonkul guaranteed to cover the $40,000 cost of a search and rescue, Simrik Air sent a helicopter to Annapurna to look for Chin, with the understanding that the search would be conducted at an altitude that would prevent landing, should Chin be found.

On April 25th, more than 40 hours after Nima left Chin alone on the mountain, Simrik Air鈥檚 pilot flew to where the climber was last seen and spotted him. Incredibly, he was waving at the helicopter.

鈥淏ut it was too difficult to rescue him from over 7,000 meters,鈥� the pilot told the Spanish听wire service Agencia EFE. 鈥淲e then flew four Sherpas to an altitude of 6,500 that day.鈥�

The four Sherpas听climbed to Camp 4 at 23,300 feet in 90 minutes, then on to Chin. It had snowed more than 30 inches and he was in bad shape. The Sherpas put him in a sled and pulled him down to Camp 3 where he was flown to Base Camp and then on Mediciti hospital in Kathmandu.

Chin was in critical condition. Two nights exposed to temperatures that dipped to -32 Fahrenheit had left his feet and hands frostbitten and he had severe respiratory problems.

On April 27, Global Rescue arranged an air-ambulance to fly him to Singapore. He died five days later in the National University Hospital.

There is a serious conflict in Nepal between evacuation companies like Global Rescue and many guides, hospitals, and helicopter companies. Tensions have been running high since听June 2018, when Agence France-Presse of a massive insurance fraud scam across the country. The AFP report claimed that some trekking outfits and helicopter companies were 鈥渕aking multiple claims for a single chopper ride or pushing trekkers to accept airlifts for minor illnesses鈥�

In the aftermath, an investigative committee looked into, , 鈥�10 helicopter companies, six hospitals and 36 travel, trekking, and rescue agencies following complaints filed by tourism entrepreneurs.鈥� The committee then听submitted a report to Nepalese Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari that urged the government to further investigate 15 of those companies (the names of the companies were not disclosed). In one of the most striking anecdotes in the report, trekking companies were said to be听purposefully tainting food with baking soda鈥攁 laxative鈥攕o that trekkers would get sick and need evacuation.听听

Global Rescue works with any company in Nepal that one of their members has hired. But Richards told me they preferred not to work with Seven Summits Treks, due to what they see as a lack of transparency with helicopter maintenance and听pilot training, and the overall difficulty of working with them on previous rescues.

鈥淲e will be issuing an advisory to our climbing members regarding SST,鈥� says Celia Chase, Global Rescue鈥檚 vice president of marketing.听鈥淭his will be the first time we鈥檝e ever done this regarding any operator in our 15-year history.鈥�

Seven Summits Treks is similarly incensed. 鈥淚 do not want to say GR is not good,鈥� Dawa Sherpa says, 鈥渂ut this kind of policy, confusion, and terms can put others life in danger! We cannot understand the purpose of the insurance Dr. Chin bought.鈥�

The two companies have, however, since worked together on , this time on 28,169-foot Kangchenjunga.

听

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On May 15, Kami Rita Sherpa led an Indian team to the听29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest. It was听his听23rd ascent of the world鈥檚 highest mountain鈥攁 record鈥攁nd solidified the 49-year-old鈥檚 status as one of the most accomplished high-altitude climbers of all time.听

Until last year, Kami Rita shared the record for most Everest ascents听with Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi Sherpa, with 21 summits each. But both Apa and Phurba Tashi听have retired from climbing, so when Kami Rita summited for a 22nd time last spring, he took sole possession of the title.听

Kami Rita, who works for Nepal-based Seven Summits Treks as a senior guide, made his first Everest summit听on May 13, 1994. He has summited听from the Nepal side 22 times and once from the Tibet side. Since 1994,听he has made 34 summits on five of the world鈥檚 14 8,000-meter peaks.听

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Hundreds of climbers are streaming into Nepal and Tibet this week as the spring climbing season on Mount Everest begins. The stories to watch this year include an attempt at the first new route on the mountain听in a decade, ominous weather indicators, shifts in who鈥檚 climbing the world鈥檚 highest mountain, a potentially record year for summits, and more. Here鈥檚 what you need to know.

Climbers to Watch

There could be more than 1,000 climbers, including support crews, on Everest this spring. Most will follow the standard听Southeast Ridge听from Nepal or the Northeast Ridge from Tibet, but a few will follow their own path.

National Geographic听photographer Cory Richards and Ecuadoran climber听Esteban 鈥淭opo鈥� Mena, veteran climbers with six previous Everest summits between them, will attempt to complete the first new route to the summit in ten听years. It鈥檚 a natural line on the North Face that has been attempted but never completed, going up 6,500 feet from advanced base camp听to the Northeast Ridge.

The last time a new route was completed on Everest was the Korean line on the left side of the southwest face (southwest face to West Ridge) in 2009.

Richards and Mena aren鈥檛 the only climbers who should be on your radar this year.

Kami Rita Sherpa is going for a record 23rd summit. Nirmal Purja Sherpa will try to summit all 14听of the听8,000-meter mountains in seven months, starting with Everest;听if he does, it will听shatter the current record of seven years听11 months听and 14 days, held by Chang-Ho Kim of South Korea. Two female Sherpas, Nima Doma Sherpa听and Furdiki Sherpa, are attempting to summit in honor of their husbands who recently died on the mountain. South Korean Hong Sung Taek will attempt a new route on the south face of Lhotse for the fifth time.

Crowd Control Is Getting Better

With this many people on the mountain,听will crowding be an issue? In past years, there have been delays on the mountain because of long lines at the usual spots鈥攖he Second Step, on the Tibet side, and the place where the Hillary Step used to be, on the Nepal side. Even with ladders, these two difficult spots slow teams down.

However, don鈥檛 expect to see significant delays like there were听in 2006 and 2012, despite a record number of climbers. Why? The Everest climbing community has become better at managing crowds. Guides coordinate better among themselves, and improved weather forecasting allows teams to better prepare for their summit bids.

Individual expedition leaders are stopping people who can鈥檛 make it and create a bottleneck with their slow pace. Many teams have switched to earlier starting times for slower members. Another recent trend is using supplemental oxygen at six听liters per minute听instead of the traditional two听or four liters per minute, which helps increase the speed of many climbers.

Even with improved management, problems will quickly stack up if poor weather delays the opportunity to summit.

A nightmare scenario occurred in 2012 when harsh weather shut down rope-fixing teams and summit attempts for weeks on end. There were only four days suitable for a safe summit attempt instead of the average 11 days. When teams were brave or frustrated enough to go for the top as time was running out, they experienced horrible delays.

Last year was the opposite. Climbers experienced an unprecedented window of 11 straight days with safe summit weather, enabling to reach the top. Everyone is hoping for a repeat of 2018, but there are warning signs听it might not happen.

The Weather Could Be Worse Than Usual听

This is always the wild card in anticipating big-mountain climbing issues. K2 and Nanga Parbat experienced constant high winds and deep snow this winter, and there are indicators that climbers on Everest and Lhotse should heed.

Nepal has had more snow than any year since 1975. Kathmandu might be the canary in the coal mine鈥攖he Nepalese capital reported snow on February 28, the first time that has happened since February 14, 2007 (and before that it hadn鈥檛 snowed in the city in 63 years).

India saw a 24 percent increase in rainfall this winter.听After India鈥檚 last rainy winter, in 2013, rope-fixing teams on both sides of Everest were delayed until May 17, instead of getting to the summit by late April.

Only once听in the last 24 years, 2005, did India receive more rainfall than it did this winter. No climbers reached the top until May 21 that year, the latest summit date since Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary completed the first ascent, on May 29, 1953.

How this winter鈥檚 weather will affect conditions on Everest is unknown. The first clue will come when the rope-fixing teams reach the North and South Cols in early April. If it looks like a season with bad weather and few summit days, smart teams will push hard to get their acclimatization in as soon as possible and be in a position to take advantage of any summit window that emerges in May.

More Climbers Are Coming from China and India

Mountain climbing continues to attract new fans, increasing traffic on the world鈥檚 biggest peaks and providing more business for guide services. Keeping with recent trends, middle-class climbers from China and India are coming to Everest in droves, mostly to the Nepal side.

Fearing runaway crowds and the risks that come with them, China has enacted perhaps the strictest requirements of any country with a high or听famous peak.

If you are a Chinese national, you must have summited an 8,000-meter peak before attempting Everest from the Tibet side. China will only issue 300 climbing permits this year.

Those restrictions are one reason the operators in Nepal are guiding more and more Chinese climbers each year. Nepalese听guides have also focused on this lucrative market because Chinese clients appear to be less sensitive to high听prices compared to other nationalities.

The number of teams from India is听growing rapidly, too. Transcend 国产吃瓜黑料s has guided more than 60 young Indian climbers to the summit of Everest in recent years. The Indian army is back with its听usual team of 20 to 30 members, plus support. It鈥檚 one of the larger teams and has听traditionally moved slowly and created delays.

The number of climbers from countries that fueled the Everest explosion in the last 20 years is declining. Climbers from Western Europe, the United States, Australia, and Japan are slowly becoming the minority among those attempting to summit the mountain.

Top Nationalities Above Base Camp

There鈥檚 a Lack of Qualified Sherpas for Support

One potential issue for the growing number of climbers听is a lack of qualified Sherpas to support them.

It has almost become the norm for each climber to have a personal Sherpa from Base Camp to the summit. However, there are not enough Sherpas or Tibetans to pair with every individual climber. This could be a disaster waiting to happen.

A lack of qualified support-team members makes it more difficult to handle a large number of emergencies, which could occur if operators are pressured to get their clients to the summit and attempt to push through difficult weather. If there are more emergencies and not enough people to help, it could be an inflection point in the popular lure of Everest.

Rescue Companies Are Watching for Scammers

Finally, there鈥檚 been a lot of press about scams involving guides, helicopter companies, and hospitals cheating evacuation companies and insurers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with fake or duplicate rescue claims. Several insurance companies even considered dropping travel insurance for Nepal, .

After an inquiry, the Nepalese government promised changes, but nothing of substance has occurred. Despite this, some of the longtime evacuation companies won鈥檛 let the issue alter their professional approach to serving clients and are taking precautions to prevent fraud.

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鈥淭he joke is, 鈥楬ey, I鈥檝e climbed Everest,听now I鈥檓 a motivational speaker,鈥欌�� Conrad Anker told me after I observed that there鈥檚 been a noticeable uptick in climbers鈥攎any of them former dirtbags and non-Everest types鈥攄elivering positivity platitudes and business bromides to Fortune 100 companies. Anker, a 56-year-old听alpinist of some renown who recently retired from his three-decade reign as captain of the North Face athlete team, concurred. Compared to mugging for their sponsors鈥� ads or clicking through a PowerPoint deck at a local climbing gym, a big-time speaking gig is great work if you can get it. Today, thanks to the mainstreaming of extreme sports, a relatively听known athlete can fetch upward听of $10,000 an hour.

国产吃瓜黑料 types have always braved the dais to satisfy their sponsors, raise funds pre-adventure, and pay debts post-trip鈥攐r听simply relate their stories to fellow pilgrims, gratis. While the spiel has morphed along with cultural norms, the metamessages of motivation themselves have changed little. They consist mainly of man鈥檚 mastery over nature, man鈥檚 mastery over self,听and man鈥檚 mastery over mechanical objects.

Straightaway you can see how these expedition accounts and the metaphors therein might prove useful to the corporate crowd. In fact, captains of industry routinely deploy the catchphrases of ascent鈥斺�渢o the summit,鈥澨�渃limb higher,鈥澨�渞each the peak,鈥澨齟tc.鈥攁nd pen books along those lines with titles like 听or 听and , the latter with chapters contributed mostly by mountaineers and one by Royal Robbins:听鈥淪uccess Through Failure in the School of Hard Rocks.鈥� And then there鈥檚 the Everest genre, consisting of lessons learned on the naked slopes of that much-flogged mountain, including a Harvard Business School case study deconstructing the 1996 tragedy.

All of which is to say that even now, in a venue near you, an extreme athlete struts and frets below a proscenium arch, wearing one of those wispy headset affairs, filling听with story听the murky lacuna between aspiration and realization.

In truth, adventure types compose a nanoparticle of the estimated 53,000 public speakers in this country, but they鈥檙e surprisingly ubiquitous. Basically, you鈥檝e got the hardcores and the entertainers. The hardcores, whose names you probably know, are hired for who they are (or were) and what they鈥檝e done (or did). (In short,听everyone鈥檚 in the game, but the athletes getting real work include Tommy Caldwell, Jimmy Chin, Alex Honnold, and Ed Viesturs.) The entertainers, who听you鈥檝e never heard of, are hired for their ability to absolutely kill onstage. Generally speaking, the entertainers don鈥檛 win Piolet d鈥橭r awards, and the hardcores don鈥檛 kill. (By 鈥渒ill,鈥� I mean the ability to both own a stage and deliver exquisitely timed maxims diaphragmatically to thunderous applause.) Many of the entertainers, and increasingly the hardcores, are represented by the country鈥檚 top speakers bureaus, like Keppler and WSB.

The most successful of the entertainers by far is 52-year-old Alison Levine. While her adventure bona fides are not exactly visionary鈥攕he鈥檚 climbed the Seven Summits and skied to both poles鈥攖hey鈥檙e plenty good enough if you can slay onstage, which Levine does (). 鈥淚 just like to tell people, don鈥檛 worry about being the best and the fastest and the strongest,鈥� she tells me. 鈥淛ust be the most relentless.鈥� And that she is. Levine averages over 100 gigs a year. She earns $32,000 per appearance, out of which she pays travel expenses and a 30听percent agency fee to Keppler. Levine says she has been Keppler鈥檚 most requested speaker eight years running. By her math, she has delivered the same stand-up routine over 800 times to mainly business audiences. She says, 鈥淚 want them to walk out of the room and say, There鈥檚 nowhere else I would have rather been than listening to Alison Levine.鈥� Apparently, they do.

Of the hardcores, there鈥檚 the surging Alex Honnold, 33, who, post听Free Solo, is the most famous climber in the world since Hillary and Norgay stood atop Mount Everest. Actually, he鈥檚 far more famous, since the latter two were bereft of Instagram accounts. Honnold has been talk-show fodder since 2011, the year 60 Minutes featured him soloing around in Yosemite Valley. With a foil to introduce him and ply him with questions, Honnold, who by now has given thousands of interviews, does just fine. No, better than that鈥擧onnold, who evinces part cyborg and part na茂f, kills in interviews. Last spring, however, he听 explaining how he prepared for the El Capitan听Freerider ascent. He looked positively C-3POish as he attempted to coordinate his听much celebrated arms and hands to emphasize various talking points. All told, he looked far more gripped onstage than he did on the rock. Still, Jonathan Retseck, Honnold鈥檚 agent and the cofounder of , an agency that caters to adventure athletes, told me that speaking ops听are piling up for Honnold. Retseck expects the climber will听soon command up to $50,000 per appearance.

Most adventure athletes of sufficient notoriety (and some with none) advertise speaking services on their websites alongside documentary shorts, a steady stream of social-media ejecta, and hot links to their memoirs. Public speaking? It鈥檚 not viewed so much as a nice to have but a need听to have to thrive in today鈥檚 adventure ecosystem. Five-figure public-speaking fees are signifiers of the professionalization of adventure sports.

The hardcores are entitled to make a living鈥攁nd a good one. Still, it discomfits when extreme athletes become cogs in the machine.听Blame it all on the malign confluence of Manifest Destiny, the metastasis of social media, positive psychology, and the rah-rah sales culture of hypercompetitive capitalism, with its fixation on shareholder wealth. Rather than collude with their sponsors and corporate America, I think, why not pull a on them?

Hilaree Nelson did that recently, sort of. In January 2018, the extreme skier and听climber听found herself of top-drawer scientists and sustainability specialists, which included Al Gore, who flanked her on the right. The occasion: the World Economic Forum鈥檚 annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, whose attendees consist of the richest and most powerful men on the globe (women comprised only 21 percent of all attendees). The panel was discussing climate change. Nelson told me that she felt out of her depth. But she didn鈥檛 hold back.

鈥淚f there is hope to be correlated with the Trump administration,鈥� she said, 鈥溾�攁nd this is hopefully not naive on my part鈥攂ut it is the amount of people in the United States who have found a voice and who are working locally and through their states, through school education… I mean, it is phenomenal…through big businesses, everyone is taking it upon themselves to make it happen…. I can鈥檛 even believe I鈥檓 saying this鈥攂ut I think that鈥檚 a good thing to come from the Trump administration.鈥�

She smiled, stared down at her hands, which she鈥檇 been steepling and lacing together throughout the talk, and looked at the panel moderator.

鈥淏ut I鈥檓 saying it. I just did.鈥�

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The climb was scheduled to begin at dawn, but at dawn there was nothing to climb, just a tiny hump of land on the horizon. We were still miles away, chugging along on the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Over the next few hours the hump grew larger, transforming into the cone of a volcano. From the boat I could see cliffs, a lava-rock seashore, and dense jungle rising to grassy ridgelines that crept upward like veins to a heart. Dark clouds obscured the summit. It looked like a place that could swallow you whole.

Our group consists of 11 American climbers, one Brit, and six porters from the nearest population center, Saipan, 248 miles to the south. Saipan is part of a little-known U.S. territory called the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and the top of the volcanic island we鈥檙e approaching鈥攃alled Agrihan鈥斅環appens to be the territory鈥檚 highest point. At just over 3,000 feet, it鈥檚 nothing special as mountains go. But as far as anyone knows, it has never been climbed. Fifteen years ago our expedition leader, John Mitchler, decided that he wanted to be the first. Since then, no one has been able to talk him out of it.

At 9:04 a.m., the crew of our 60-foot boat, the Super Emerald, dropped anchor and winched a small skiff over the deck. Loading it up, they implored us to not fall overboard because 鈥渢he sharks here are not friendly.鈥�

We filled the skiff with duffel bags of climbing gear and gallon after gallon of water. We brought a ton of it鈥�250 gallons in all, weighing precisely 2,082.5 pounds. Roughly a gallon per person per day for the nearly two weeks we鈥檇 be here. It would take five trips from boat to shore to off-load all of it, and then the Super Emerald would turn back for Saipan. Over the next week, we would haul those jugs up to each of four camps en route to the top, returning to the beach every night to fetch more.

Looking toward the shore, I could see John and the crew tossing jugs toward the sand like a fire brigade. Then, in a blink, they were done, and John disappeared into the jungle, heading uphill, already sniffing out a route to the top.

To complete a first ascent is to be written into history, but unclimbed mountains are a dwindling resource. The Alps were once so formidable that, as recently as 1723, a respected scientist published an account of the various species of dragon to be found there. Dragons proved absent, however, and alpinists decided they liked climbing anyway, and began tagging summits all over the world. They checked them off at a furious pace, and climbing firsts are mostly now about new routes or new styles or some other minute or oddball differentiation鈥斅瓂oungest, oldest, fastest, first without oxygen, first cancer survivor, first blind person, .

John is trying to carve out his own little niche in that world, but he鈥檚 doing it by chasing quantity, not quality. Some climbers pejoratively call this peak bagging鈥斅璼ummiting mountains just to say that you summited them, regardless of how difficult they are. Defenders claim that the beauty isn鈥檛 in pioneering a new route but in the completion of a list鈥攍ike the Seven Summits, the highest point on each continent.

John belongs to an even more curious subset of peak baggers called high pointers. High pointers don鈥檛 limit themselves to mountains. They鈥檒l go to the top of anything so long as it isn鈥檛 man-made. You might say that there鈥檚 no climb too small. Mighty Denali in Alaska or modest are equal checkboxes on the list. High pointers tend to be engineers, scientists, programmers鈥攆ans of empirical data with a passion for details. Many joke about their single-minded focus on summits, calling it 鈥渢he sickness.鈥� When they say that about John, they aren鈥檛 really joking.

John lives in Golden, Colorado. He鈥檚 62 but looks younger, with a square jaw and long hair always pulled back into the kind of man bun that tends to belie his conservative politics. A geologist by training, he now spends most of his time running several small businesses鈥攁 marketing firm, an adventure travel agency, and a spice company called JAK Seasoning among them鈥攖hat he owns with his wife, Kathy.

In the 1980s, John began spending much of his spare time and money reaching the highest point in all 50 U.S. states鈥攚hich, he says, 鈥渕ost high pointers agree is the coolest list.鈥� Some of those summits, like Alaska鈥檚 20,310-foot Denali, are truly arduous, dangerous climbs. Others, such as Delaware鈥檚 447.85-foot Ebright Azimuth, are mere hills.

By John鈥檚 reckoning, more people have climbed the Seven Summits (416) than the 50 high points (305). When he finished in 2003, he marked the occasion by setting another goal: he鈥檇 climb the high points in all five inhabited U.S. territories, which no one had ever done. 鈥淚 do love checking off a list,鈥� he says.

He got to it. Guam and Puerto Rico were practically drive-ups. The U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa: no problem. By the summer of 2014, all that was left was Agrihan.

Perhaps Agrihan has never been climbed because it鈥檚 so remote, or because there鈥檚 no reliable source of fresh water, or because it鈥檚 brutally hot and humid. Most likely it just never occurred to anyone that it would be worth doing.

鈥淔or most climbers, it鈥檚 either Everest听or bouldering or Alex Honnold and all that,鈥� John says. 鈥淭his is really bizarre climbing.鈥� That was basically his sales pitch the first time we spoke on the phone. I鈥檓 not a high pointer. I don鈥檛 even like climbing all that much. When the mountains are calling, I generally pretend I have bad service and __n鈥檛 hear wh__ they鈥檙e say__. In 2016, I climbed to 20,000 feet in Bolivia, but I was searching for the remnants of a plane crash, and I didn鈥檛 bother to summit. Since then, my standard line has been that if I鈥檓 going to climb a mountain, there had better be a plane crash up there.

Agrihan, I was told, would be different. We鈥檇 be on a tropical island, not a frigid mountain, and we wouldn鈥檛 be covering much ground. Our route would be just three miles long, with 3,000 feet of vertical gain. There wouldn鈥檛 be any altitude issues, and the route wouldn鈥檛 be technical, just a muddy stretch near the top where we might place ropes. The hard part would be the glacially slow process of building trails through heavy jungle and aptly named sword grass. We鈥檇 establish base camp on the beach and a series of four higher camps for stashing water and supplies en route to the summit. At first we鈥檇 shuttle two or three gallons at a time to camps one and two. Then, as the porters set up the higher camps, we鈥檇 haul roughly half of that to camps three and four. If we could get a couple dozen gallons to camp four鈥攁bout two gallons per person鈥攖hat would be enough for everyone to summit. It would be hot, wet, and extremely slow going, with lots of grunt work and little fanfare if we succeeded. But in 1953, a plane had gone down somewhere in the crater. So I guess I was in.

Our base camp is a semi-abandoned six-room building left over from when Agrihan was used as a coconut plantation and is currently losing a decades-long endurance contest with the heat and humidity. Ever since the Spanish came ashore in 1565, the island has been intermittently inhabited and abandoned, following the whims of whichever superpower controlled it鈥擲pain, Germany, Japan, and currently the U.S. Last abandoned in 2010, its population when we arrive is exactly two: Eddie Saures and Jeremy Topulei, who grew up in Saipan and came to Agrihan last year to prepare the island for resettlement. They spend their days fixing up the place and taming the jungle around the scattered buildings. Survival depends on their vegetable garden, collecting rainwater, jungle fruit, the fish they catch, and the pigs they hunt, along with 50-pound bags of rice and a 30-pack of Bud Light delivered quarterly.

I spend the first full day shadowing John as he picks his way up toward the mountain. By nightfall our trail is still a modest thing. Snaking through the shaded jungle for an easy 20 minutes, curving around felled palm trees and startled lizards, it rises only slightly before leaving the shade and hitting eight-foot-tall sword grass. From this point on, our machete-wielding porters whack a shoulder-wide path straight up the fall line toward the ridgetop. The sword grass is thick and nasty stuff, like a cross between bamboo and corn. Its serrated blades slice any exposed skin; when cut to ankle height, the stalks stand straight up like punji sticks. In the grass, there鈥檚 no protection from the sun, and the air is 87 degrees with 80 percent humidity. The sheer thickness of the growth stifles airflow, and hiking up the ridge is like breathing into a paper bag inside a sauna.

It鈥檚 not just the heat and the foliage; there are also flies everywhere. Millions of them swarm our eyes, noses, mouths. At one point a fly lodges itself in my left ear, seemingly stuck until, 40 minutes later, I finally hook it with my finger and it breaks in half. Then the other flies seem to sense his demise and redouble their efforts to get in my ear and harvest the smooshed bits of their comrade.

The first two times John tried to climb Agrihan, he wore a head net and covered up to try and combat the insects. Now he just lets them swarm.

That鈥檚 right. My apologies. I haven鈥檛 mentioned the first two climbs.

In 2014, John chartered the Super Emerald for four days with a high pointer named Roger Kaul and his nephew, Clint, who is on this trip, too. That group, along with three porters, braved the heat, humidity, and flies as long as they could but made it only halfway up the mountain before the boat had to return to Saipan. 鈥淭hat was pathetic,鈥� John says. 鈥淛ust embarrassing.鈥�

In 2015, they doubled the size of the expedition: six climbers, five porters, and a documentarian. They hacked their way to within 26 vertical feet of the top and identified what they thought was the summit鈥攁 vertical column on the volcano鈥檚 rim. But they were separated from it by a deep mud valley that was too dangerous to traverse without climbing gear, which they hadn鈥檛 brought. So they turned back.

This is where the shape of John鈥檚 obsession really becomes clear. Because whatever wilderness experience or trial-by-flies John wanted to have on this island, he鈥檚 had it. Twice. But he hasn鈥檛 touched the summit, so he鈥檚 back. There鈥檚 a tinge of desperation in his efforts. John鈥檚 not so much an explorer or a pioneer as an eccentric collector lusting after the final piece of a set. That鈥檚 no metaphor. He collects almost everything. Stamps, gum wrappers, coins, beer cans, water bottles, magazines, and yes, mountains. In fact, given that he鈥檚 afraid of heights, sometimes the collecting is at odds with the mountaineering. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 seek out rock climbing or ice climbing,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut if it鈥檚 there, I鈥檒l do it.鈥�

His real talent, he says, is data analysis. He鈥檚 very good at obsessing. To save weight, he doesn鈥檛 carry a stove or fuel and eats his food cold. He also keeps a list of the most 颅effective cost-per-calorie energy bars. (Winner: Snickers.)

Whatever his methods, it鈥檚 hard to argue with the results. John has high-pointed not just all 50 states but 55 of the 60 national parks as well. He also wrote a county-by-county guidebook of Colorado鈥檚 high points. Though he recently stepped down from the job, for the past 20 years, he鈥檚 written and 颅edited the glossy newsletter of the ,听which makes him something like the figurehead of this tribe. He knows that he could claim Agrihan if he wanted to, even without actually topping out on it. The high-pointing community doesn鈥檛 have strict criteria for what constitutes a summit鈥擩ohn says you should get your head above the highest point鈥攂ut there鈥檚 no verification system. If you say you climbed it, you climbed it.

One climber on the 2015 trip did, in fact, quietly check the mountain off his list. John did not. The fact that he hadn鈥檛 attained the true summit ate at him. He decided that he would not cut his hair until he reached the top of Agrihan. (Hence the New Age man bun.) He put Kathy in charge of chartering the boat, booking hotels, and other logistics, because you can鈥檛 effectively negotiate on price when you want something this badly.

鈥淒on鈥檛 get me wrong, I want them to succeed,鈥� Kathy told me before the trip. 鈥淏ut you can鈥檛 hear it in my voice.鈥�

It was sir Hugh Munro, a Scotsman, who first popularized the idea of climbing a list. Back in 1873, Munro started summiting all of Scotland鈥檚 peaks over 3,000 feet鈥攏ow called the Munros鈥攁nd began cataloging them. In 1936, Arthur Marshall became the first to high-point all 48 (at the time) U.S. states. Vin Hoeman was the first to do all 50, in 1966. By high-pointing the U.S. territories, John is trying to join their ranks. But on the third day of our expedition, that desire to make history left him wrung out and recuperating at camp two.

Clint Kaul brought the news. A retired software engineer from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Clint returned to base camp on the beach that night and relayed that John was too tired to come back down. He had climbed the first ridge in full sun and overheated. He would stay where he was and rest.

鈥淐an someone bring up my MP3 player tomorrow?鈥� John asks when we reach him on the radio.

鈥淵eah, we鈥檒l send it up with the masseuse,鈥� jokes Greg Juhl, a 45-year-old ER doctor from Reno, Nevada.

Back on the beach, though, there鈥檚 some confusion as to when John tired out. He is almost always the most enthusiastic high pointer in the room. But as we prepared for this trip, he鈥檇 looked haggard and exhausted. Purchasing supplies at an Ace Hardware in Saipan, he even seemed a little irritated. 鈥淟et鈥檚 just get to the summit and get out of there,鈥� he鈥檇 said as the group debated the merits of different gear.

Over the next two days, we continue hauling water. John stays higher up on the mountain with his MP3 player, moving gear between camps two and three and preparing to set up camp four. Many of us start the day at 4:30 A.M., hoping to carry two 40-pound backpacks full of water and supplies before the sun hits. By the morning of the fifth day, a lot of us are moving slowly and snapping at each other over little stuff. I鈥檝e tweaked my back. Clint, who accompanied John on the other two summit attempts and helped with much of the route planning for this trip, has developed a deep cough that asserts itself each morning. 鈥淚 really hate this mountain,鈥� he says before heading uphill.

I grab two gallons from camp one and pick up a third and fourth from camp two. Once above the sword grass鈥攋ust before camp three, at 1,950 feet鈥攖he flora turns to waist-high ferns. From there it鈥檚 an hour straight up to 2,520-foot camp four. When I get to camp three around lunchtime, Gary Reckelhoff is sitting there with a daypack. Thirty years old and built like a greyhound that does CrossFit, Gary always wears a heart-rate monitor听and tracks how many calories he鈥檚 burning on an expedition. He鈥檚 the most physically fit member of the team, but you wouldn鈥檛 know it from the tiny load he just carried from camp two. I start to simmer with anger. And that鈥檚 before I head up to the breezier, permanently cloudy camp four, where I find John and a 51-year-old entrepreneur and nonstop talker named Tony Cobb.

During the previous two days, there was grumbling at base camp about these two. Is John still recovering? No one knows. What鈥檚 Tony doing up there?

For the past hour, I鈥檇 been rehearsing a lecture along the lines of: Are you sure you should even be here, John? But when I arrive, John comes over and tells me he鈥檚 not doing so great. He has no legs, no strength.

鈥淚 think I鈥檓 done,鈥� he says.

Done for the day?

鈥淒one with high pointing,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his is my last expedition.鈥�

You can鈥檛 harangue someone who鈥檚 on the verge of giving up. John鈥檚 struggle has placed him firmly atop the moral high ground. But I鈥檓 still angry, so I move on to Tony, who is stretched out on his sleeping pad in his skivvies, a contented smile on his face. When I see this, my anger boils over. There are nine gallons of water here when there should be two dozen. I ask how he can just sit here while the rest of the group toils in the heat? Granted, Tony hauled some water on his way up, and he鈥檚 been moving gear between camps and setting up rain catchments. But it鈥檚 not raining, and the longer he and John stay high on the mountain, the more water the rest of us have to carry. My voice quavers, I鈥檓 so furious.

鈥淵eah, well, I鈥檝e been needing an excuse to go back down,鈥� Tony says when I鈥檓 done.

鈥淚鈥檒l give you an excuse,鈥� I yell. 鈥淣ine fucking gallons!鈥�

For the first time on the trip, Tony barely says a word in response. He simply gets up, packs his gear, and heads down the mountain.

I walk away to be alone for a bit. Everything feels backward. Tony is quiet. Obsessive John is quitting high pointing. I鈥檓 chewing out a team member over a climb I supposedly have no stake in. No one鈥檚 more surprised by my behavior than me.

But I think I know why I鈥檓 so invested. Nine months before Agrihan, I broke my leg in a canyoneering accident and spent 21 hours waiting for a helicopter to get me to a hospital. It was a traumatic fall that shattered both my fibula and my youth. I came out of surgery in a 32-year-old鈥檚 midlife crisis鈥攆ragile, anxious, and newly aware of my mortality.

The first time I spoke with John on the phone, he persuaded me to join the trip. But I think I needed to be on this climb more than he needed me on it. Like a lot of high pointers trying to summit Denali before they get too old听to do all 50 states, I was climbing to prove that I was still capable of a kooky expedition in the middle of nowhere鈥攖hat I was still myself.

So I guess John and I both need to conquer some dragons on this mountain. From camp four, it seems like the only place we鈥檒l find them is at the mountain鈥檚 very highest point.

By day six, we鈥檙e within striking distance of the summit, except that we don鈥檛 know which summit to strike. Radar topography shows two potential high points, both situated along the rim of the crater, at 952 and 960 meters (3,123 and 3,150 feet, respectively). They鈥檙e dubbed P952 and P960. The two elevations are within the radar鈥檚 margin of error, however, so there鈥檚 no way to tell which is the true summit.

Normally, determining which point is higher would be a simple matter of setting up a spotting scope on one of them and shooting it toward the other. But the cloud cover makes this next to impossible.

鈥淪ome places have two or more high points that are exactly the same,鈥� John says. 鈥淭he purists go to both.鈥�

Ginge Fullen is a purist. An Englishman who lives in Scotland and a former clearance diver who disarmed underwater bombs for a living, Ginge has a Mr. Clean look and is easily the most accomplished high pointer in the group, perhaps of all time. He has high-pointed 170 of the world鈥檚 195 countries, though in 1996 he tried to summit Mount Everest and suffered an altitude-induced heart attack. (His injury gets a brief mention in Into Thin Air.) Doctors advised against further mountain climbing. Rather than hang up his boots, Ginge simply capped his climbs at 6,000 meters鈥攁bout 20,000 feet. While that rules out Everest and 16 other country high points he hasn鈥檛 climbed, he can sure as hell climb Agrihan.

Ginge, Gary, and I spend hours setting ropes between the two summits, which are connected by a 200-yard-long ridge made treacherous by a thousand-foot drop that goes straight into the crater. The traverse involves picking our way through the shrubs and trees that crowd the ridge, descending into a small valley, and then ascending a 15-foot mud wall.

The ridge is precarious鈥攁t one point while we鈥檙e pounding in anchor stakes, a three-foot chunk of mud peels off and falls away. We鈥檙e at least five days from a hospital, and if someone were to go over the edge, Ginge says, they鈥檇 be better off not surviving. John is wary of heights, making this particular scenario his nightmare. He doesn鈥檛 want to do the ridge traverse. The question is: Will he be able to sleep at night if he doesn鈥檛 touch both summits?

The next day, after the ropes are set, all 12 climbers make their way up to P960 and pose for a photo. Then, at their own pace, most everyone crosses the ridge to P952, just to be sure, and returns. But not John. Instead, he gives a little speech about how he woke up this morning feeling like he just didn鈥檛 need the second summit.

鈥淪ometimes you need a mountain,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 woke up and I didn鈥檛 need this one.鈥�

On the way down, I ask another climber, Reid Larson, what to make of John鈥檚 decision. Reid is something of a high-pointing wunderkind. Just 32 years old, he鈥檚 been blitzing through lists and is now tied with John as the first person to summit all 50 states plus all five U.S. territories, assuming that P960 is the true summit. But if the other peak, P952, turns out to be higher, Reid, who touched both, will be the only one between them to have summited Agrihan. If this is John鈥檚 last expedition, why not be sure he鈥檇 really finished?

鈥淏ased on everything he鈥檚 done, it鈥檚 not really about risk aversion,鈥� Reid says, referring to the ridge traverse. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all sort of flummoxed.鈥�

Of course, we don鈥檛 actually know that the second summit is higher. As near as we can tell, it鈥檚 somewhere between 18 inches and three feet taller than P960. But it鈥檚 awfully close. John may have already done the thing we鈥檙e worried he鈥檒l regret not doing. But we may never get an accurate measurement.

Except that while the rest of us make our way down from the top, Gary Reckelhoff stays behind. We have another four days before the boat comes. He鈥檚 going to stay near the spotting scope and wait for the weather to clear, because 鈥渢here can only be one highest point,鈥� he says. Two days later the clouds part, and Gary reports that the second peak is seven feet taller than the one John went up. So it鈥檚 confirmed: John didn鈥檛 stand on the highest point.

Over the next two days, the team tries to convince John to go back up the mountain and touch the true summit. The trail isn鈥檛 that bad. Gary can get up there in four hours. John could do it in a day. We鈥檇 carry his gear!

Except that on the way down from the summit, ten minutes from base camp, Ginge slipped and landed on his machete, severing a tendon in his finger. Greg, the ER doc, sewed him up, but Ginge will need surgery and is done climbing for now. We鈥檙e trying to convince John to take on a death-mud traverse without the strongest climber on our team.

Or maybe it has nothing to do with Ginge. At one point or another, each of us is going to wake up to find that we can鈥檛 do the things we used to be able to do, or that those things don鈥檛 matter as much as they once did. For John, that day just happened to come when he was supposed to summit the last mountain on his list.

鈥淚 was making a statement to myself,鈥� he told me later, recalling his decision not to go up again. 鈥淚 need to stop the obsession.鈥�

For the past 20 years, John has been the fixated-on-summits guy. It has colored every relationship, every interaction. People want to know: What鈥檚 next?

鈥淚 climbed Denali, and then everyone said, 鈥楢re you going to do Everest?鈥� 鈥� John says. 鈥淲here does it stop? And how do you stop it?鈥�

Maybe by pulling up just short of the true summit, and counting it anyway. John did 99.78 percent of Agrihan. Maybe it鈥檚 time to start rounding up. We swat flies and play backgammon for three days until the Super Emerald shows up to take us home. Agrihan recedes into the distance, and John raises his middle finger, flipping off the mountain, his youth, his desire to make history.

The only way to slay some dragons is to simply stop believing in them.

Contributing editor Peter Frick-Wright () is the host of the 国产吃瓜黑料 podcast.

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Erin Parisi鈥檚 trek up Mount Kilimanjaro last March wasn鈥檛 easy. Recovering from food poisoning and contending with almost continuous rainfall and the aches and fatigue that accompany six days of climbing, she tried to maintain a positive attitude as she sat in her tent at Barafu camp, approximately 15,358 feet above sea level and 36 hours from the summit.

After all, she had done it before. But the first time Parisi ascended the 19,340-foot peak, in 2011, her name was Aron.

In 2016, at age 39, after living as a man her whole life, Parisi came out to the world as a woman, went through a complicated divorce, and underwent facial feminization surgery and larynx reconstruction, the latter of which left her mute for a month. It was during her month of silence, buoyed by the support she received from her family and community, that the Denver resident set herself a new goal. Parisi wanted to complete the Seven Summits, climbing the highest peak on every continent.

Parisi had done her fair share of mountaineering before her transition, summiting fourteeners in Colorado and making winter ascents in Canada. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 consider myself a technical route bagger,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing in the mountains is more important to me than keeping a list.鈥�

In March 2018, Parisi also started a nonprofit, , to advance transgender rights and encourage other transgender people in sports. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important for us to show that we have the same goals and aspirations that we had before,鈥� says Emma Shinn, the board chair of TranSending who is also a lawyer, a former infantry leader and judge advocate in the Marine Corps, and a transgender woman. 鈥淲e may look different, we may sound different, but we鈥檙e still the same people underneath.鈥�

The organization will also help fund future summit attempts for Parisi, who works at CenturyLink and has so far self-funded her trips. She summited her first peak in February 2018: the 7,319-foot Mount Kosciuszko, Australia鈥檚 highest point. She topped out on Kilimanjaro on March 8, International Women鈥檚 Day. In June, Parisi stood atop Europe鈥檚 highest peak, the 18,510-foot Mount Elbrus.

Since 1983, when American Dick Bass conceived of the idea, hundreds of people have undertaken the quest for the Seven Summits. According to the , published in 2016, 416 people have succeeded; of those, 71 have been women. It鈥檚 hard to say with 100 percent certainty that Parisi will be the first transgender person to complete the Seven Summits, but it is likely. 鈥淥ne factor that makes my push unique is I am pursuing the Seven Summits under the IOC guidelines for a trans athlete to compete in the female category,鈥� Parisi says. 鈥淭his means I鈥檝e suppressed testosterone and documented those levels for a year. At these levels, the IOC has determined I have no athletic advantage for being pronounced male at birth.鈥�

When Parisi underwent her transition, some people asked if she would still be able to do what she loved鈥攖raveling and climbing鈥攏ow that she鈥檚 out as a woman. 鈥淥ftentimes, cisgender friends feel like they didn鈥檛 really know you, because you had this identity that wasn鈥檛 really public,鈥� Shinn says. 鈥淧eople ascribe all of these gender norms immediately to you and say, 鈥榃ell, girls don鈥檛 like hiking or backpacking.鈥� Those gender norms are part of what we鈥檙e fighting against. Not just 鈥榳omen can be climbers,鈥� but 鈥榯rans women can be climbers.鈥欌��

Parisi had apprehensions when she returned to Kilimanjaro in March. Tanzania is , and she was worried about being discovered. In a twist of fate, she ended up trekking with the same tour leader and cook who had accompanied her up Kilimanjaro seven years earlier鈥攂ut they didn鈥檛 recognize her. Parisi鈥檚 summit attempt was an even more emotional journey than anticipated, but at the top, she gleefully unrolled her TranSending7 banner and took photos.

鈥淚t takes a special person to bite off a task like this,鈥� says Kim Hess, an American who completed the Seven Summits in February 2018. 鈥淸Parisi is] taking on physical, mental, and financial challenges, but she鈥檚 also walking a life that not everyone accepts or understands, and that鈥檚 unnerving.鈥�

Parisi underwent surgery again on her larynx in September; the first procedure didn鈥檛 work due to complications during recovery. After another month of silence, she鈥檒l spend the next 100 days training and preparing for her next peak, Argentina鈥檚 22,837-foot Aconcagua, in February 2019. From there, she鈥檚 shooting for Denali in May or June 2019, Mount Vinson during the Antarctic summer (November through February), and Mount Everest in 2020.

Parisi believes that mountaineering鈥攖he quest to summit the highest peaks鈥攁llows society to, quite literally, lift itself up. She hopes that her Seven Summits bid will do the same for the transgender population.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 accuse me of hiding if I鈥檓 standing on the top mountain of every continent saying, 鈥楬ere I am,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淔or a population that has, to some extent, been pushed into the shadows, going to the place where there is nothing to cast a shadow on you and saying 鈥業鈥檓 here, and I鈥檓 proud to be here,鈥� that鈥檚 the message I want to send out.鈥�

The post Erin Parisi Is a Pioneer for Transgender Mountaineers appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.