[ 10-20-2001: Message edited by: Wolf ]

So...what... were they found??

Mysterious!

I too, came back to see what had happened!



Jo

No. They weren't found. In fact any attempts at searching for them has been called off.

Apparently at least some of the five climbers bodies can be seen. They died in an avalanche, and the location they fell to, is nearly impossible to reach. At least for now, the bodies will remain on the mountain-side.

My condolences go out to the families and friends of those who died, and to all Spaniards for their loss.

Wolf

Thanks for posting!

It's a pitty those climbers have ended as this

The high mountains are very risky places. And the worst is that the corpes can't be recovered...

Fernando

Please...who and where? In Spain? The owner of our "casa rural" near Hondarribia was going with some friends to do some hiking/climbing in the Atlas Mountains (Africa). He's an avid outdoorsman.

No, it was in the Himalaya. In a mountain called Pumori.

Fernando

Fernando,

A friend of mine, who is a climber, knew one of the men who died very well.

After the reports came in, I contacted him by e-mail, and he said he was devastated by it. He's lost so many friends over the last few years to mountains.

Ed has been a prolific climber. He has reached to top of Mt. Everest six times, and never uses oxygen. I think that's often what keeps him alive, where others die, except in the case like what happened to the Spaniards, where an avalanche swept them off the face.

Some of Ed's accomplishments... The filming of the I-Max movie... Everest, and most recently, where he actually had a cameo part in it as himself, Vertical Limit, and was basically in charge of the climbing and the technical aspects of the film.

I've known Ed's father for years. In fact we worked together here in Rockford, and still visit with each other often.

Ed (Viesturs) was involved in the Earth Day climb over ten years ago, when the Soviet Union still existed. It was at the summit of Mt. Everest where he planted the Latvian flag, outlawed by the Soviet Union, at the peak, beside the Soviet flag. Even though Ed was born and raised here in Rockford, his father had escaped from Latvia years earlier, having been labeled a political dissident, and facing arrest, and imprisonment.

As the Soviet TV camera (carried to the summit by Sherpas working with Ed) panned across the summit... broadcasting live to the entire Soviet Union... Ed stepped forward and pushed the pole into the ground, and the outlawed Latvian flag unfurled, and was shown for the first time in over 40 years, to the people of Latvia.

People who had VCRs on and recorded it showed it to friends, and there were people in the streets celebrating their victory, that someone... a Latvian... had honored them.

As Ed had made that climb, he sent faxes back from each camp to his father, at work. There was one sentence in each one that both Harry and I understood. A sentence that told us that his intent was strong, and he would be planting that flag on the summit in honor of his heritage.

On the ill-fated climb of Everest in 1996, when his friends Rob Hall and Scott Fischer died, a member of his crew that reached the summit was Araceli Segarra. She was the first Spanish woman to ever reach the summit.

Ed was the one who found both bodies. He said a prayer for each of his friends, and arranged for their transport back down the mountain.

Something Ed said to me back then, and repeated a couple of days ago has stuck with me; "A piece of me dies with each climber who dies." Yet, he keeps climbing, and keeping on going with his life, and his passion for mountains, and challenging each new one with a vengeance.

In a way, there's a message in what he said. With what happened at the WTC, we too have to pick up the pieces, and keep going. A small part of us may die with these tragic losses, but we still have our own lives to lead, and work to do. It's a strong message, well worth remembering.

Sorry this is so long. I posted about the same thing first, then deleted the text... I thought it might sound a bit "corny." Yet, after serious consideration, I thought it might be aprepo for where we stand in today's world. It's a story worth telling.

Wolf

Wolf

Thanks for repeating it - I for one appreciate it. I didn't think it at all corny the first time round; quite the opposite.

Jo

Thanks for the follow-up, Wolf (hey, you changed your user name! I didn't know you could do that!!! Must be the NEW message board version.