{"id":209018,"date":"2021-05-15T18:10:59","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T08:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/?p=209018"},"modified":"2021-05-15T18:10:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T08:10:59","slug":"claiming-the-summit-without-reaching-the-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/claiming-the-summit-without-reaching-the-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Claiming the Summit Without Reaching the Top"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By John Branch (c.2021 The New York Times Company)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only 44 people have reached the summit of all 14 of the world\u2019s 8,000-meter peaks, according to the people who chronicle such things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, they now say, maybe no one has.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The difference rides on a timeless question getting a fresh look:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a summit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Viesturs believes he knows. He is one of the 44, the fifth to do it without supplemental oxygen, the only American on the list. In 1993, climbing alone and without supplemental oxygen or ropes, Viesturs reached the \u201ccentral summit\u201d of Shishapangma, the world\u2019s 14th-highest mountain. Most climbers turn around there, calling it good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before him was a narrow isthmus of about 100 meters, a knife edge of corniced snow with drops to oblivion on both sides. At its end was the mountain\u2019s true summit, a few meters higher in elevation than where he stood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too dangerous, Viesturs told himself. He retreated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can let it go, or you can\u2019t let it go,\u201d Viesturs said. \u201cAnd I was one of those guys where if the last nail in the deck hasn\u2019t been hammered in, it\u2019s not done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years later, Viesturs climbed within reach of Shishapangma\u2019s summit again. The ridge looked doable. With a leg on each side \u2014 \u201ca cheval\u201d in mountaineering, French for riding the horse \u2014 he shimmied across it. He touched the highest point of Shishapangma and scooted back to relative safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a summit. And there is everything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can close ever be good enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revelations from a team of respected researchers have thrust that question into the open like never before, putting special attention on the world\u2019s highest mountains and most-acclaimed climbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By asking a simple-sounding question \u2014 What is the summit? \u2014 they are raising doubts about past accomplishments and raising standards for future ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe they are making us all reconsider just what it means to reach the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Tell the Complete Truth\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a small town in southwestern Germany, far from the Himalaya and the Karakoram ranges of Asia that are home to all 14 of Earth\u2019s 8,000-meter (26,247-foot) peaks, lives a 68-year-old man named Eberhard Jurgalski. He has a robust, white beard and pulls his hair into a ponytail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has spent 40 years chronicling the ascents of the 8,000-meter peaks. He has not climbed these mountains, but he is widely respected for compiling the records of those who have. He is among the cadre of behind-the-scenes researchers who give credence to the claims that make others famous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He can tell you the names of various expeditions, the dates, the details of the routes and whether oxygen was used. He has studied photographs and videos and satellite coordinates and accounts from climbers and witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now he has some jarring news: It is possible that no one has ever been on the true summit of all 14 of Earth\u2019s 8,000-meter peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some stopped on Shishapangma\u2019s central summit, not daring to straddle the ridge like Viesturs. Some unwittingly went to the wrong spot on Annapurna\u2019s broad ridge. Some stopped at a pole planted atop Dhaulagiri that confused them into thinking it was the summit. Some turned around at a popular selfie-taking spot on Manaslu without scaling the precarious ridge hidden just beyond it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few if any of them tried to lie about their accomplishments. They just did not get to the top in every case, Jurgalski and others say. They stopped a few meters short, whether by accident or tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To keep itself honest, mountaineering relies on integrity and the power of a guilty conscience. For high-profile expeditions, it is the adventurer\u2019s responsibility to prove what he or she claims to have done in some of the world\u2019s remotest places. Evidence of important ascents generally comes from an inexact combination of photos and selfies, satellite coordinates and witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inexactness leaves room for whispers of doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, Jurgalski worried that standards of a world-class summit were slipping. If he is a gatekeeper to historical records, doesn\u2019t he have an obligation to double-check their accuracy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several years ago, Jurgalski enlisted help from a few other researchers, including Rodolphe Popier and Tobias Pantel of the Himalayan Database, and Damien Gildea, the Australian explorer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dissecting one claim at a time, they are studying all the key ascents, through photographs and written accounts, trying to place climbers in precise locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unfolding revelations have Jurgalski nervous. He knows that reputations and livelihoods depend on summit claims. They depend on his list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fan of all them, you know,\u201d Jurgalski said. \u201cBut when there is something wrong, me as a chronicler, as an accepted chronicler, must make a point to tell the complete truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurgalski\u2019s reputation is at stake, too. And he knows too much to let close be good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wants the historical record to reflect precision. He also wants to establish a firm standard for future generations of climbers, an expectation for what constitutes a summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are no two possibilities,\u201d Jurgalski said. \u201cThere is only one. A summit is not halfway or 99% of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mountain as Metaphor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It sounds simple, the idea of a summit. Every mountain has one. There is a top, and there is everything below it. By definition, a summit is the highest point, of a hill or an aspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just what does it mean to reach the summit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a question both simple and cosmic, sure to divide absolutists from pragmatists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe summit does matter,\u201d said David Roberts, a climber and author who has written dozens of books on Himalayan expeditions, and co-authored books with the likes of Viesturs, Jon Krakauer, Conrad Anker and Alex Honnold. \u201cWhy does it matter? Because it\u2019s the whole point of mountaineering. It\u2019s the goal that defines an ascent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no true governing body for mountaineering, no single arbiter of what constitutes a feat worthy of adulation. For top mountaineers, it is a fuzzy world subject to personal satisfaction and occasional peer review. Accomplishment is judged by some indescribable mix of difficulty, imagination and style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It does not always matter if the top is reached. As Viesturs pointed out, it is called climbing, not summiting. The point is often the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the summit is a rare tangible accomplishment in climbing, the one yes-or-no proposition. It can turn humans into heroes. It can bestow fame and forge reputations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More philosophically, it has meaning. It exists as the ultimate metaphor for achievement, a vertical finish line that says you have gone as far as possible. There is nowhere higher to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe summit is an ideal we can aspire to,\u201d said climber Michael Kennedy, a former editor of Climbing and Alpinist magazines, with a list of high-level mountaineering accomplishments to his name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1997, he wrote an editorial for Climbing titled \u201cClose Only Counts in Horseshoes and Hand Grenades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIssues of style aside, success is measured along a single axis,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou either reach the summit or you don\u2019t. Not much room for debate. Or is there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy still believes that \u201cif you want to say that you\u2019ve climbed it, you should climb to the summit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But does it really matter<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Viesturs said. \u201cI mean, who\u2019s counting? Who\u2019s watching? Who\u2019s paying attention?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe the questions do not belong just to the mountaineers, but also to the rest of us. If we find that the world\u2019s greatest climbers have been coming up short of their goals, purposely or not, maybe our response says more than the deception itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe we are the ones who must reckon with the notion of a summit, in all its literary and metaphorical forms. Maybe we are the ones who must decide where the limits are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you let these things go,\u201d explorer Gildea said, \u201cand then you let more of these things go, when do you stop letting these things go?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Misleading Pole<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 14 8,000-meter peaks, \u201csix or seven,\u201d Gildea said, are ripe for false summits. The difference is a vertical meter or two in some places, no more than about 20 in others. Those few vertical meters might be an hour\u2019s hike \u2014 or a dangerous straddle and scooch \u2014 away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work of the researchers has focused, so far, on Annapurna, Dhaulagiri and Manaslu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manaslu may be the most blatant example of summit slippage. The background of most \u201csummit\u201d photos today show, clearly, more mountain to climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers found that in 2016, only 15 of the 175 climbers who claimed to reach the top of Manaslu went to the true summit, sitting at the end of a precarious ridge. The Himalayan Database put asterisks next to the names of the others that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople are stopping short because it\u2019s too hard,\u201d Gildea said. \u201cAnd I say, that\u2019s not really a good excuse for a climber.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, the issues with Annapurna and Dhaulagiri have been mostly ones of confusion, not deception. The top ridge of Annapurna has approaches from different directions. Once there, it can be nearly impossible to discern the highest point, even without debilitating factors like exhaustion, whipping winds and whiteout conditions, and a dearth of oxygen starving the brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent time wandering around on the summit ridges,\u201d Viesturs said. \u201cLike, let\u2019s go further, let\u2019s make sure. Is that bump down the ridge a little bit higher? You might spend a little extra time making sure that you go to that highest lump or bump, instead of just going, \u2018Eh, we\u2019re close enough.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That \u201cclose enough\u201d range is the gap that Jurgalski and his researchers want to close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The German Aerospace Center provided Jurgalski with precise elevations across Annapurna\u2019s ridge. The center discerned two high points, about 30 meters apart. Researchers found that about half of those credited with reaching the summit never got to either of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They found similar issues on Dhaulagiri, partly because a metal pole planted decades ago lulled climbers into thinking it was the high point. These days, there are no such excuses for not finding a major mountain\u2019s true summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guy Cotter has reached the highest points on all seven continents, and has summited seven of the 8,000-meter peaks, including Everest five times. He is chief executive of Adventure Consultants, an expedition company founded by former climbing partner Rob Hall, who died on Everest in 1996 during the \u201cInto Thin Air\u201d tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between thinking that you\u2019re on the summit and there is no further to go, and knowing there is further to go and not going further,\u201d Cotter said. \u201cThe standards are slipping.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each mountain carries unique summit challenges. On Kangchenjunga, the world\u2019s third-highest mountain behind Everest and K2, there is a tradition \u2014 fading with time, some said \u2014 of not touching the top. Viesturs is among those who said he stopped short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe locals asked us, as we trekked into the mountain, to please not disturb the home of their gods, which was the actual summit,\u201d Viesturs wrote in an email. \u201cIn respect to their wishes we stayed just a few feet away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research on the 8,000-meter summits got little attention for years. Then Gildea, one of the key researchers, wrote an essay about it, published late last year in the prestigious American Alpine Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gildea has emerged as a public conscience among adventurers. With extensive experience in Antarctica, he was a vocal critic of Colin O\u2019Brady\u2019s \u201csolo\u201d and \u201cunsupported\u201d expedition across the continent that received international attention. (Among his criticisms: O\u2019Brady followed a maintained road and stopped \u201chundreds of kilometers\u201d from sea ice.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The journal essay gave voice and validity to a tender topic. Credibly suggesting the possibility that no human has been on the true summit of all 14 8,000-meter peaks undermines the claims of dozens of esteemed mountaineers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proving precisely how high someone climbed years ago may be impossible. Some climbers are dead. Others may have no incentive to cooperate. The effort might provoke unsolvable debates, maybe lawsuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fear of a backlash is why Gildea and the researchers stripped all the names from the essay. It is why the essay is filled with disclaimers and compliments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese climbers\u2019 places in history are set, and questions about the precise topographical details of certain climbs should not change the cultural importance of their exploits,\u201d Gildea wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also a reason why Jurgalski created the idea of retroactive \u201ctolerance zones.\u201d The researchers determined, peak by peak, what would be allowed as a summit \u2014 what would be close enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut not for the future,\u201d Jurgalski said. \u201cOnly for the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 44 climbers said to have summited all 14 peaks, there are seven with blatant shortcomings in at least one of their ascents, Jurgalski said. That would reduce the list to 37, including Viesturs (\u201cEd Viesturs is one of the people who we at least know has gone to some of the questionable ones like Dhaulagiri and Manaslu and Shishapangma,\u201d Gildea said).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But doubt has been cast, no matter how carefully it is couched, on many of mountaineering\u2019s legendary figures. The shadow falls most on Reinhold Messner, the Italian mountaineer who was first to claim all 14 peaks. Messner, climbing\u2019s biggest star and greatest showman, now 76, would seem to have the most to lose if any of his accomplishments were diminished by even a few meters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a video call, Messner said he made 31 attempts on the 8,000-meter peaks, reaching a summit 18 times, all without supplemental oxygen. He acknowledged the possibility that he has not stood on the precise high point of each mountain. On Annapurna, he said, after scaling a wall long thought impossible, he reached the \u201cflat summit ridge\u201d in a wicked wind with poor visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf they say maybe on Annapurna I got 5 meters below the summit, somewhere on this long ridge, I feel totally OK,\u201d Messner said. \u201cI will not even defend myself. If somebody would come and say, this is all bullshit what you did? Think what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giving a tutorial on modern mountaineering history, Messner said that leading climbers before him focused mostly on summits. Each of the 8,000-meter peaks was conquered between 1950 and 1964. (Everest, by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, in 1953.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who followed focused on new routes, degrees of difficulty and matters of style. The summit, Messner said, was a secondary goal. Tomaz Humar\u2019s solo climb up the south wall of Dhaulagiri in 1999, a route that Messner attempted with no success two decades before, ended short of the summit but high in climbing lore. Messner called it \u201cthe most important ascent of the decade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no right or wrong,\u201d Messner said. \u201cThere is only the knowledge of what was yesterday, and the enthusiasm for what you are doing. I cannot say the line that Hillary did on Everest is wrong. It\u2019s his line, it\u2019s his piece of art. He expressed himself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A New Record Book<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurgalski ultimately sees two lists. There would be a new one, starting now, for a new era of climbers who indisputably get to the true summit of the world\u2019s highest mountains. With today\u2019s technology, there should be little debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Jurgalski would have a historical list, with those 37 names. His plan is to create a scoring system. The true summit for each of the 14 peaks would be worth 1,000 points; a perfect score would be 14,000. Maybe a climber gets 980 points for coming up 20 meters short on that mountain, or 970 for that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen we can say, this is the historical table, where all the claims are in it,\u201d Jurgalski said. \u201cAll these things I want to clear, before I leave this planet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plenty will say that none of this truly matters. If climbing itself has no collective purpose, then how can a level of achievement within it be considered critical knowledge? If climbing is a personal journey of discovery, then why keep score?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are stakes. There are rewards of fame and adulation. There are sponsorship deals and lecture circuits. In some countries, cash rewards and government jobs await those who ascend the highest peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are always races to be the first \u2014 the first climber, the first woman, the first from your country, the first with a disability. Motivations to climb these mountains may be personal, but not always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jurgalski\u2019s idea to reset the record book might inadvertently start a new competition, with new incentives to cut corners \u2014 or to stop short of the ultimate goal, literally and figuratively. Who will be the first to definitely prove to have stood atop all the true summits?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy are we doing this? What do we want to happen?\u201d Gildea said, posing the key questions to himself. \u201cI just want people to know, and I want people to have the discussion. And if it all comes out that nobody cares, nobody does anything, well, OK. I still go on with my life, and I still climb what I want. But at least people know. They can\u2019t say they didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Branch (c.2021 The New York Times Company) Only 44 people have reached the summit of all 14 of the world\u2019s 8,000-meter peaks, according to the people who chronicle such things. Or, they now say, maybe no one has. The difference rides on a timeless question getting a fresh look: What is a summit? …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":209019,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,26,57],"tags":[2890,2891,2892],"class_list":["post-209018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-sport","category-emergency-news-world","tag-climbers","tag-shishapangma","tag-summit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emtv.com.pg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}