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Winter
Makalu 2000/2001 11-29-2000 Dispatch
Meeting
Miss Elizabeth Hawley
She
is a legend among the Alpinists who reach Nepal.
A small, fragile, witty person with great
memory. She is the biggest authority, a
connoisseur of Himalaism and a chronicler of
events taking place in the mountains of Nepal,
although she has never climbed or wandered
around them.
Miss
Elizabeth Hawley is 76 years old. She found her
way to Nepal by accident 41 years ago. After
that she came back here and never left. She is a
long-time correspondent of Reuters and sends
articles and information to magazines devoted to
mountains and climbing from nine countries:
"American Alpine Journal" in the USA,
"Himalayan Journal" in the India,
"Alp" in Italy, "Climber" in
Great Britain, "Klettern" in Germany,
"Vertical" in France, "Yama-kei"
in Japan, "Desnivel" in Spain,
"Die Alpin" in Switzerland.
Miss
Hawley (as everybody calls her here) calls or appears
within an hour or two from the arrival of each
expedition to Katmandu. Regardless of how many members
it has, which hotel or hole they stay in and how many
expeditions come here at one go. This woman is
definitely the best-informed person in town. However,
she does not want to speak about herself. She has a
habit to deliver her one-and-a-half page-long
biographical note, which, she thinks, should be
sufficient. She may be annoyed with too much
inquisitiveness, although she herself hands in a
questionnaire with very detailed questions. Four of
them, grouped in one package, concern the marital
status: is a member of the expedition married,
divorced, single or living with a friend? Miss Hawley
claims to have known a man who answered yes to all the
above questions. This man was Reinhold Messner, who at
the time parted his wife. Italy did not recognize
divorce and he was living with a Canadian Indian, with
whom he traveled Tibet and the Himalayas, but he felt
very lonely those days.
Elizabeth
Hawley was born on 9th November 1923. She
graduated from the Michigan University, at the
department of history, where she was an assistant. She
was 23 when she began her journalist adventure working
in New York and after that traveling for the
"Fortune" magazine. After 11years she gave
up the job in order to regain her freedom. For the
next two years she visited The Soviet Union, The
Middle East, southern and eastern Asia. In 1960 she
went to Nepal.
"I
am too lazy to walk the mountains. Besides, I value
good food and a warm bed too much. I like to look at
the mountains" - she says laughing. Despite that
she is a member of many mountain organizations.
American Alpine Club, to which she belongs, honored
her with a special literary prize. A Swiss King Albert
Memorial Foundation handed her its most prestigious
award - King Albert Medal of Merit granted to
"individuals and institutions for outstanding
activity in the world of mountains". Elizabeth
Hawley not only saved a large fragment of the history
of exploration from oblivion, she is also active
helping the local people. She is a great supporter of
the Himalayan Trust foundation established by sir
Edmund Hillary from New Zealand, the first conqueror
of Mount Everest. The foundation builds schools,
hospitals, bridges, waterworks, airports in Solu
Khumbu, the region of Mount Everest. Even though she
is an American she holds the position of the consul of
New Zealand.
Apart
from gathering information from Alpinists Miss Hawley
shares her knowledge. She brought a picture of Makalu
for the meeting with Krzysztof Wielicki, the head of
the Polish Winter Expedition 2000/2001. The picture
shows a clear view of the Western Leg with a marked
route to the top. She also has historical description
of mountaineering of the predecessors of the French
who marked the route in 1971, the Americans who also
climbed the same way as well as Erhard Loretan and
Jean Troillet, a famous Swiss duo who also ascended it
10 years ago. A challenge of a winter expedition is
music to Miss Hawley's ears. She has been telling
everyone that, despite interesting times, boredom
seems to haunt the Himalayas.
"Good,
old days" - says Miss Hawley of the past decades
and the pioneer times when Alpinists did not dispose
of any facilities. The past expeditions had one goal,
they were often from one country, had one technique of
setting up camps, balustrade ropes, used help of many
sherpas carrying large amounts of cargo. Reinhold
Messner abandoned the old style of climbing in the
eighties. He introduced the new rules, which he called
"mountaineering by fair means", that is
minimum artificial facilities, equipment, sherpas,
camps. He was a pioneer who ascended two
eight-thousand-meter high mountains one year (with no
oxygen to Mount Everest and taking a new route to the
top on his own).
Today
it is possible for a man with an artificial leg or
hand to climb Mount Everest or to spend a night in a
small tent at the summit. Some people started climbing
the mountains of Nepal very fast, with no stops. This
year a 14-year-old school pupil from Nepal attempted
to climb the Everest. He wanted to be the youngest on
the top. He got his fingers frost-bitten. People who
are seriously ill try to climb mountains. The problem
is that these are not devices that make people reach
the top easier but the human madness about the Everest
above all. Everything must be the biggest. We have a
63-year-old Japanese, the oldest man on Everest and a
50-year-old, the oldest woman. There is no end to this
race. is more, there are commercial expeditions, the
members of which are not experienced climbers but
people with too much ambition. The Alpine show
business starts to move into the Himalayas. You have
films showing skiing from the eight-thousand-meter
mountains as well as para-gliding from peaks which are
only a little smaller.
This
does not mean that nothing important happens in the
Himalayas as far as sports are concerned. Tomaz Humar
from Slovenia, an outstanding Alpinist climbed the
terrifying southern slope of Dhaulagiri. Other
climbers usually escaped to its side, traversing
towards a ridge.Messner once stood at the foot of the slope and
said: "No, this is a one way trip". Humar
ascended it. When he got to the height of 7900 meters
he realized that if he had wanted more, he would have
died. He traversed towards the traditional climbing
route and returned covering enormous distance. He is
an outstanding climber."
Elizabeth
Hawley is convinced that the European history of
Alpinism actually repeats itself in the Himalayas.
There are two exceptions: women in the Himalayas have
not played a pioneer role and there is demand only in
winter.
"This
winter there will be only three expeditions in Nepal
besides yours. All of them go to Ama Dablam (6856 m),
also in the area of Everest. Two are from Britain and
one from South Korea. People from other countries
(Spaniards, an Australian, American and Norwegian) are
also present in the British teams." - she
explained.
Although,
being a journalist, she knows something about the
speed of information flow, she is not satisfied that
we have a satellite phone. "You have a difficult
expedition ahead of you, without the help of Sherpas.
The members of the expedition should think about the
mountain, about what will happen, not about calling
their families, talking about their kids' problems at
school and missing their families. But please call me
when you get back from Katmandu."
