Film fest report

[Bogen]

Saw the world premiere of "Brotherhood of the Rope" by Dr. Charles Houston. Awesome! The historical footage of the 1938 and 1953 American expeditions to K2 were amazing, and to hear the tales told by Dr. Houston's own narration was a great experience. Don't miss this if you get the chance.

 

Also in the K2 retrospective was talk by John Roskelley, and a film following some hot spanish chick's attempt to be the 6th woman to climb k2. All the 5 women who had summitted K2 are dead, 3 of them on descent, and the film chronicles each of the women and the circumstances of their climbs and deaths.

 

More interesting was the detective tale told by Robert Marshall, a non climber who became interested in the details of the Italian conquest of K2 in 1954. Marshall has amassed evidence exhonerating Bonati and accusing Compagnoni of lying both then and now about the truth on that day that Bonati and Mahdi bivouaced in the open above 26 000 feet. Compagnoni has claimed that Bonati used some of their oxygen during the bivouac, and that consequently Compagnoni summitted without oxygen, because it ran out. Marshall shows, quite convincingly, that not only could Bonati not have used the oxygen if he wanted to, but that Compagnoni most certainly still had oxygen, and was using it, well after the summit. Marshall's concluding statement, if you will pardon my loose quote, goes something like "So, in the end, I was wrong and Compagnoni was right, they did run out of oxygen at 8400. But it wasn't on the way up, it was on the bloody way down!"

 

Among the more popular films shown was "Alone across Australia" by Jon Muir. Jon has crossed the continent in 128 days with no support whatsoever. About three quarters of the way in, his dog, a lively Jack Russel named Seraphine that figures prominently in the film, even sharing Jon's sleeping bag, dies, probably from ingesting poisoned bait left for dingos. The crowd gasps, and some sob along with the man on film as he cradles his beloved companion (all camera work is by Jon, he is truly alone) I wonder how he could have let it happen - hell even I know they poison the dingos.

 

Later, I meet him at the BMFF staff wrap up party, and have the chance to ask him a few questions over beers:

Concerning the dog - yes he agrees he should have known better. Usually they don't bait the dingos around the stations (ranches) because of their own pets. The station where Seraphine died turned out to be abandoned, and had poison bait all over.

 

I ask him why, amongst all the often graphic footage of his trip, there is no mention of the insects he most certainly must have eaten. He assures me that it is simply that all the bug-eating footage was of poor quality.

 

I ask him if he had one piece of advice for aspiring adventurers, what would it be. He reflects for a moment, and says "If you go somewhere, say you start here," and he jabs a finger on the table, "and you want to go here, yeah" he jabs again, up and to the left of the last jab, oddly two points in the same relation on a map as the origin and conclusion of his trek. "If you hit a point where you really begin to question why you're there" and at this he jabs a point roughly three quarters of the way between the two points, "the most important thing to remember is that you are there because you chose to be there."

 

Well, this is not quite what I'm after. When I asked Himalayan climber Krzysztof Wielicki (again, over a beer) this question in Vancouver, he told me to buy my boots a size and half too big as a surefire way to avoid losing toes. Now there's something you can take to the bank! But more than this simple comparison begins to nag at me as I speak to Jon. I ask him if he means by this that his resolve is less about strength of will than it is about going with the flow, and he says, "yeah, going with the flow, that's it exactly." And there is the big difference I think. For a mountaineer, the flow always leads downhill!

 

Curious now about his motivations, I decide to press him a little harder. Any of the world class mountaineering adventurers I've met have a uniformly firm, warm hand shake, a glint to their eye and a ready laugh. This man, the first great trekker I've met, is withdrawn, his handshake is limp and shy, and there is pain in those eyes. There is a look to him, a look I think I've seen before. I ask him about his wife. "No," he says, "We're divorced" But I'm sure that I saw some woman with the same last name in the credits, and with a lengthening face he admits, yes that was her. I ask him if it was the adventuring that ended the marriage, and pain almost leaps off his face, as he leans far away from me, head back and eyes wider, violently and quickly shaking his head from side to side. I don't wish to bother him this much, so I allow a pause, smile knowingly and steaksauce understandingly as I have a sip. Of course, it is at this very moment that my ride to the hotel comes to collect me, the moment is lost and I cannot pry further. Looking at him, I suspect then that it is the opposite, the divorce led to the adventure. It was not the beauty and excitement that led him into the desert, it was his pain that drove him there. I say thanks, nice talking to you, and he curtly nods in response. I stand and leave, then turn back and hold out my second to last beer, untouched. He looks at me, then at the beer, shrugs and accepts it without thanks. Hours later, I'm told, he is sitting in the same corner, still alone as the party draws to a close.

[Dru]

isn't that the same jon muir who sews his own clothes out of rabbit skins?

[Bogen]

Hadn't heard that, but I don't doubt it for a second. Pretty "bushy" looking fella, smokes rollies.