Alpinist 23. K2: The Russian Route. Read it? As I sat on the toilet and read this piece I found myself a bit constipated. But not because of a lack of fiber in my diet. (My wife says I should try eating Fiber One but when I was a kid I had a rabbit named Choncy and he ate something along the same lines. And then he died. Lesson learned. I’m not dying like my rabbit did.) Anyway, the article isn’t easy to follow, but I don’t want to put this on the translator. What caused my digestion to grind to a halt was the attitude this guy Pavel “Pasha” Shabalin takes with his siege style tactics. I’m not going to bother counting but there were about twenty people on his team. Even Snow White only had seven dwarves. What the hell was everybody for? I felt like I was looking through a high school yearbook looking at all the pictures of everybody who “climbed” the Russian Route. Oh the horror of being alone here on the mountain! Oh the howling wind! The cold ice! The danger! Only fifteen other men to snuggle with!
“Pasha” (cute nickname, but you aren’t a wrestler so we can forgo it if you are ever introduced in public) goes on to talk about how collectivism is his cup of tea and that anyone who wants to talk to him about climbing ethics should basically piss off. Well I’d like to tell “Pasha” to piss off. He left tents and food and fixed lines all over K2. I guess they didn’t have time to build a gondola.