We’ve all heard the stories of unexpected rescues: folks who end up stranded on a cliff face, stuck on a backcountry road mid-winter, or picked up in the middle of the desert. It’s actually surprising that more people don’t need to be rescued on a regular basis. But, I’ll admit to being disappointed when I read about a K2 base camp rescue recently in the New York Times, ( January 17, 2010: K2: A Trek to Danger’s Doorstep ).
Author Graham Bowley and his cousin-turned-photographer trek to the base-camp as a research project for Bowley’s upcoming book, “No Way Down,” which hits stores this June. His travelogue opens with an intro to K2’s nasty statistics: few summit attempts, fewer successful summits, and a 28-percent fatality rate for folks who have conquered the 28,251-foot peak. Despite the fact that Bowley’s research is focused on the dangers of the mountain, he and his cousin, 29-year-old architect Andrew Ensslen, get choppered off the mountain after Ensslen succumbs to serious altitude sickness. Altitude sickness is dangerous, but also totally preventable, and if these explorers had known the symptoms of and been honest about how they were feeling, it’s likely that they wouldn’t have required such dramatic rescue. If a researcher who’s actively researching death on K2 can’t even recognize the symptoms of one of its biggest dangers, what hope is there for the casual adventurer and explorer who unknowingly gets in over her head?
One of our missions here at Women’s Adventure it to give women the tools and resources to adventure safely and, as our tagline says, thrive in the wild. Clearly, Mr. Bowley could use the same thing. Maybe I’ll send him a copy of our next issue.
