|
| |
||
| | |
|
 |  |  |  |
|||||||
 | | | ||||||||
| | |||||||||
| |
|||||||||
 |  | |
|
|||||||
| | |||||||||
| | |||||||||
| | |||||||||
| |
|||||||||
|
 |
Dispatch: Praise for Alzner Advanced Base Camp, China - Wednesday, July 5, 2000
Editor's Note: On Sunday, July 2, The Portland Oregonian and its website, OregonLive.com, published a story by Terry Richards, the Oregonian reporter accompanying the K2000 expedition. Two days ago an article critical of the leadership and communication skills of team leader Jeff Alzner was published in The Oregonian newspaper of Portland (Jeff's hometown). One of my statements was a key element of the article. I stand by the statement but not without accompanying praise. While I have been at the blunt end of Jeff's caustic comments, I have also seen him stop crises in their tracks. I have seen him laugh and joke with everyone. I have talked to him at 8am after he spent the entire night working on our trip. He was excited and animated. He has mortgaged his future for his dream of climbing K2. I hope his communication skills improve but if they don't I will probably continue to reply angrily with empty threats and go on climbing the mountain. It is impossible to explain the dynamics of a four-month expedition. Group interplay, personality quirks, the constant stress of climbing, being away from loved ones and sitting through long storms make for situations that would have most psychologist recommending a padded room just for considering going on such a trip. Too much is read into angry responses. Jeff is one of our own. In the end that is the most important thing. Terry (the author of the article) is not a climber and from comments he has made does not understand expeditions well. We are not a regiment. We are a group of very strong willed individuals who are here for our own selfish reason, to climb K2. We do not follow blindly. In fact, what following we do is with that purpose in mind. Any leadership of this group will often be ugly. Jeff is the leader and bears that burden. What should accompany is the praise of the group and any glory the climb should bring. Terry tapped into something important in our group but I would argue that nothing we are doing is very important and for that reason any airing of dirty laundry is not important enough to justify the concomitant pain it brings. In the end we are climbing. No one will win a Nobel Prize. No one will cure world hunger or stop wars. My arguments with Jeff are not over. We will probably yell at each other again but when the expedition is over he will still be my friend. He is one of our own. — Shawn O'Fallon, MountainZone.com Correspondent |
||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Email this story to a friend