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Peter Haan
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
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Perhaps this helps a little: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhFx17s4a2E&feature=em-share_video_user
A lengthy and fascinating self-made video Kyle did three years ago in the Karakol; he is biking into the unknown at huge risk. Lots of Kyle explaining what is happening and how he feels. What a mensch!
Ham and Eggs posted a vimeo link of the same file over in another thread, btw.
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Kyle was slated to be a student of mine at the writer's symposium we've been holding in Carbondlae, Co., for the last few years. But we only had ten slots and he was eleven so Duane, at Rock and Ice, told him, "Next year." Then a student fell out and Duane called Kyle back and said, "You're in." But Kyle had since made plans to go to Pakistan, so it'd have to be "next year" after all. Anyhow, Duane ended up giving the slot to a girl, call her Wendy, who was gifted the course by some anonymous patron.
Wendy was a mess: lifelong psychiatric challenges from crushing abuse issues, and so much social anxiety she could barely speak. I had to talk here into staying about ten times a day, but she hung tough, and doing so gave her a boundary experience, enabling her to get out of her in-patient facility and start living on her own. She's been sober for two years and was going to go "out" but called me and we got through it. Then she found a job - her first - working in a restaurant. Little money but she was flat broke and still is but is happy and has a place to stay. She started climbing two years ago and she claimed that saved her life. She showed a kind of numinous quality in class and could write the sh#t out whatever she tried, fearlessly pouring her soul onto the page.
Anyhow, these crisis situations (per the Ogre) are alter-state events that have a kind of gravity that pulls people together in strange, even wonderful ways. Like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle aligning into the contours of a community rarely seen or even perceived during lax times. The hope was that Kyle and Scott would once again be part of the puzzle, after the pieces settled. They weren't. They died up there, or so it seems. A bad deal all around.
But I was looking at a list of contributors on the YouFundIt site (for the rescue - 200 grand raised from nearly 5,000 people) and I saw that Wendy had donated 150 dollars. Of course she's broke, meaning she must have sighed over her entire check from the restaurant, hoping to help save people she had never met.
She could not save Kyle and Scott, but through her act of giving, I trust she was able to save herself, reclaiming those shards of her humanity shattered during the soul-murder of her early years. And in turn she took her rightful place, perhaps for the first time, on the jigsaw puzzle of life, taking the place of Kyle and Scott, lost to the storm in Pakistan.
Kyle was a soulful character who I can see now, peering down from the mountain at Wendy - finally back with the living - and him saying, "That's what I'm talking about."
Every loss is an opportunity for someone - hollow words to the near and dear of Kyle and Scott, but they didn't die for nothing. I know that for a fact because I know Wendy.
JL
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Plaidman
Trad climber
West Slope of Powell Butte, Portland, Oregon, USA
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Thx John.
Plaid
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BLUEBLOCR
Social climber
joshua tree
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If I knew my dad, I think I'd be better off if he was a bit like you.
That's quite the nice complement towards EdH, who's only 29 I think?
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BruceHildenbrand
Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
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John,
a great insight into how life works!
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hellroaring
Trad climber
San Francisco
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Thank you John Long for those words of insight & wisdom. Heart & thoughts to those close to a pair of amazing people. Individuals who threw off the chains of a mundane & everyday life...
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micronut
Trad climber
Fresno/Clovis, ca
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Thank you John. My heart goes out to all who knew Scott and Kyle and my hope is that their legacy continues to sustain and give joy to their friends, family and the climbing tribe for many years to come.
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Brian in SLC
Social climber
Salt Lake City, UT
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Thanks, John. Actually made me mist up a bit...whew...
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jstan
climber
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We all can point to persons whose death has made our own personal world a little poorer. Charlie Porters passing is a case in point for myself. He was full of a very infectious form of life. Isn't this kind of loss relevant for each of us? But when each of us accepts a risk this potential loss to others too seldom comes into the equation.
Shouldn't it?
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guyman
Social climber
Moorpark, CA.
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I have been waiting to post something, well because I do believe in miracles.
I have been waiting for the day when Scott and Kyle would emerge from a snow cave with a harrowing tale to tell all of us.
I guess that's not to be.
When I go off on my own puny adventures my wife knows why I do it and she knows that if I fail to return it is the path I choose. I did it my way.
Thanks to all who posted, many here can express what I feel but I am unable to put into words. Your words have helped me think deeply about life and death.
I wish to extend my sincere condolences to the lost climbers, their Families and many friends.
peace
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MH2
Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
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"You write yourself off before a big climb."
Kim Momb
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rbord
Boulder climber
atlanta
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Shouldn't it?
According to my omniscient calculations, sure, but according to the evolved psychological tendencies of evolution's ill-informed math, nah.
RIP fellas - we'll miss you.
Carry on, living folks.
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mountain girl
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Just beautiful, JL.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Ingrid
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Wen
Trad climber
Bend, OR
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Once again JL your writing both knocks me off my feet, and causes me to stop in my tracks to think anew. Thank you for being you and sharing your brain with us, Supertaco is a great place sometimes.
RIP to two awesome souls. Kyle's biking across Pakistan video is still with me days after I watched it. If you all haven't seen it, please seek it out, it is well worth your time to understand the spirit that guided Kyle toward his last adventure. I can only assume Scott was drawn to similar ideas, and in that way was just as inspirational as his buddy.
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Mur of Opotrepus
climber
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Sep 16, 2016 - 11:42pm PT
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In the internet age (weather reports etc) it seems very odd they would hang it out that far.
There must be a lot of pressure to summit from BD.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Sep 17, 2016 - 09:22am PT
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In the internet age (weather reports etc) it seems very odd they would hang it out that far.
There must be a lot of pressure to summit from BD.
What a ludicrous presumption.
You probably have little understanding of the motivations behind extreme alpine ascents.
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chainsaw
Trad climber
CA
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Sep 17, 2016 - 07:01pm PT
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Thanks J.L. Thanks for being like a father to so many.
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Sep 18, 2016 - 08:07am PT
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There was another party queued for the peak, it would be interesting to know for which route...
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!