Laurence Leamer - Ascent: The Spiritual And Physical Quest Of Legendary Mountaineer Willi Unsoeld

LAURENCE LEAMER was a volunteer in the Peace Corps in Nepal when he met Willi Unsoeld. Learner was so taken by him that, when Willi died fourteen years later, he felt compelled to write this book in his memory. An awardwinning journalist and author of over nine books, including his most recent, Three Chords and the Truth, Laurence Learner lives in Florida.

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WILLI UNSOELD, a legend among mountaineers-a man whom Bill Moyers calls one of the few giants he has ever met-fearlessly challenged the worlds highest peaks and inspired a generation of climbers with his legacy. Ascent is the story of his life-a thrilling tale of physical and spiritual adventure that captures the hypnotic force behind this extraordinary personality. From his triumphant conquest of Everests forbidding West Ridge to the tragic loss of his daughter on the treacherous slopes of Nanda Devi to his final, fatal attempt at Mount Rainier, we see Willi as guru and guide, lover of danger and philosopher of risk-a man whose indomitable spirit triggered such devotion that people followed him fearlessly to extraordinary heights and, sometimes, even to their deaths. A dramatic saga of bravery, daring, and the search for spiritual truth, Ascent brilliantly captures the mythic figure of Willi Unsoeld.

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Willi was always teaching. He used his life as the lesson book, reading from it as if it were a profound text. When Willi died his whole life lay there, a tome that a person could read and ponder, in wonder and awe, regret and sorrow, joy and horror, taking from the testimony of his days whatever one could.

I have sought to write a book in which the reader can truly experience Willis life, to go along with him on his spiritual and physical quest. The dialogue in Ascent comes directly from Willis own recollections and the recollections of others who were present at various gatherings and discussions. In taking a lengthy discussion and putting it down in a few pages in a book, one is inevitably highly selective. What I have done is highlight that part of the dialogue and debate that Willi himself considered important, and that elucidate Willis own quest. For instance, when the Nanda Devi expedition members got together at the Unsoelds, they spent most of the hours talking about the mundane, minute detail of planning their climb. But it was the drama of that evening that Willi remembered and told about in his Nanda Devi lecture. And it was the drama that made the evening unique and important. And so it appears in Ascent.

People love talking about Willi Unsoeld. I have reams and reams of anecdotes, stories, and remembrances that did not find their way into the text. But each interview added to my understanding of Willi and to this book, and I want particularly to thank those whose names dont appear in the text.

Many people contributed more than interviews. Mrs. Isabel Unsoeld decided that if I was going ahead writing a book about her son, I should be as free and unfettered as the ideals for which Willi lived. I will always remember my visit with Mrs. Unsoeld and Willis sister, Isabel Chrisman, in California.

Bill Turnage was the friend to whom Willi could talk most freely in his last years; I am honored that I too now think of Bill as my friend. Barry Williams and I had long conversations on the telephone; he pointed the way to Jungs archetype of the puer eternis, the eternal youth. Erik LeRoy led me up the Grand Teton; Willi couldnt have done better. Rod MacLeish wrote a letter that helped more than he knows. Bill Robinson steered me toward the book the way we used to steer each other home on evenings in Dhankuta, Calcutta, and points east. Dr. Steve Cole and I traveled together returning from Nepal; every time I see Steve I feel that we are still traveling together. Judith Starr provided endless sound comment.

On the publishing side of this venture, I have a large number of people to thank. My agent, Carol Mann, saw the potential of this before anyone else. When I was starting out a number of editors and others contributed their ideas: Patrick Filley, Erwin Glikes, Fred Graver, Joyce Johnson, Juris Jurjevics, and especially Susan Bolotin. Good friends of mine read the first draft: Judith Starr, Bill Turnage, Carol Mann, Kitty Kelley, Mike Edgley, and Peter Ross Range. Barry Bishop read the Everest chapters. Patti Pancoe typed the manuscript. Then Alice Mayhew edited the manuscript with the skill and dedication that is her standard.

In my research I have read the books Willi read, from the Bible to Ken Kesey, Plato to Kierkegaard, Bergson to Otto. One of my happiest discoveries was Willis favorite novelist, Don Berry, whose books far transcend the category of western novel. I was not nearly so impressed with another of Willis favorites, Joseph Fletchers Situation Ethics. Willis Ph.D. thesis, Mysticism,Morality and Freedom: The Role of the Vital Impetus in Bergsons Theory of Ethics, was helpful.

Among the other books I found useful were: Joseph Campbells Hero with a Thousand Faces; Ernest Beckers Denial of Death; Puer Papers, edited by Cynthia Giles; Roderick Nashs Wilderness and the American Mind; Reinhold Niebuhrs Moral Man and Immoral Society; and Miguel de Unamunos The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Nations.

Of course, I read and profited from climbing and outdoor books including Tom Hornbeins beautiful Everest: The West Ridge, recently republished by The Mountaineers. James Ramsey Ullman couldnt leave the Katmandu valley in 1963, but his Americans on Everest is still a major achievement. John McCallums Everest Diary was useful as well. So was Leigh Ortenburgers A Climbers Guide to the Teton Range; Fritiof Fryxells Mountaineering in the Tetons: The Pioneer Period 18981940; Robert Craigs Storm and Sorrow in the High Pamirs; Rick Ridgeways The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2; Showell Styles Mallory of Everest; Dee Molenaars The Challenge of Rainier; Joshua L. Miners and Joe Boldts Outward Bound USA; and Chris Jones, Climbing in North America.

Willi loved to talk about himself. Accounts of his speeches were invaluable. In my opinion the best single article about Willi is Worth Hedricks piece published in 1976 in Seattles The Weekly. I gained much information from articles in The Oregon Daily Emerald, The Daily Olympian, The Eugene Register-Guard, Off-Belay, Summit, Outside, The Anderson Herald, The Cooper Point Journal, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Seattle Times, The Los Angeles Times, Life, and