I am bursting with pride!!!

As you recall, my friend Michael Kodas has climbed Mt. Everest twice and has a book coming out on February 5th.

Well, Michael made the New York Times this morning with an Op-Ed piece on China's plan to pave a road to the summit for the 2008 Olympics.

I'm so proud of Michael and can't wait till the book hits the stores. Here's the Op-Ed piece:

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The Height of Avarice

By MICHAEL KODAS
Published: June 26, 2007
Hartford

When China announced its plans to pave a highway to the Mount Everest base camp in Tibet as part of its 2008 Olympic preparations, adventurers around the world winced at the latest encroachment into the Himalayan wilderness. Mountaineers who have already been to Everest, however, were more likely to greet the announcement of the “blacktop highway fenced with undulating guardrails” with little more than a shrug.

Despite an elevation of more than 17,000 feet, it’s been a long time since the Chinese base camp has resembled a wilderness.

A multistory hotel has been open for years now, just an hour’s walk from base camp, with hot meals, cold beer, soft beds and a telescope aimed at the mountaintop. A giant cellular phone tower constructed by China Telecom a mile from the base camp provided phone service all the way to the summit during much of the just-completed spring climbing season.

An official from the Tibetan Mountaineering Association welcomed the paving of the Everest highway, saying that “climbers will be able to save their energy for climbing.” But the reality is that they already do. While on the Nepal side of Everest, climbers walk for a week to get to base camp, on the Chinese side almost all of the climbers have been arriving in vehicles for decades.

China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency reported the road is being paved to ease the Olympic torch’s trip to the summit during what is planned as the highlight of the most ambitious torch run in the history of the Games: an 85,000-mile, 130-day journey that will cross five continents. But Chinese climbers already took the torch to the top of the mountain during a dry run of the Olympic climb in May. Other mountaineers reported that the large Chinese team tested several torches to see which would burn best in the thin air. So why would they need a paved road to get the torch to the summit next year?

In mountaineering terms, a new highway is built on Everest every year — new ropes and ladders fixed all the way to the summit allow an ever-increasing number of climbers with an ever-decreasing average level of skill and experience a chance to reach the summit. While some mountaineers may bristle at the idea of a paved, two-lane road to the mountain, hundreds of Tibetans and Sherpas in one of the poorest regions of Asia, for whom the highway will provide employment opportunities, will certainly see the announcement as good news.

Advocates for Tibetan independence, however, probably won’t. Many have complained the torch climb is just another way for the Communist government to plant its flag on a state that was independent until 1951. The Tibetan cause has become tightly tied to Western mountaineers in the last year, after scores of climbers on another Tibetan peak, Cho Oyu, reported seeing Chinese soldiers firing on Tibetan refugees trying to cross into Nepal, killing a Tibetan nun. But, like most roads into the mountains, this path seems less about taking a torch or a flag into the wilderness than about bringing money back from it. In 1996 — the year of the disaster on Everest made famous in Jon Krakauer’s “Into Thin Air” — some 98 climbers reached the summit. Nearly 600 made it in the latest climbing season. And by far the greatest increase in visitation has been on the Chinese side of Everest, turning the Chinese base camp into something of a frontier town.

During my last visit, in 2006, more than 80 large tents spread out like a tenement at the end of the road to base camp, all of them filled with Chinese and Tibetans offering liquor, bunks, meals and gear. Prostitutes and pimps openly propositioned Western mountaineers, and Tibetan pony carts, like colorful, miniature stagecoaches, offered rides to the monastery at nearby Rongbuk. Doctors told me that in addition to the traditional frostbite and altitude sickness, they now treat plenty of venereal diseases and wounds from base-camp brawls.

The Chinese government seems more than aware of what lies behind the wholesome image they project on the mountain Tibetans call Chomolungma — the “Goddess Mother of the Universe.” When the climbers testing the torches showed up at the mountain last month, they brought a piece of equipment thought unprecedented in the history of Everest climbing: rifles, carried by the sentries posted at the barracks guarding the entrance to the camp.

There will be protests, of course, but one thing is clear: By creating a new level of ease in reaching the base camp and the summit, China is about to turn Mount Everest into the first arena, and profit center, of its Olympic Games.


Michael Kodas is the author of the forthcoming “High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed.”

After hearing all of the horror stories from Mike about the violence on Everest, I'm even more anxious to read all about it.

:D :D :D :D I can't stop smiling with pride!!

His book sounds interesting! I will read that when it comes out. I already read the "Into Thin Air" mentioned in the article. It was a fascinating book.

It's hard to believe 600 people scaled Mt. Everest in one season. There must have been a crowd every day at the top.

Congratulations to Michael Kodas.

I'm excited to read his book as well! It must be a neat experiance to have a friend being published.

I'm very much against making Everest easier to access. Each year more and more inexperienced climbers are making an attempt at the summit. With the help of Sherpa’s, guides, and equipment many of these climbers are making it way too far up the mountain for their own good. The amount of gear that is dumped on the mountain each year is disgusting; pictures of the empty O2 tanks make parts of this majestic mountain look like a recycling yard.

The biggest issue though is weather. It's only a matter of time before another major tragedy strikes because climbers with little experience at altitude are going to get trapped in a very bad situation.

There’s a documentary by one of the big channels, Discovery?, where it shows the climbers worried about running out of 02 because they’re waiting in line to reach the summit and very, very few non Tibetans can stay at altitude for long without supplemental oxygen.

AbbyMom,

I just started reading "Into Thin Air" and I can't put it down!

CMayer,

I watched the Discovery Channel's documentary on Everest. I was fascinated by it.

That sounds really interesting Donna, I'll watch for the book.

Hmmmmmm....that sounds like a must read. I hope we can get it here downunder.
I have always been fascinated with the stories I read of those climbs....truly amazing feats of endurance.
I agree with Cmayer tho about the rubbish, seems a few teams of dedicated climbers go there every now and again to clean up the rubbish, and find that job almost impossible because of the amount of discarded gear.
Congrats to your mate Michael, I'm sure you are very proud of him Donna.
Wom

Hey Wom,

I'll be happy to send you one once it comes out. I told Michael I'd be second in line (behind his wife Carolyn, of course who also made the two trips with him) to purchase it and he promised me he'd autograph it for me.

The trash that's left behind on the mountain has recently become a hot commodity. Climbers will go up and retrieve empty oxygen bottles and all sorts of stuff then auction it off for profit. I somehow think it's tacky to profit on someone else's demise. But that's me.

I recently asked a man being intereviewed on a local cable show, who climbed Everest, how he felt when passing the bodies of climbers who didn't make it. He said at first he wanted to save them all, but realized it was unrealistic, as climbing to the top of the world is a life and death feat, and it's every person for themselves.