On Top

 I read a book called The Leadership Moment by the author and Wharton professor, Michael Useem several years ago that I really enjoyed.  The book tells nine true stories of both triumph and disaster, which is right up my alley!  I knew some of the stories, including the tragic story of Wagner Dodge and the Mann Gulch Fire (also told in the book, Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean) and the famous stand by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine on Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg (also told in the Civil War novel The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg based on the novel).  However, I also learned some new stories, including the story of Arlene Blum, who led the first successful American ascent of the mountain Annapurna I.  I've been intrigued by that story ever since, and I've been wanting to learn more about it.

Annapurna I has been called "The Deadliest Mountain in the World" due to its highest fatality-to-summit rate among the world's 8,000 meter peaks.  Until 2012, the fatality rate (as a percentage of successful summit attempts) was 32%, but that rate has now fallen to under 20% due to a number of successful attempts in the last few years.  The mountain is still quite dangerous due to the number of avalanches, unpredictable weather, and the technical difficulty of its climbing routes.  It is the 10th highest mountain in the world at just 8,091 meters (26,545 feet) above sea level.  The mountaineer Maurice Herzog led a successful summit by an all-French team in 1950, making Annapurna I the first of the 8,000 meter peaks to be successfully climbed.  The mountain is named after the Hindu goddess of the harvest.

A British team successfully reached the summit in 1970, and the first expedition from the United States to reach the summit was the American Women's Himalayan Expedition, an all female expedition team led by Arlene Blum, in 1978.  Blum was an accomplished mountaineer, but expedition mountaineering at that time was largely a male-dominated sport.  Blum had tried to join an expedition to Afghanistan in 1969 and was told that the presence of a female would undercut the "masculine companionship which is so vital a part of the joy of an expedition."  One year later, she had applied to join an expedition of Alaska's Denali (previously known as Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America) and was told that if she joined, her duties would be restricted to cooking at base camp.  One of her close male friends told her, "You should not sacrifice life on the same altar of egotism that causes men to join the Marines, shoot buffalo, and drive fast cars."  Blum responded by leading her own, all female team that successfully reached the 20,300 foot summit of Denali in 1970.

Blum's early success opened up new opportunities for her, and she was the first American woman to attempt climbing Mount Everest as part of the American Bicentennial Expedition in 1976.  A chance encounter with legendary Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz and British climber Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz on an earlier expedition had led to the concept of an all female attempt at Annapurna I, and after her failed summit attempt of Everest, Blum stopped at the Ministry of Tourism in Kathmandu on the way home for a 1978 permit to climb Annapurna I.

Blum recruited a number of experienced mountaineers for her team.  In order to raise the $80,000 required to finance the expedition, the team sold 15,000 T-shirts with the expedition's slogan, "A Woman's Place Is on Top".  The team encountered a number of issues throughout the expedition (including a temporary strike by their team of Sherpas), all of which demonstrated Blum's exceptional leadership skills, as told in Michael Useem's book as well as Blum's own memoir of the expedition, Annapurna: A Women's Place.  Importantly, as of August 1978, only eight climbers had ever successfully reached the summit, and nine other climbers had died during various attempts.  There were only three "established" routes to climb, and Blum decided to use the route known as "The Dutch Rib", as it seemed to have less avalanches, which were a daily occurrence on the other two routes.  

Blum herself decided not to make an attempt at the summit, as she was not feelin well.  However, she knew that as a the team leader, her ultimate success was for the fellow climbers on her team to reach the summit.  She defined the expedition's success by the team's ultimate success, and not by her own personal success.  The first team composed of two climbers (Irene Beardsley and Vera Komarkova - a third climber, Piro Kramer, an eye surgeon, decided to stop after developing frostbite on her right index finger) and two Sherpas (Mingma Tshering Sherpa and Chewang Rinjing Sherpa) of reached the summit on October 15, 1978.  Unfortunately, a second team, consisting of climbers Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz and Vera Watson was not successful, both of whom died on the mountain. 

While the expedition was still viewed as a success (it was even hailed by The New York Times as an "inspiration to women" everywhere), Blum was still criticized for some of the decisions that she had made.  Moreover, the team continued to encounter male chauvinism.  One letter to National Geographic, which had partially financed the expedition, written by mountaineer Galen Rowell said, "Had the men on Annapurna been Americans instead of Nepalese, no one would have gotten away with a claim that this was an achievement by and for American women."  Regardless, in hindsight (we have that luxury), the American Women's Himalayan Expedition broke down significant barriers and opened up opportunities for women in both the sport of mountaineering and in general.  The successful summit attempt by these Americans was an incredible achievement, and I would highly recommend Blum's book and the account written in The Leadership Moment.