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SUMMER 2012
life direction evolved vicariously after
he read Maurice Herzog’s seminal 1951
account of climbing Annapurna, the
first conquest of an 8,000-meter peak in
the Himalayas. The disconnect between
Viesturs’ Midwestern upbringing
and his future passion was further
exacerbated by his earliest sporting
passion: competitive swimming. Endless
laps back and forth in chlorinated
water were a far cry from the freedom
of pitting his own physicality against
gravity and rock.
The mountains won out, and by the
time Viesturs was ready to strike out
for college it was to the University of
Washington. With Mount Rainier and
the Cascades so nearby, Seattle had
become a hotbed of mountaineering
activity, and Viesturs wanted to be a
part of it. He was hopelessly addicted to
climbing by then, and he eventually got
a job as a guide on Mount Rainier. His
peers were already going all around the
world on climbing expeditions, and he
soon figured out that if he worked hard
and kept his mouth shut he might be
invited along someday. In 1987 he was
10 years into his climbing career; he was
getting stronger and more skilled as a
mountaineer, and oddly he didn’t seem
to be affected by the altitude. He soon
became a go-to guy for alpine teams
facing the inevitable hazards of the
mountain.
In 1987 Viesturs also had his first
opportunity to try to climb Mount
Everest. Three months into that
expedition and just 300 feet shy of the
summit, he and his climbing partners
decided to turn back in the face of
a growing storm. Reflecting on that
summit attempt, Viesturs commented,
“Sure, we could have made it to the top,
but we would almost certainly have
died getting back down. The mountain
decides whether you climb or not. The
art of mountaineering is knowing when
to go, when to stay and when to retreat.”
In 1988 he tried again and once again
was forced back to base camp. It was
DIVE SLATE
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