Keeper Of The Mountains Read Free Page B

half hour of meeting Miss Hawley, she asked me to call her Elizabeth. And so we began.

CHAPTER 2
Encyclopedic Mind
    The puzzle remains unsolved, and her tenacity won’t allow her to let it go.
    The next day, I watched as Elizabeth, Sherpa Pemba Dorje and two companions engaged in the kind of investigative cross-examination that perpetuates Elizabeth’s reputation as being honest, relentless and not easily fooled. Pemba, a wiry, sun-blasted, super-confident athlete, perched on her couch like a coiled spring, there only as long as it would take to convince her of his latest climbing feat, which was being contested by other climbers.
    For the 27-year-old speed climber, this was a matter of pride, as well as his place in history. He had made a splash in the climbing world, appearing in the “Breaking News” section of Rock & Ice magazine, as well as in Gripped. But was this new exploit true? Did Elizabeth believe him? Pemba claimed to have climbed 3500 vertical metres from base camp on the Khumbu Glacier to the summit of Mount Everest in 8 hours and 10 minutes during the night of May 20–21, 2004. He climbed alone, using artificial oxygen above the last camp at around 7900 metres. The announcement of this astonishing climb was met with skepticism from other climbing Sherpas, however, and was challenged by his rival Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa, who had beaten Pemba’s time from the previous year.
    It did seem amazing that Pemba could lop four and a half hours off his time from just one year ago, and it was this that Elizabeth was probing. But he had a plausible explanation for her: on May 16, just a few days before his historic climb, he had climbed the mountain completely without bottled oxygen. That ascent had prepared him mentally and physically for the May 20 speed ascent – with bottled oxygen. Others on the team said he had used oxygen intermittently on the earlier climb, however, and any discrepancy in his story aroused Elizabeth’s curiosity.
    One of the problems with his claim was that he reached the summitin the middle of the night, on a night when nobody else was on the upper part of the mountain. Since his camera malfunctioned, there was no summit photograph. She asked him what he could tell her that would prove he was there. He answered that, when he was on the summit, he saw headlamps coming up from the north side. She double-checked his statement to ensure she had heard it correctly, making a note to cross-reference her other sources and records.
    After an hour of questions, answers, repeat questions, more elaborate answers and copious note taking, Elizabeth concluded with, “Congratulations, you have made an admirable effort.” Pemba and his team stood up with an audible sigh of relief and bade this formidable, investigative force of a woman goodbye. For Elizabeth Hawley, this was but the first of many interviews concerning this ascent. It would occupy much of her attention and sleuthing abilities during the weeks to come.
    Before we settled into a serious interview session of our own, Elizabeth showed me around her home, pointing out items of interest. Her office is filled with mementos, photos, mountaineering books, and two paintings by Khumbu Sherpas. Most of the furniture is made of wood and simply built. A small sofa and two upholstered chairs appear a little worn. Fully one-third of the room is taken up with a large desk, a smaller table, upright wooden chairs and the usual office equipment. This room, functioning as both her office and living room, is all hard surfaces – there is not much soft about it and it feels a little severe.
    Old-fashioned wooden cabinets stuffed with mountaineering files stand against the office walls. Every climb Elizabeth has covered is documented in a file organized by year, mountain and route. Each file has an arrival form, bio forms for each expedition member, a return form, letters, photos and route drawings. On an interesting or