Master climber on risky journey
Steve Swenson takes readers on a trip through treacherous Kashmir mountain passes
In the mid-1970s, after 20 or so years of being closed to outsiders, the Karakoram mountain range in Kashmir was opened up. Soon after, climbers showed up.
Seattle’s Steve Swenson was one of the early adopters of the fractious western Himalaya border region (India, Pakistan and China were always in conflict over rights to the area) that boasts four 8,000-metre peaks, and 30 peaks more than 7,500 metres high.
“A lot of the modern climbing, the cool routes had been done in Nepal and other areas, and so this area had recently reopened and there was tons of climbing to do,” said the master mountaineer about his first visit to the area in 1980. “It was kind of like a candy store for new routes and first ascents.”
Swenson’s climbing resume is pages long, and includes plenty of first ascents and trips up K2 (1990) and Everest (solo, in 1994). Oh, and he did both those without oxygen. He has been to the Karakoram region 15 times, and it is those trips that he draws on for his memoir Karakoram — Climbing Through the Kashmir Conflict. He will be speaking at a special Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival show at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver on April 19.
“The theme to the story is not knowing what we were doing, figuring it out and having some success and now going with younger people and passing it on,” said Swenson, adding: “There’s a strong message through there about the relationships we have with local people, and how wonderful they are.”
A lot has changed since Swenson, a former civil engineer, first encountered Pakistan and the Karakoram region.
When he and his climbing partners made their first trip to the region there was no adventure travel industry.
“Everything was very primitive. There were no good places to stay. You didn’t know whom to hire. You had to do everything yourself,” said Swenson, 63. “It was huge learning curve.”
Now there are reputable adventure tourism companies, but safety remains an issue.
After 9/11 the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance pushed all the Taliban and al-Qaida into the Pakistani tribal areas in the Karakoram. They took control of transportation routes and surrounding areas. In the summer of 2013, a group of terrorists murdered 11 climbers at Nanga Parbat base camp.
“You have to be a lot more cautious as a traveller,” said Swenson who now refuses to use the Karakoram Highway, and flies into the region from Islamabad. When he is in the capital city he does not stay at big western hotels, but a small guest house in the diplomatic area of the city.
“A big part of the book is history and politics in the region and how it has changed over the years,” said Swenson. “You really have to keep up on that stuff. You just can’t go there and be ignorant of the local situation — then you could get yourself into a situation that you don’t want to be in.”
Luckily for Swenson he has never been in one of those situations, which is surprising when you think the area he frequents has known unrest since 1947, when Pakistan won independence from India.
“It seems about as intractable as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Swenson. “It’s something as climbers that we deal with all the time. These areas in the Karakoram where we like to go climbing are heavily restricted because the disputed borders run right through the mountains.”
But Swenson is quick to point out that at higher altitudes the air thins, and so does the political unrest.
“Once you get up into the mountains you are completely safe because the kind of people that live there are totally peaceful and friendly and welcoming,” said Swenson.
Swenson will be back with those people in Karakoram in July and August for a first ascent attempt of the 7,453-metre peak Muchu Chhish.