Jim Fairchild

Borrowed Ropes Jim Fairchild

Sixteen years after a haunting accident on Alaska's Mount Foraker that left three dead, two old friends reunite in Nepal's Khumbu Himalaya for an ascent of Pumori, or "Daughter Peak." They witness the damage done to the mountains and to the Sherpa people by huge commercial guided expeditions. The two become entangled in a Khumbu-wide Sherpa revolt and ultimately make a bold, albeit illegal, attempt on the world's highest mountain. Completed in 1990, "Borrowed Ropes" examines the sad state of Himalayan mountaineering that would--years later--be illuminated by Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" (1999) and Michael Kodas' "High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed" (2009). "Borrowed Ropes" touches upon the physical damage to the world's highest mountains: trash, human waste, erosion, abandoned climbing gear, abandoned corpses. But even more, it touches upon the damage done to the Sherpa people and to the very soul of the mountaineering experience by clueless clients who climb for all the wrong reasons--and by the profit-hungry guide services that are ultimately responsible for damaging the pastime.