Greg Mortenson Interview (page: 5 / 6) Best-Selling Author, Three Cups of Tea	Print Interview

You were already a very experienced climber when you attempted K2. How did you first become interested in mountain climbing?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Greg Mortenson: In Tanzania, where I grew up, Mount Kilimanjaro was in our back window. And since I was about six, I begged my dad, "Please. Can I go climb the mountain?" So finally, for my 12th birthday, he let me climb Kilimanjaro. I went with another 11-year-old. And since those early days, I already had a passion for mountains and for climbing. So over time I got more experience. I climbed in many parts of the world. It was something I really loved to do. And I also was a graduate student in neurophysiology, because I wanted to find a cure for epilepsy. So I would climb, and I also worked as a nurse. I got my degree in nursing and chemistry. So I'd work in emergency rooms half the year, and then the other half, I was either studying physiology or mountaineering.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

Why did you choose to climb K2, of all the mountains in the world?

Greg Mortenson: I went to K2 because it's considered a very difficult mountain to climb. At the time, I was very focused on mountaineering, so I thought, "I'm going to pick a really special mountain for Christa," to climb. Obviously, 15 years later, my priorities have changed, but at the time, I thought, "I want to pick a really significant objective to honor my sister Christa." So I picked K2.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. K2 is a very beautiful mountain. In the Balti language, which is of the people there -- it's classical Tibetan -- K2 is called Chogori or Chogor, means "the big peak." It's a very symmetrical peak and granite mass -- you can put 84 Matterhorns inside of it -- but it's kind of reaching up to the heavens. Also, one of the reasons I decided to climb a mountain to honor my sister Christa is that the very same hour that my sister died, I actually was climbing in Mount Sill which is in the east Sierra Mountains in California, and I fell about 800 feet. And the exact same hour that my sister died from epilepsy, I fell about 800 feet down a mountain. And earlier in the day, I had seen a ruby-throated hummingbird up near the top of the mountain, and ruby hummingbirds don't fly at 14,000 feet. Afterwards, I kind of put it together. I think that hummingbird was my sister coming to say goodbye to me. So that's one reason I chose climbing as a way to honor her memory. But yet, I never knew that it would take me to a far greater climb and a more special way to honor her memory.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

You say you took a year to prepare to climb K2. What were some of the things that you had to do?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Greg Mortenson: There's a lot of physical preparation, which means doing a lot of physical training to put yourself into an aerobic threshold where, you know, running a marathon but then going on more, so that your body gets used to the continued exertion on your body. There's mental preparation. K2 is much more remote than Mount Everest, and also, we didn't have porters, or we didn't have oxygen. So we had to be able to use our own resources -- in case we had some problem on the mountain -- to get off the mountain. And then finally, it cost about $10,000 for me at the time. So I had to spend time raising money and getting all the gear together, financially and physically and mentally. And also kind of spiritually really, realizing that I took this on as a very serious way to honor my sister Christa. Because I was very devastated when she died. We were very close. I had to really struggle, saying, "Why does the world have such a special person have to leave us?" She was a big inspiration for many of us. So there was a lot of thinking about why this happened. And yet, Christa in all her life was a woman of great joy and courage and faith. So there's all different kinds of things to get ready to climb a mountain.

[ Key to Success ] Preparation

You had prepared for this climb and invested so much in it. How did you decide to turn back?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Greg Mortenson: After we were on K2 for about ten weeks, everybody else had left. I was just there with three other climbers, and I really wanted to get to the top. I pushed myself way beyond the physical and emotional limits. And it wouldn't make sense at that point to really keep on trying to get to the top. It's kind of like going on a 400-mile journey with 200 miles (worth) of gas. Going up to the top at the beginning, it was almost as if I felt my sister there. And I also visualized -- I really believe in visualization when you set your goals -- so I visualized putting that amber necklace on the top. But I also, as it got more and more difficult, I started thinking. I kept wondering, "How much is this going to take?" And at one point before I started to turn down, I even thought, "I can probably get to the top. I may die, but that's okay, because I'll make my goal." And then when I came down from that -- you kind of go up and down -- when I realized I had been so focused on getting to the top, I really hadn't focused on the bigger goal, that Christa certainly wouldn't want me to die just to climb a mountain in her honor. It was on September 3rd actually. I remember this very vividly. I was carrying some rope up the mountain. And I was up, I was pretty high. And I suddenly realized, I really need to go down, and it's okay to go down. But I felt in my mind as if I'd failed. And I had to come to terms with that.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

Finally I realized that it's not going to happen unless -- I might die -- and I need to go down. And then I remember going down for the last time. I was so focused on making sure I could get down alive I was overly cautious. Coming down the mountain was really kind of a big change from the last time.

How do you prepare yourself for what to do when things don't go according to the plan?

Greg Mortenson: I've learned over many decades, that it's important to have a very strong intuition. The best quote I can think of is by Judith Campbell: "When your heart speaks, take good notes." I think in the West we're trained or brought up to be very logical and linear. From the time we wake up, we turn our alarm clock off, we switch a light on and off, we open a door, shut the door, we have car keys, we turn the car off and on, the TV. So everything is pretty much controlled. Having spent about half my life in very indigenous Third World societies, people there are much more intuitive, because they don't have that ability to control or micromanage their complete environment. I think that fosters a more intuitive sense.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. When I was climbing and mountaineering, I learned also that it's important to have an intuitive sense, as far as climbing. It's important to get in touch with the mountain, to really listen, and kind of feel and think of the mountain as an entity, a living entity. When I was first learning how to climb in more difficult areas, I was on Mount Baker, which is in Washington. This is in the early '80s. There was a guy named Willie Prittie, who was this kind of old mountain man, and we were climbing up a peak called Mount Baker. We were going up the Eastern side called "the Roman nose," and we had gotten up around midnight. We started going up to the top, and all of a sudden Willie said, "We need to go down." And I said, "It's a beautiful clear day. It's crisp. The snow's nice and packed." And he said, "No. We're going down." I didn't understand. He said we just need to go down, and so I listened. We went down, and just as the sun was coming up, the whole Roman nose collapsed. We'd have been dead had we gone up there. So we ended up going up the north ridge. And it really struck at something I've never forgotten. It's about listening to your intuition. As I've done this: I started out to climb a mountain, I ended up stumbling into a village, and then when I saw the kids in this village, I decided to build a school. But most of it's been intuitive. And I never planned to write a book or build schools in Pakistan. But having listened to my heart, it's led me on this incredible journey.

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