Date: Fri 08-Nov-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

schools-Taylor-mountain-climb

Full Text:

with cuts: Kilimanjaro Mountaineer Recounts Ordeal

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

The fact that a good story can be enjoyed at many levels was beautifully

demonstrated at a Sandy Hook School cultural arts assembly presented Thursday,

October 31, by mountaineer and author Rob Taylor.

Using humor and suspense, his words pouring forth in clipped rapid-fire

delivery with plenty of expressive body English to dramatize the details, Mr

Taylor kept his young listeners enthralled as he recounted his personal ordeal

during a 1978 ascent of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro.

He was 20 years old when he made the near-disastrous ascent of the 20,000 foot

mountain in Tanzania, he said, adding that he was "old enough to climb, but

not old enough to deal with the difficult matters of life."

He'd chosen his climbing partner, a man whom he called Harley, for the worst

of reasons: because he was a famous photographer for National Geographic

magazine and because he had an impressive reputation as a mountaineer.

"We didn't know each other," Mr Taylor said, adding they ended up arguing

about nearly everything.

As a result of their incompatibility, they both made bad choices, he admitted,

and they behaved more like enemies than friends at the precise moments when

they needed each other the most.

A Nearly Fatal Fall

The result of this disastrous partnership was an error in judgment made during

their final ascent to the peak that caused Mr Taylor to plunge down the

mountain, "slamming into a rock wall, going 60 miles an hour," shattering his

leg and nearly costing him his life.

For the next three years after his fall and subsequent rescue, Mr Taylor

underwent surgery, treatment for infection and extensive therapy in a Boston

hospital. He finally regained the use of his leg, he said, though "it will

never be the same."

His 1981 book describing the adventure is titled, The Breach: Kilimanjaro and

The Conquest of Self and it was completed during his lengthy recovery period.

The retelling of the story to live audiences has proven an equally therapeutic

exercise that he's continued during the nearly 20 years that have passed since

the accident.

Mr Taylor's lecture includes plenty of hands-on items, such as pick axes and

climbing ropes, and it features a slide show and many beautifully mounted

pictures.

But it is the story itself, of frightening creatures and desperate men in a

hostile environment where death lurks behind every bend in the trail, that has

all the necessary ingredients to hold an audience spellbound.

From Hyraxes To Quicksand

If you were in the mood for monsters (and the Sandy Hook school assembly did

take place on Halloween), Mr Taylor could definitely satisfy. He'd met a few

along the way and he didn't mind describing those encounters.

The youngsters thrilled to his dramatizations of desperate, last-minute

escapes from an 18-foot black mamba snake and a crazed cape buffalo.

They were especially delighted with his description of the dreaded, overly

affectionate "hyraxes of Kilimanjaro," a large band of shrew-like rodents that

could summon vast numbers of friends and relatives using "about 300 different

calling sounds" uttered at the top of their lungs, and that seemed determined

to lick the two mountaineers to death, or eat all their soda crackers,

whichever came first.

"Don't mess with hyraxes!" Mr Taylor cautioned the laughing children.

Then there was the man-eating lava field in the desert that they were supposed

to cross during the daytime, "and not stop for anything."

But the two mismatched mountaineers couldn't agree even about that.

They ignored the advice of the local natives and stopped midway across the

desert, deciding to spend the night, only to find that the cooling lava field

was opening under their feet like quicksand and gaping cracks had formed in

every direction.

A Story With Many Lessons

At the deepest level, Mr Taylor's story centered on issues of accountability,

friendship and trust, and what happens when a person makes unwise choices.

"I realized that Harley was a great mountain climber but he wasn't a great

friend," Mr Taylor said.

"But who chose Harley?" he asked, and then answered his own question, "I did."

"Was Harley older than you?" one boy wanted to know.

"Yes, two years older. But that's no excuse," Mr Taylor said.

"Don't do something you know is wrong just because an older kid says to. When

you make a bad choice, can you take it back? Make it better?" Mr Taylor asked

the children.

"No!" was their massed reply.

Most of them were only about 10 years old, but they already knew all about

having to live with your own mistakes.

Mr Taylor concluded by saying he hoped his story would inspire them to believe

in themselves.

"You have incredible bravery. You just don't know it!" he told them.

Above all, they should value the sort of true friendship that he found in the

chaaga guides (African counterparts of the Indian sherpas) who refused to

leave him after his terrible fall, but carried him down the mountain to safety

on their backs.

"I lived because of the kindness of the chaagas," Mr Taylor said.

"Do you still climb today?" another child asked him.

"Yes, all the time," he replied.

Mr Taylor has gone up Mount Washington in New Hampshire at least 800 times, he

said, and he has climbed hundreds of peaks in Maine alone.

Despite everything that happened to him on Mount Kilimanjaro, he concluded,

"Climbing is 1,000 times more fun than Disney World."