The Last Man on the Mountain: The Death of an American Adventurer on K2 by Jennifer Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jennifer Jordan
women’s Olympic ski team, after which she and Dudley would return to Austria for her favorite season, Christmas. She loved him dearly, but her family, true to form, thought him a somewhat bland playboy. Hoping to soften at least one of her sisters’ edges, Dudley bought Anita Damrosch a Cartier gold watch. Whether or not it changed her opinion of her brother-in-law, she cherished the watch the rest of her life.
For the next three years, the couple criss-crossed the Atlantic, traveling between their homes in New York, Maine, and Austria. In Europe, Dudley bought a Buick Phaeton roadster, and the two toured the mountain towns and villages, stopping for the night only when they found inns which looked suitably quaint and clean. But it was in Alice’s small and cozy apartment at the Haus Angelika in St. Anton, and at her tranquil hunting preserve in the mountains above, where Dudley felt truly at home, perhaps for the first time in his life.
Dudley was comfortable and loved the mountains of Europe, but by early 1938 he was spending more time on his own than with Alice. With the excuse of pursuing his new passion, climbing, he spent huge chunks of time in Zermatt, Chamonix, and Trento. After only four years of marriage, he realized that he preferred his solitude, his freedom. He loved Alice, but it wasn’t enough to maintain a marriage and he told her he wanted a divorce.
In one of the rare times in her life that she showed weakness, Alice sat in her small living room in the Haus Angelika, put her head in her hands and cried. Her niece, who was visiting from America, watched from an alcove, stunned into silence at her aunt’s display of raw emotion. She had never seen it before and she would never see it again. Over the course of the next several months, while Dudley returned to Maine for the summer and Alice remained in Austria, they wrote many letters to each other about the failing marriage. She begged him to reconsider and return, hoping that he missed her as much as she missed him. But it was to no avail. The marriage was over.
While Dudley and Alice weren’t very good at marriage, they were wonderful friends and would remain close. In October they met in New York, and, after discussing some of the more mundane details of the divorce—her alimony, dividing the wedding gifts, and how long he would pay the rent on the apartment—they decided to have a party, show Dudley’s slides, and celebrate the fact that, divorce or no divorce, they were still the best of friends.
As Alice sat down to write out the invitations, she playfully wrote out the phonetic spelling of a guest’s name.
“Dear Mr. Vissner,” she wrote, inviting Fritz Wiessner to the slide show and dinner party, adding a PS: “Black tie!”
Chapter 3
Climbing’s Controversial Genius
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
—G OETHE
Fritz Wiessner, 1939. (Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)
A t the start of the twentieth century, the earth’s highest places, fourteen peaks that stand above 8,000 meters (26,240 feet), were little known and entirely unconquered. While Dudley Wolfe was learning the ropes and anchors of sailing, adventurers across America and Europe were learning the ropes and anchors of a new exploit, extreme high-altitude climbing. Although the summit of 15,781-foot Mont Blanc had been reached in the late 1700s and the 14,692-foot Matterhorn had been first scaled in 1865, little was known of the mountains of the vast Himalayan range, or of man’s ability to survive at nearly twice the altitude of the roof of the Alps. But scientists, explorers, and mountaineers alike were determined to find out.
With the wildest edges of the earth thoroughly discovered, adventurers at the turn of the twentieth century set their sights on the far-off peaks of Nepal, Tibet, and India, and mountaineering clubs in London, Milan, Berlin, and New York organized expeditions to the still
For the next three years, the couple criss-crossed the Atlantic, traveling between their homes in New York, Maine, and Austria. In Europe, Dudley bought a Buick Phaeton roadster, and the two toured the mountain towns and villages, stopping for the night only when they found inns which looked suitably quaint and clean. But it was in Alice’s small and cozy apartment at the Haus Angelika in St. Anton, and at her tranquil hunting preserve in the mountains above, where Dudley felt truly at home, perhaps for the first time in his life.
Dudley was comfortable and loved the mountains of Europe, but by early 1938 he was spending more time on his own than with Alice. With the excuse of pursuing his new passion, climbing, he spent huge chunks of time in Zermatt, Chamonix, and Trento. After only four years of marriage, he realized that he preferred his solitude, his freedom. He loved Alice, but it wasn’t enough to maintain a marriage and he told her he wanted a divorce.
In one of the rare times in her life that she showed weakness, Alice sat in her small living room in the Haus Angelika, put her head in her hands and cried. Her niece, who was visiting from America, watched from an alcove, stunned into silence at her aunt’s display of raw emotion. She had never seen it before and she would never see it again. Over the course of the next several months, while Dudley returned to Maine for the summer and Alice remained in Austria, they wrote many letters to each other about the failing marriage. She begged him to reconsider and return, hoping that he missed her as much as she missed him. But it was to no avail. The marriage was over.
While Dudley and Alice weren’t very good at marriage, they were wonderful friends and would remain close. In October they met in New York, and, after discussing some of the more mundane details of the divorce—her alimony, dividing the wedding gifts, and how long he would pay the rent on the apartment—they decided to have a party, show Dudley’s slides, and celebrate the fact that, divorce or no divorce, they were still the best of friends.
As Alice sat down to write out the invitations, she playfully wrote out the phonetic spelling of a guest’s name.
“Dear Mr. Vissner,” she wrote, inviting Fritz Wiessner to the slide show and dinner party, adding a PS: “Black tie!”
Chapter 3
Climbing’s Controversial Genius
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
—G OETHE
Fritz Wiessner, 1939. (Courtesy of the George C. Sheldon Family)
A t the start of the twentieth century, the earth’s highest places, fourteen peaks that stand above 8,000 meters (26,240 feet), were little known and entirely unconquered. While Dudley Wolfe was learning the ropes and anchors of sailing, adventurers across America and Europe were learning the ropes and anchors of a new exploit, extreme high-altitude climbing. Although the summit of 15,781-foot Mont Blanc had been reached in the late 1700s and the 14,692-foot Matterhorn had been first scaled in 1865, little was known of the mountains of the vast Himalayan range, or of man’s ability to survive at nearly twice the altitude of the roof of the Alps. But scientists, explorers, and mountaineers alike were determined to find out.
With the wildest edges of the earth thoroughly discovered, adventurers at the turn of the twentieth century set their sights on the far-off peaks of Nepal, Tibet, and India, and mountaineering clubs in London, Milan, Berlin, and New York organized expeditions to the still
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