This is an intense story of kidnapping and courage,
frustration, and international politics that begins with the kidnapping of four
American climbers who were forced from their bivouac up a big wall in a famous
climbing location in Kyrgyzstan. It
particularly pertinent with the recent release of the American hikers by ransoms
(some call it bail) in Iran.
Four young climbers saw only big cliffs and new routes. They traveled to the mountains of central
Asia in the former Soviet Union and the Yellow Wall in the Kara Su valley. But Kyrgystan is not Yosemite and the people
who wander the nether lands of this mountainous regions are Uzbeks, Tajiks,
Afghans, Pakistans. They are soldiers,
innocent peasants, and Islamic terrorists.
They ignored the warnings and put themselves in an
unimaginable danger. Force by gun fire
to come down from their ledge shelters on the big wall, the four climbers – 3 men
and one woman – were face to face with IMU terrorists and they represented
American Dollars. Not long before the
Japanese had paid a huge ransom so the precedent was in place.
Cold nights, rough terrain, and rough people. They traveled as victims of Kidnap and saw
battles and death along the route.
Eventually they escaped, they took action against the principals of two
of the group who could not stand any violence and the result was a freedom that
got them to the army and eventually home.
They were left with the stress syndromes of combatives, but
without the support system. Then their
story was told and a strange thing happened.
While some reveled in their escape, others decided to attack their
story, to discredit the climbers, and somehow make sure that these four did not
get additional respect from the world at large.
Jealousy and obsession were in the hearts and computers of their new “enemies”
and I can only begin to imagine how disorienting it must be to survive
something like this only to have your own climbing associates turn on you.
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