Among the ranks of the world's elite mountain climbers, Alison Hargreaves was considered one of the best and most audacious. Last May she became the first woman—and only the second human being—ever to reach the 29,028-foot summit of Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, alone and without using oxygen tanks. "I was on the summit for 40 minutes," she told reporters. "It was the best moment in my life."
Just two weeks after returning home to Scotland, the restless Hargreaves left Ballard, 48, and their children Tom, 6, and Kate, 4, for K2. Located in the desolate Karakoram range on Pakistan's border with China, K2—which has been conquered by only 134 climbers and has claimed the lives of nearly 50 others since 1954—is subject to sudden, severe storms and ferocious 100 mph winds. "Accidents can happen, but they can equally happen driving down to London," Hargreaves said about the dangers of her expedition. "There is no gain without risk."
Hargreaves' need to scale the heights was evident when she was growing up in rural Derbyshire, England, the middle of three children born to mathematicians John and Joyce Hargreaves. "When she was about 9 years old, we went climbing on Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain," recalls her father. "Suddenly, she dashed ahead of us, and we got quite worried. We found her sitting quite happily about 500 feet higher up." At 18, Hargreaves left school and moved in with Ballard, also a climber, whom she married in 1988. That year the 5'2" adventurer scaled the treacherous north face of Switzerland's Eiger while six months pregnant with Tom. In 1993, after Hargreaves could not find a sponsor for her climbing career, the couple sold their house in Derbyshire and moved to Switzerland, where the family lived out of an old Land Rover. While Jim took care of the children, Alison became the first person ever to scale the six major Alpine north faces—the Eiger and Matterhorn among them—in one season.
Hargreaves arrived at K2's base camp with British mountaineer Alan Hinkes, 41, on June 25. There, she faxed a sketch of the area to her children with the message "Be good to Daddy, have a lovely summer and enjoy your holiday. With lots and lots of love from Mum." But after reaching the second-stage camp at 22,500 feet in mid-July, Hargreaves paired off with Rob Slater, 34, an investment banker from Boulder, Colo., who had earlier invited her to tackle K2. "I don't know why Alison moved towards Rob," says Hinkes. "I can only assume she thought she had the best chance of reaching the summit with him."
On July 18, Hargreaves made a solo attempt to reach the summit but was forced back to camp by a blizzard. A series of storms kept her on the mountainside for nearly a month. At 8 a.m. on Aug. 13, Hargreaves set off despite signs of worsening weather to make one last attempt for the summit. Also climbing were nine others—including Peter Hillary, 40, son of Sir Edmund Hillary, who in 1953 made the first successful ascent of Everest. "She wanted to get up K2 and go home to her husband and kids," says Hillary. "I honestly think that put pressure on her." High winds sent Hillary and three others back to base camp; Hargreaves, Slater and four other climbers continued on.
That evening the party radioed other climbers that they had made it to the summit. "Soon afterwards a storm slammed into the mountain from the north, and it howled all night long," says Hillary. Experienced climbers suspect that as the party moved across the Death Throat—a sheer snow slope near K2's peak—they were blown off the mountain. In all, a total of seven people died; given the danger of recovery operations, the bodies will remain on the mountain.
Back home in Scotland, Ballard gently broke the news of Alison's death to Tom and Kate, who had been playing on the Ben Nevis range. "Alison has always known that I'd do my best to explain things to the children and continue to bring them up in the way we've done so far, and that involves mountains," he says. Later this year, Ballard will visit K2 to place a plaque in Alison's memory on the mountain, where it will join memorials to others who have perished there. "I can hear her repeating her favorite saying," he says. " 'One day as a tiger is better than a thousand as a sheep.' That sums up Alison perfectly."
DAVID ELLIS
JOHN WRIGHT at Ben Nevis and TERRY SMITH in London
- Contributors:
- John Wright,
- Terry Smith.
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