Everest to Everett: Renowned climber to speak at EvCC, where his mountaineering photos are in an exhibition

Published 1:01 pm Thursday, January 8, 2009

Carlos Buhler has been on top of the world, literally, and he wants to tell you about it.

Still climbing at 54, the renowned mountaineer has scaled peaks in the Himalayas, the Andes and Alaska. His feats have earned him recognition for decades. The New York Times called him a leading super-alpinist in 1988, while in 2007, the American Alpine Club honored him with the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award, one of the highest awards in U.S. mountaineering.

Buhler plans to speak at Everett Community College about his life on the slopes Thursday night. The visit ties into an exhibit of his photography focused on Asia’s Karakoram Range, on display at Everett Community College through Feb. 5.

Before his visit, Buhler spoke to The Herald from his home in Canmore, a small town in southwestern Alberta, Canada.

Q: In climbing circles, you’re very well known. Did you aspire to that level of celebrity early on?

A: When I was 19 or 20, I was enthusiastic about the possibility of making it an active part of my life, but there were a couple places along the way where I had to make some tough decisions about careers. One was when I was accepted at Georgetown University in graduate school and at the same time I was asked to climb … Everest. I had to make a choice there. At those junctures, you hear some doors shutting.

Q: To be clear, you chose to climb Everest, right?

A: Yeah. It was the autumn of 1983. In the spring of ‘83. I was accepted at this graduate program … but I also was offered a place on this American team put together by Jim Morrissey to attempt the Kangshung Face of Everest. It was the only face that hadn’t yet been climbed. I had to write to Georgetown and say, “You know guys, I’m going to try to climb this face.” They wrote back and said, “This is the last year we’re offering this two-year graduate program in Latin American studies,” and I said, “Well, I realize that, but I’m going to do this.”

Q: What was the air like on top of Everest?

A: Thin. And cold.

Q: When did you take up photography?

A: Probably about 1972 or so. I was still just a teenager. By the time I was 19 or so, I was carrying a camera with me as often as I could and documenting the climbing I was doing.

Q: When you look at your pictures, do any stand out as favorites?

A: I went through thousands of slides to pick out the ones that I sent to this exhibit, so I was looking for photographs that represented the Karakoram to me.

Q: When you think of the Karakoram, what springs to mind?

A: The people.

Q: People you knew through your climbs?

A: Most of the ones I sent (to Everett) were of people I didn’t know, people that I was working with at the time, that I passed a few days with or a couple of weeks with, that were carrying loads. If we had 60 people that we hired to walk 100 miles into base camp, and they were employed to carry a 45 or 50 pound load, I shot pictures of those people.

Q: What will you be discussing in Everett?

A: The art exhibit of photography is much more geared towards the people and landscape of the Karakoram, but my lecture in itself, although it will touch upon the region … I’m not going to confine myself.

Andy Rathbun, Herald Writer, arathbun@heraldnet.com, 425-339-3455