Republished from WSI Connections Magazine, March 2010

Below is an article I was asked to write for the WSI Connections Magazine. It is a recount of the events of January 9, 2010. January was a hard month for me this year, the toughest actually. Thanks to all who were a part of my support system during that tough time.

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It has been my pleasure and honor to be a member of the WSLLC Fire and Emergency Services family here in Iraq since September of 2009.  I have enjoyed camaraderie amongst my peers, valuable training, and a once in a lifetime opportunity to protect those who protect freedom.  On a typical day, we respond to emergency calls, conduct fire inspections, and participate in training exercises.  For all intensive purposes, we are like any other fire department conducting routine fire department business.  On the morning of January 9, 2010 I was personally reminded that we are very much operating in a war zone and things are anything but routine.

While conducting standard physical fitness training at the Division MRW, the base at which I was working sustained a mortar attack.  I was nearing the end of my workout on the rowing machine, pleasantly listening to Lady GaGa on my iPod when I heard and felt an extremely loud bang.  I can only describe it as someone slamming the largest door they could find the hardest they possibly could.  Dust and smoke filled the building I was in as soldiers around me immediately hit the deck taking shelter in the doorways .I struggled to free myself from the foot brackets on the rowing machine, even laughing to myself that I was stuck on the machine.   I remember realizing that the bang was a mortar and also that it was extremely close.  When I finally freed my feet I joined the soldiers and other civilians on the floor for a few seconds and then together we fled to the concrete bunker that was just outside the main doors of the gym.

Just a few moments after entering the bunker I heard multiple voices shouting and a distinct call for a medic.  I looked around the bunker and no one moved.  Given my ten years as an Emergency Medical Technician I responded hoping I could be of help.  What I saw when I emerged from the bunker was a partly flattened MWR facility and a soldier laying a civilian down on the ground.  As I ran towards them, I could see other soldiers bringing more bodies out of the leveled structure.   

When I approached the first of the wounded civilians, my mass casualty training both from my department back home in Fairfax County, Virginia and  WSLLC-Iraq kicked in.  While simultaneously assessing the condition of the patient before me, I began to step back and get an overall picture of the situation.  The first victim I encountered was pulseless and not breathing.  As difficult as it is to imagine, I knew that there might be others I could help and that this man was most likely not going to survive.  I initiated triage of all of the wounded, including entering another bunker where other casualties had been brought for safety.  Training teaches us that ensuring victims have an open airway is a priority.   I assessed all of the casualties breathing and stopped at one point to show a soldier how to manually hold open the airway of a man that was struggling to breath.    Ultimately, I returned to the first casualty and initiated CPR as a plan for transporting the victims came together.  Soldiers began pulling up personal vehicles and we loaded the most critical of patients first for transport to the Troop Medical Clinic.   Eventually, all of the injured were evacuated from the scene.

There is no doubt that morning will serve as a defining moment of my time in Iraq.  There are so many things that strike me about the event that I am still struggling to put it in perspective.    Mortar attacks vary in their frequency and severity, and while we still take incoming rounds on base, I feel no less safe.  

There were in fact fatalities that morning; two of them were men to which I rendered aid.  They were not soldiers; they were not Americans.  They were subcontract workers employed to clean the gym and keep water stocked in the coolers.  They were men taking advantage of an opportunity to support their families in their home country.  But on that morning you would not have known there was any difference between us.  The soldiers on the scene that morning reacted with no less urgency than had it been on the battlefield.  The ex-patriot contractors responded just as it had been a fellow employee.  Race, religion, and occupation ceased to matter.  A life, is after all a life.

Note: I was in fact given an award for my limited actions on that day.  It was a nice gesture and as you can see I am smiling, but honestly, during the ceremony I just wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl in it.  

The Cirque Ladies

These 3 ladies are awesome...they are heading into the Cirque of the Unclimbables way the hell up there in the Yukon. They are attempting to free the Original Route on Mt. Proboscis (VI 5.9+ A3).

There journey will include multi-media updates and will surely prove to be inspirational. Follow them along at: http://cirqueladies.wordpress.com.

Photo: Lorna Kllingsworth, Emily Stifler and Madaleine Sorkin at Yose.

Planning the Prologue

Seeing as how I’ve officially tendered my resignation from WSI, effective, July 29, I thought it would be fitting to post an update on the plans for my big adventure. I’m filled with lots of different emotions these days as my time in Iraq winds ever so slowly to a close. I’m looking forward to some time and space from here to get some much needed perspective on the whole thing. We’ve been super busy  and its been nice to see just a bit more fire before hanging up this helmet putting this career on the shelf.

Never worry though, there has been plenty of time to keep dreaming about and planning what I am now calling the “Prologue.” I leave Iraq on July 31 and will be spending the majority of August and September travelling. This isn’t the official start of my road trip, hence the term Prologue, but rather a chance to get out, get reacquainted with the non war-world, myself, my family, friends and also the rock. My first stop, after landing in Seattle and making a run for the border, is Squamish. If all goes well I’ll be meeting up with a nice fella I met when I pimped myself in the online climbing forums, to climb in the area and kill some time waiting for MY MOM to make it to Vancouver. I’m so psyched she is coming out to play with me! I think my parents get pretty exhausted following all of my adventures, so I’m so happy shes agreed to tag along on one! Good on ya mama!

After a couple weeks there Ill finally be heading back east to Washington DC. By then I will have been away from “home” for just shy of 12 months. Ill be around for enough time to check in with the rest of the family, share many margaritas with friends, head to NC to meet my best friends new son and rescue my climbing gear from safekeeping under her dress shirts in her closet. There will be boxes to move, clothes to purge, and dark leafy greens to eat. I’m going to try to squeeze in a quick trip up to the Gunks too, in order to give a huge supporter of mine a big hug and a safe belay.

What comes next is surely going to prove to be a packing nightmare. At the end of August I’m heading out to Yosemite to climb and camp amongst the giants with members of the super awesome Potomac Mountain Club. This will be my first climbing trip in quite awhile and I’m completely stoked for the location and the company. Objectives will be in both the Valley and Tuolumne and my goals are to relax, climb, and hopefully get back on the sharp end. Directly from there I’m heading back to Canada but more to the east to one of my favorite new places Canmore and the Banff National Park area. This is where the packing gets tricky.

Canada in September equals alpine. Well, for me it does. Well, at the very least it means unpredictable weather and conditions. Ill have to prepared for everything and while that’s not such a huge deal, I hope no one at Yosemite eyeballs me for my ice axe and crampons tucked away in my bag assuming that I think Ill be using them there in August. Furthermore, I’m super excited about all of the excess baggage fees I’m going to be paying as I fly around North America in circles. I’ll be spending the balance of September in Alberta hooking up with semi-new, new, and brand new friends before ultimately heading back to the east coast of the US.

Come October it will be time to purchase a vehicle; van or truck, the jury is still out, call it my home and hit the road. That’s when things will get really interesting. I’m trying not be overwhelmed about heading out into the great abyss so I’ve decided to think of my trip as a climbing route. Make small moves. Make one move and the next one will appear.

So for now, the move I’m focused on is getting out of the Middle East safe and enjoying the prologue.

Arlene Blum and Has Women's Climbing Failed?

While on my journey in Nepal I got the chance to do some great reading. On my way out of the Himalaya I bargained with a shop keeper in Namche and acquired Arlene Blums, “Breaking Trail” for a mere 650 rupees. Arlenes story kept me company through Lukla, Kathmandu and ultimately my travels back to the Middle East.

Arlene’s book chronicles both her pioneering climbing career along with her extraordinary advancements in Chemistry. She is really pretty amazing: lead the first all women's trip on Denali, first American woman to attempt Everest, the "A Woman's Place is On Top" Annapurna trip AND a PhD with research that led to a Federal ban on the methyl-ethyl-death on childrens PJs. Like many other mountaineering books, Breaking Trail has rich descriptions of climbing expeditions that inspire day dreaming and personal goal setting.

One of the key themes of Arlene’s memoir is her perpetual challenge with sexism and anti-Semitism in climbing. A number of times in her book she references a July 1981, Outside Magazine article entitled “Has Women’s Climbing Failed?” The subtitle read, “Why has the Course of Women’s Climbing Led to Tragedy.” Regarding the article, she writes “it proclaimed in glossy detail that not only do women climbers tend to have inadequate skills and experience, they often climb for the wrong reason—to prove something about women.” Granted, this was 1981, but it got me wondering about how much things have changed.

This year saw the first ascent of all 14 8000 meter peaks by a woman. In 2005 Ines Papert wins the Ouray Ice Festival outright beating all women AND men by more then 2 minutes. In 1993 Lynn Hill frees The Nose. But what is the rest of the story?

Mostly, I write this because I’m floored that Outside would have published an article as inflammatory as that even in 1981. I mean hell, I was alive then! I wonder more, what they would write today, 30 years later. If I were to write the article and do the research, what would I find? Are women climbing now to prove something about women? And even if they are, is there anything wrong with that? How do women stack up in modern alpinism? If we aren’t equal, why not?

I realize that this could seem like a somewhat trite discussion on gender equality etc, but the fact remains, I’m curious about the answers to these questions, and I’m not sure where to find them. Ironically, when I Googled “outside and women’s climbing and failed” one of the first ten hits lead to an article about women firefighters and sexual discrimination. What those topics have to do with one another in a life other than mine I don’t know, but it got a chuckle out of me nonetheless.

So, whats the story ladies? What would Outside write today? I realize that this could start a shit storm, but so be it.

P.S. “Breaking Trail” is a great read and certainly a must for any women alpinists with a sense of history and pride for where we came from.

Back to Life, Back to Reality....

I've been back in Iraq for just less then a week now. My trip to Nepal was everything you can hope a trip to Nepal would be. Amazing people, amazing scenery, rugged conditions, smelly, eye opening, FUN, relaxing, thought provoking, inspiring, and on and on. Given the fact that the electricity in most places I stayed consisted of a car battery tucked away in the kitchen somewhere I wasn’t able to update my blog as I travelled.

I've been looking through my journal, trying to piece together some things that make sense but at the moment I’m slammed up against the wall of compartmentalization. I definitely learned a lot while I was there, gained a very interesting perspective on the big mountain guiding industry and felt completely affirmed about my decisions for the future. I will eventually find the words and the perspective and hopefully post something worth reading. Honestly though, we are so busy here at times that its all I can do to make it though each day. So for now, its just back to life, back to reality…..

The B.T.C.

This was originally going to be a post about my stay at the Baghdad Transit Center. Part bus station, part international airport and ALL travel hell, all roads in and out of Iraq lead to the BTC. Imagine what it would be like to add bunk beds to the waiting room at the Department of Motor Vehicles, throw in 24-7 announcements on a PA, and 15 minute walk in 120 degree heat to the nearest food and you are starting to get the idea. Don't forget, however, that 50% of residents don't know where or more importantly, when, they are, because they are still experiencing major jet lag from a 17 hour transatlantic flight. There is no joy at the BTC.

After reviewing what I wrote in my journal last month during my most recent stay at the BTC, it occurred to me that the big bad enemy might be reading this and I could unwittingly be revealing some big secret about operations in Iraq. So, this is all I am going to post...but come grab a beer with me some day and Ill tell you all about it.

A Crazy Week: Work, a Brain Tumor, and Nepal.

Wow, this has been a crazy week. For starters, we have been spectacularly busy here at Diamondback. Audits, training, and inspections; the usual sort of thing, just a shit ton more of it. When I first signed on the dotted line to come over here, we all thought I would be bored stupid and we brainstormed ideas for how to stay busy. The reality turned out to be that we work, and we work, a lot. Downtime is hard to come by and normally its filled with taking care of the essentials of daily life. But, I came here to work every day for year so I could not work every day of the following year, so Im cool with this, even if it is exhausting.

Second, I find out a close friend of mine has a brain tumor…or more accurately, had a brain tumor. Its out, it not cancer, she will live. She’s a warm, thoughtful, deep soul that I care about immensely and I have no doubt that this will only impact her life in a positive way. If someone can turn brain surgery into a positive thing, she can. This news still cuts like a laser when you are 6000 miles away and treading water in a job and place that at this point is serving little purpose other than filling up the piggy bank.

Third, in 10 days I start travel to Nepal. If you have managed to cut through the news of the Times Square bomb, the hemorrhaging oil line in the Gulf, the devastation in Tennessee and some little thing happening in Greece, then you have seen that things in Nepal are well, challenged? Im going to try to not use subjective descriptors here because I really don’t have all the facts, but short story: Major Maoist strike for most of the week bringing all industry, tourism, and commerce to a stand still. No public transportation, tourists confined to their hotels, limited fuel and supplies. Their Constitution expires on May 28, while I’m there, and a new one has yet to be drafted. As of today, the strike has been lifted and I’m being reassured by my contacts in country that things are returning to something resembling normal. Whatever normal looks like in a country like Nepal.

I’ll admit, following the news out of Nepal I initially considered changing my plans. Who would have thought that going anywhere from Iraq would or could actually be more dangerous? But, after reviewing more of the facts and getting information from sources in the country, I’ve decided to see this trip now as an even greater opportunity. If there is a chance for historical tourism than this is it.

More on all of this to come, but the crazy week continues.