Breaking Ranks.

1/21/10
There was a commotion in camp 2 that night. It came from the area where the AAI Group had set up earlier in the day.
I've seen people come to their breaking point on expeditions. There was a moment during the Denali Climb when we all rushed from our tents to get our first good look at the summit. We had been snowed in for a few days at 9,000 feet. The weather broke, and someone shouted "Hey Guys, there it is!" Shoulder to shoulder we all lined up with faces skyward, too stunned to even raise our cameras at first. For some reason I looked back to survey the expressions. The word "elation" is not an overstatement. But there was one member not smiling. Kurt. He looked crushed, demoralized, done. The next morning he clipped in with a German Team heading down the mountain.
I had gotten to know the AAI members pretty well in the course of the meals we shared in our dinning tent at Plaza de Argentina. Except one member. A guy named Steve from Boise. Steve didn't talk much. Picking through the pieces of his meal, Steve would display the facial expressions of a man toiling with very deep and troubling thoughts. He complained about not being able to sleep, later bragging about how he angrily confronted the IMG Group and others for being too loud. He talked about a neighbor's dog back home that kept him awake and how he might tie that dog's leash to his car and drive him around town. In short, Steve scarred the hell out of all of us. This, of course, begs the question; "What to the climbing companies do to screen out those with mental illness issues?" Leaving aside the obvious kill-joy such folks can be on a trip participants pay big money to be on, they more importantly introduce a potentially life-threatening element should their affliction manifest itself during an exposed summit attempt. I am not sure what the best answer to this issue is, but I am willing to suggest that self-diagnosis would not be a part of it. Unfortunately, that is exactly what most climb organizers rely on.
 Steve forced his way into his Guide's tent at 3a.m. saying he couldn't sleep in his tent, demanding that he be taken down the mountain immediately. His Guide could be heard explaining in remarkably soothing tones how it was not safe to be on the trail in the middle of the night. Steve demanded. His Guide declined, telling him to go back to bed, pack his stuff up in the morning, then he would take him down. It went on and on like this for some time.  Steve spent the rest of the night pacing, pacing, pacing the campground. The next morning his Guide packed Steve's things and took down his tent for him. He then led him down to base camp and arranged for a helicpoter lift out. Then, the Guide climbed all the way back up to camp 2 that same day and rejoined his much relieved group.