By Rachel Anderson
World-class alpinist Jim Donini presented slides of his most memorable climbs to an audience of more than 200 last week in an event sponsored by the BYU Outdoor Adventure Club.
?To be a good alpinist, athleticism, talent and all those things are important,? Donini said. ?But the most important thing is to have a short memory, or a selective memory, because being an alpinist means you suffer. But if you have a short memory, you go back and suffer again.?
The images of famous climbs and the stories behind them were the center of Donini?s presentation. He narrated each slide from behind the audience that gasped and applauded in response throughout his 90-minute speech.
Alvin Anderson, president of the Outdoor Adventure Club, said only half the audience was club members. The others, from Salt Lake City climbers to a Springville Boy Scout troop, were attracted by Donini?s prominence in the mountaineering world.
?I?ve been climbing for 40 years, and I?m still doing new routes around the world,? Donini said. ?I haven?t grown up yet, thank God.?
Donini said he estimates he has had 30 first ascents.
A first ascent means successfully climbing a mountain that has never been climbed, or taking a new route up a mountain.
?I felt like I was born two centuries too late, that everything had been explored,? Donini said. ?One of the reasons why I take new routes is that every step, every handhold I grab, every ledge I make, I am the first person there.?
Alpine climbing is differentiated from mountaineering by difficulty level. Alpine climbing is technical, with difficult terrain of steep faces of rock or sheets of ice.
?Mt. Everest is mountaineering,? Donini said. ?It is not even climbing. It is extremely overrated. People get guided up that don?t even climb ? there have been over 800 ascents. Real climbers don?t consider it in any way challenging.?
In contrast, there have been six ascents of Torre Egger in Patagonia, of which Donini was the first in 1976. Donini calls it the hardest peak to climb in the Western Hemisphere.
?Patagonia is in the 10,000 to 11,000 foot range, but they are the hardest mountains in the world because of their sheer towers and really bad weather,? Donini said.
Bad weather threatened Donini?s life in several of the climbing narratives he told on Thursday. He succeeded in climbing Torre Egger only because he and his partners decided to climb the last stretch to the summit, even when a storm came in.
?I couldn?t see anything but the ice on my beard,? Donini said. ?We started repelling down after a few minutes at the top, and it took a day and a half to get down with a full storm blowing the whole time.?
Once Donini and his partners had made it to base camp the next day, there was not a breath of wind or a cloud in the sky.
A bad storm caused Donini?s ?epic descent? from Latok I in the Himalayas in 1978.
?Forget the summit,? Donini said. ?Survival was our only concern.?
One of his partners, Jeff Lowe, got very sick overnight when a storm blew in.
His brother, Greg Lowe, estimated that Jeff had a 20 percent chance survival, with a 60 percent chance for himself and Donini.
?I told him, ?I don?t know where you got those figures, but I don?t like ?em,?? Donini said.
He said he fully expected to wake up with Jeff frozen and dead at his side.
?The climb is very famous now,? said Donini. ?We almost made it in 1978 with primitive gear, but not one of the 15 teams that has tried it since have made it within 2,000 feet of our high point. It?s known as the holy grail of mountaineering, but I?m not going back.?
Although Donini shared climbing stories that date back 25 years, he remains an active alpinist.
?Patagonia is a special place for me, and I?m going back this coming year,? Donini said. ?There?s a route on Fitzroy I absolutely have to do.?