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American Morning

Mountain Climbing: Exploring "One Woman's Quest for the Summit"

Aired April 30, 2001 - 11:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Heidi Howkins is one of the premier high-altitude climbers from the United States. She recently led expeditions to the world's two highest mountains, Everest and K2 in the Himalayas. Howkins is out with a new book, "K2: One Woman's Quest for the Summit." In it, she shares her experiences from her bid to conquer K2 and other mountain-climbing expeditions.

She joins us from New York to talk more about the book and those climbs.

Hi, Heidi.

HEIDI HOWKINS, PROFESSIONAL CLIMBER: Good morning, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's start off by how this really isn't just a climb but rather Alpine style. Describe to us exactly what that is.

HOWKINS: Well, I always like to say I'm an athlete not an astronaut, so I like to meet the mountain on its own terms without the aid of high-altitude quarters or supplemental bottled oxygen, which does make the challenge harder. It also means that the focus of the challenge is the journey and how you climb almost more than reaching the summit.

PHILLIPS: You know, it sounds a lot like how the Sherpas look at climbing Mount Everest. It's very much a spiritual quest versus a challenge. Do you sort of -- do you take that on, that role on also?

HOWKINS: Absolutely. I write about this quite a bit in the book, actually, because, for me, it's a journey that is a very spiritual thing. Sometimes people say there are hallucinations -- high-altitude hallucinations on the mountain. For me, it's something a little more than hallucinating.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about some of those highlights versus hallucinations. You -- you had talked about a time where you felt like you could reach out and actually touch the stars.

HOWKINS: Yeah. It's -- you know, it's funny. One of the early Everest climbers had hallucinations that involved sitting down in the snow and starting to feed his only food to an imaginary companion.

For me, it's more of an experience of -- well, I was climbing in that blue hour just before dawn once and kind of leaned over, hunched over my ice axe, turned around, and in that blue wash floating on the horizon, there was a single star or planet, and all of a sudden, my mind was outside of my body. I felt as though I could touch the star. There was a pillar of rock directly below me, and I felt as though it were my thumb. I felt just incredibly connected to everything around me.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, I was also reading that there's sort of this superstition about women climbing K2, that since 1986 only five top women climbers have ever reached the summit, and none of them are alive today, and three died on the descent. The other two died soon afterward. Why take this risk?

HOWKINS: Oh, the why question. Well, just getting to K2 -- it's -- it's the equivalent of getting to compete in the Olympics and getting to the summit, of course, would be the Olympic gold, although there are many years in which no climber from any country reaches the summit. So there is no guarantee of success, and I guess that's part of it, is the fact that there really is no guarantee, that you're -- you're out there, and you're taking real risks, and you're in an element that you can't control.

PHILLIPS: You're a single mom. Eight-year-old daughter.

HOWKINS: That's right.

PHILLIPS: How do you find a balance here?

HOWKINS: My daughter keeps me connected. I really -- I think I'd be pretty lost without her, and it is impossible to take a risk equivalent to facing an avalanche or whatever on K2 without thinking in an immediate, every-moment-kind-of-way about her. It keeps me grounded.

PHILLIPS: Well, you mentioned the avalanche. Nineteen seventy- seven, you were buried in an avalanche. What was -- I mean, that's got to be one of the scariest experiences.

HOWKINS: You know, I think it happened so suddenly that I didn't have time to feel fear. It was the closest experience I've ever had to death, you know, sort of one of the proverbial instants where you see your body, and you reenter your body.

I think it was also really profound, not scary but a profound experience in terms of you come back after an experience like that and, all of a sudden, death seems like something much more than an accident. It seems like it has a purpose and life does, too, and -- and you go on living kind of feeling that every day.

PHILLIPS: Did your daughter -- has she ever said to you, "Mom, I'm scared. I don't want you to go."

HOWKINS: Yeah. Well, it's tough. It's really, really tough for both of us to be apart. We have a physical mother-daughter connection, and every time I leave, it's -- it's a painful process. At the same time, though, I wouldn't have her do anything else other than pursue her passions with integrity. I think that what we love is the key to -- to our fate, to our destiny, and being away allows me to come back and be with her in a much more whole kind of real sense.

PHILLIPS: Well, in addition to your book, I understand there's also a special that's going to be airing May 6 on CNBC. Will you tell us about that?

HOWKINS: Sure. The -- the last expedition to K2 was just incredible. It was a large team of 18, 13 climbers. I was the only female, and there was a lot of interpersonal conflict. It was kind of a competition to see who was going to get voted off the final summit team and...

PHILLIPS: "The Survivor."

HOWKINS: That's right. "The Survivor." And that is airing this Sunday, May 6 on CNBC at 8:00 Eastern time.

PHILLIPS: Heidi Howkins. "A Woman's Quest for the Summit." "K2." That's the new book. Thanks so much for being with us. You have a very inspiring character.

HOWKINS: Thanks so much, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Heidi.

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