Monika Rogozinska: Alpinists Need Mental Strength to Survive

Novinite Insider » INTERVIEW | February 23, 2004, Monday // 00:00
Monika Rogozinska: Alpinists Need Mental Strength to Survive Monica during the 1997 expedition to Nanga Parbat, the world’s ninth highest peak. Photo by personal archive

Monika Rogozinska, reporter for the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, is a graduate in Cultural Studies.

She is also the Secretary of the Polish office of Explorers Club, an international professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research. Since its inception in 1904, the Club has served as a meeting point and unifying force for explorers and scientists worldwide. In addition to its headquarters in New York, the Club has some thirty regional chapters in the US and abroad.

Rogozinska was part of the Polish team that climbed Mount Everest for the first time in winter conditions (1980), has also participated in the expeditions to Nanga Parbat (1996/97, 1997/98) and Makalu (2000/01).

In 2003, she took part in a Polish team's K2 climb, and fulfilled the first full media coverage of the expedition.

Monika Rogozinska answered questions of Novinite.com Editor Petya Bondokova.



Q: What is the difference between yourself and someone who wouldn't dare to take part in such expeditions?

A: I think every child is curious, and for that reason children sometimes do forbidden things. That same curiosity makes the child try to see what is beyond the next corner, and makes people take great chances.

This curiosity should not be suppressed and destroyed inside a man's heart. One should be allowed to ask questions, and we should not laugh at them, even when those questions sound silly.

Just think about that - in the 10th century, Vikings got on their absolutely primitive boats, and discovered Greenland. Despite all difficulties and mischance, men were self-willed enough to finally step on the Moon.

People carry a drive for exploration inside themselves. And if you like doing something, you just do it.

Besides, mountains are an exceptional theatre stage - everyone who has been there and has seen the sun rise and go down and nature change, could never forget that sight, and never give up the desire for getting there one more time.

Competitiveness is also a motive for climbing up mountains - people want to get on the stage that mountains really are.

Q: What is more important for being a correspondent from a mountain trip - journalism or physical condition?

A: Physical shape at such height above the sea level is pretty much a matter of psychology. I've seen people who couldn't mentally survive those conditions, and that caused different illnesses.

As a former rescuer, I know a story about two colleagues in the same physical form, at the same age and provided with the same equipment. One of them died and the other one survived.

The truth is that in the Himalayas you use your very last ounce of energy to move. Training is very exhausting, and when we get on the plane we can scarcely move. We can only dream about some company arranging all the details about the trip, and alpinist taking care only for their own training - Frenchmen, for example, have that privilege.

Besides, there is no way to get physically prepared for living at such height above sea level. Russians have tried to carry out such training using pressure chambers. But it turned out that people in pressure chambers survive conditions similar to those at 9,000m above sea level, but can't survive much more suave conditions when actually on the trip.

Let's not forget that alpinists spent much time in the so-called death zone, where you don't eat and only use energy that your body "stored" before to survive. It's the power of your mind and not of your muscles that keeps you alive then.

Mountains don't like people who went there willing to become famous. Those who yearn for fame quickly realize that mountains are not where they belong.

Q: Do you think that Bulgarian mountain tourism could flourish, via guides training and tracing out special routes?

A: I haven't climbed Bulgarian mountains or visited them as a tourist, but I know you have some wonderful sights and historical records as well.

In the West, everything is crowded with too many people, infrastructure has partly destroyed nature. And people there are now in search for places still unspoiled by civilization. Countries that have been poorer, like Bulgaria, couldn't build such infrastructure and have this advantage now.

At this moment, the important thing is to be very wise about how to build infrastructure.

There are also many beaches around the world - like the Caribbean ones - that have been whelmed by concrete. But people want something wilder, it is even a matter of fashion nowadays.

You should try to turn what used to be a disadvantage, lack of money, into a prerogative. In addition to everything else, you have Pirin that is on the UNESCO List of World Heritage. Adding more of your landmarks to that list would be worth every effort.

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