Jeez Louise!! Can’t a girl climb f*cking Mt. Everest without some asshole trying to get into her expedition pants??!!
Well put, Georgie. Our George is referring to a front page story in the NYT today decrying the sexual abuse faced way too often by serious women climbers on expeditions. Of course, even once is too often.
Lotta Hintsa may not stir the passions when dressed like this:
But she is blue-eyed, blonde, and was Miss Finland in 2013 as well as Finland’s Miss Universe entrant that year. Here she is. Thanks, Philly. Nice lighting.
Hintsa is a model and serious high-altitude mountain climber, a sport that is rapidly growing more popular with women: 65 women reached the summit of Mt. Everest last year, about 10% of the total, which our math department says would be around 650. Back in 2003, only ten women made the climb; in 2013, 45. It’s serious business — 18 climbers died during the Spring season last year, and 8 have already been reported dead or missing in 2024.
The cost of a climb starts at $40,000 and will hit six figures for “a more luxurious experience,” says The Times. You entrust your life to your guide.
Hintsa became a professional climber in 2018. She ran across Nirmal Purja at base camps in Nepal and Pakistan. Purja is a superstar in that world. His climb of all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks on earth in 2019 was the subject of a Netflix documentary. He has 2 million followers on Instagram. Via his guiding company, he has helped usher in a new era of commercial high-peak climbing, and encourages women to take it up.
Hintsa and Purja met in his hotel room to discuss working on an expedition. Some of their text messages were a bit flirty so she made it clear to him ahead of time that the meeting was “not a booty call.” Nevertheless, when she was in his suite, he led her to the bed and began undressing her. She kept saying no, but that meant nothing in the state he was in. She was fearful of his strength and military training. Only when she forcefully resisted his removing her bra did the spell break, he pulled back, and she got the hell out of there safely. Of course, she did no business with his company.
Purja is not alone in his monsterhood. A 2018 survey of more than 5,000 climbers from over 60 countries found that 47% of women (and 16% of men) said they were subjected to unwanted sexual behavior while climbing. Thirty-five percent of the men complained that they weren’t. [No they didn’t.]
Just this February, a 39-year-old climber named Charles Barrett was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse for repeatedly assaulting a woman who was visiting Yosemite National Park. Get this — he was prosecuted in part as a result of that survey, above. The woman he assaulted answered the survey saying she had been raped by a “well-known, professional California climber” on a trip to Yosemite. Another respondent also said she had been sexually assaulted by a specific individual. Survey organizers followed up with the women and they both identified Barrett as the rapist/assailant. He has written guidebooks and was a major figure in California climbing. In case you are not sufficiently disgusted by this schmuck, prosecutors described his attack on his victim as a “violent rape.” He is set to be sentenced on Tuesday. Good riddance.
Conversely, Purja denies everything and his star has continued to rise. As a face of high-altitude climbing, he has worked with companies like Red Bull and Nike, which this past winter released a clothing collection inspired by him, called 8K Peaks, and featured him in a towering Manhattan billboard. He received an honorary doctorate from Loughborough U. in England. Outdoor brands including Grivel, Osprey and Scarpa have worked with him on co-branded products. The women who are recounting their experiences with him are just trying to get the word out so others aren’t victimized.
At Owl Chatter, we’re giving George the last word on this story.
“F*ck you, Purja,” he said.
You tell ’em, buddy! Just don’t step backwards!! Georrrrrrrggggge! (Ouch.) Hintsa — you got a rope or something to throw down to him? And maybe some Cheetos?
On the lighter side, remember The Turtles? Sure you do — who didn’t love The Turtles? Well, the clue at 16A today was “Title woman in a 1968 Turtles hit.” The answer: ELENORE. Here’s the tune. Note the great lyrics:
Elenore, gee, I think you’re swell
And you really do me well
You’re my pride and joy, et cetera
And: Your looks intoxicate me — even though your folks hate me.
And: I really think you’re groovy — let’s go out to a movie.
In the comments to Rex’s blog today it emerged that two very active contributors – Nancy and egsforbreakfast — both celebrate their birthdays today. egs remarked on the coincidence and it reminded me of my Statistics class at Brandeis where the prof assigned us the task of figuring out the chances of any two class members sharing a birthday. There were 30 in the class and it worked out to 70%. That is, there was a 7 in 10 chance that two of us in the class had the same birthday. One student said, “Let’s try it.” So we went up the rows announcing our birth dates. Sure enough, about halfway through, we hit a match. A hush fell over the crowd.
Here’s a story I may share with the Dull Men’s Club:
When I ordered my sheet of 32-cent Civil War stamps (for just $5.25!) so I could get the one with Clara Barton on it, the seller sent it to me using a whole bunch of neat old “priced” stamps, i.e., not “forever” stamps. There was a 44-cent Garfield (the cat, not the president) stamp, two 41-cent Mickey Mouse stamps, a 41-cent Aladdin stamp, a 15-cent Seeing-Eye-Dog stamp, and some smaller denominations. And they weren’t canceled and they were easy to remove!!
So I used them to arrive at as many 68-cent combinations as I could (the current cost of a one-ounce mailing). The 44-cent Garfield, combined with the 15-cent Seeing-Eye-Dog came to 59 cents and I had a ten-cent stamp to add on. Perfect!
I had a 3-center and two 4-centers to add to the 41 cent stamps bringing them up to 44 or 45 cents. So I just had to add a 24-cent “additional ounce stamp” to each to get up to (or over) 68 cents. I had seen a version of this stamp with a nice yellow school bus on it.
I went to the Green Village post office near me this morning and asked the woman for three “additional ounce 24-cent” stamps. She said, “I hope I have some.” I said, “Oh, no!” and noted that they have school buses on them, to aid her in her search. She found some, but with cute bunny rabbits on them — not the school buses. Fine by me. I had exact change ready (72 cents) and the transaction went smoothly.
Sometimes, maybe not often, everything in life works out just fine.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 