When she tried to climb Alaska's Denali a year ago, Wasfia Nazreen spent a week and a half enduring a storm in a tiny tent, frostbit her finger, which required three surgeries to save, and ended up having her stomach pumped after she drank water cont
When she tried to climb Alaska's Denali a year ago, Wasfia Nazreen spent a week and a half enduring a storm in a tiny tent, frostbit her finger, which required three surgeries to save, and ended up having her stomach pumped after she drank water contaminated by feces, likely her own.
As well, while on the mountain her brother suffered a heart attack, a fellow Bangladeshi climber died on Everest, and afterward a tent-mate died after being flipped into freezing water on a whitewater rafting expedition.
“That season was so tough, ” Nazreen admitted.
Undeterred, Nazreen flew into basecamp of North America's highest peak earlier this month in an effort to complete her quest to climb the Seven Summits - the highest peak on each continent. More than a climbing project, however, Nazreen has established the Bangladesh on Seven Summits Foundation in her quest to help empower at-risk women and adolescent girls in her native Bangladesh and nearby Nepal to choose lifestyles beyond their countries' traditional gender roles.
In preparation for her third attempt to reach North America's highest summit - her sixth of the seven summits - Nazreen said a highlight was spending a week in the Canmore area climbing with some of her biggest heroes.
Among them was Pat Morrow, whom she first met in 2012 through the Canada Tibet Committee's Calgary branch president. On that visit, Morrow, who succeeded as the first person to climb the Seven Summits in 1986, hosted Nazreen at his home in Wilmer, B.C., from where he organized some training outings. Visiting Canmore, he introduced her to local climbers Sharon Wood and Will Gadd.
“Meeting Sharon was a pretty neat surprise for me, ” Nazreen said. “To actually physically meet her, climb with her - it was wonderful. ”
Sharing her feelings with Wood about her closeness to the Sherpas who safely guided her to Everest's summit and back was especially meaningful, Nazreen said. Wood became the first North American woman to climb Everest in 1986. Climbing via a new and still unrepeated route, Wood and her teammates ferried their own loads without Sherpa help above basecamp during a time when the mountain was lightly populated by experienced climbers.
Today, Everest is crowded with queues of largely unskilled adventurers who hire guides and Sherpas to facilitate their climbs.
“We had a lot to exchange, where things on Everest were in (Wood's) time, and Pat's time, ” Nazreen said.
In March, Nazreen was at Everest basecamp when 13 Sherpas and three others were killed by an avalanche. Knowing some of those victims made the experience “intense and interesting. ”
“They were not just climbers, but owners of the lodges in the Khumbu region. They were community leaders; to me they were papas and uncles. ”
Since she climbed Everest in the spring of 2012 with the invaluable help of several Sherpas, whose language she speaks, Nazreen, 31, had returned as part of her efforts to establish a foundation to support the family of the head Sherpa on her climb, who died shortly afterward.
For her Denali climb, she'll be accompanied by Da Kusang Sherpa, who is “like a little brother. ”
With Wood, Morrow and Gripped magazine editor Brandon Pullan, Nazreen hiked up the steep trail to the summit of Grotto Mountain via Echo Creek canyon. Another day, she appreciated being coached by Gadd on Heart Mountain in preparation for her July climb of Carstenz Pyramid in Indonesia. Along with their help, Nazreen expressed gratitude for support offered by the Alpine Club of Canada, which provided her free accommodation at its Canmore Clubhouse.
More than a training mission, Nazreen said spending time in the Bow Valley opens up channels for future collaboration. Morrow is an advisor for her Bangladesh on Seven Summits Foundation, in pursuit of which Nazreen has sold all her possessions and relied on loans.
“Just to get mentorship from these living legends - this trip to Canada has been really good, a healing time, therapeutic, ” Nazreen said. “But it's not just about climbing. In the long run, we hope to have educators from this region (Rockies), go to Bangladesh. ”
From Morrow's perspective, having travelled extensively as a photojournalist and filmmaker in the Himalaya and surrounding developing countries, the admiration is mutual.
“I've been in her shoes trying to raise awareness about mountaineering and the financing necessary to complete a goal like the Seven Summits, and feel her financial vulnerability since she comes from an emerging country like Bangladesh, ” Morrow said. “The very least I could do was point her in the right direction to find climbing partners to train with here, and connections in the adventure world that may help sustain her climbing and humanitarian projects. I mean, how audacious is it for someone from a non-alpine country to take on a project of this magnitude? ”
And, he added, what she's accomplished this far is admirable.
“Wasfia has done a lot to highlight the monumental progress of women, not just in her male-dominated Muslim country, but wherever she travels and meets marginalized women, ” Morrow said. “She's spent a number of years working with Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, and is a beacon of light for all of the world's downtrodden. ”
For her part, Wood said she also admired Nazreen's spunk and determination, but was surprised to discover she'd climbed five of the Seven Summits despite having minimal climbing experience, adding Carstenz would demand careful footwork. Wood also expressed reservations about Nazreen's use of climbing to pursue her humanitarian cause.
“I think climbing a mountain for anything other than the joy of climbing - it's a dangerous mix, ” Wood said.
Grateful for the mentorship, Nazreen said she looked forward to Denali and completing her Seven Summits project so she could forge ahead with her foundation.
“We finally completed 100 per cent of the paperwork; it took longer because I refused to pay any bribes, ” Nazreen said. “In Bangladesh, things happen much more slowly than here.
“And I can't put in words how much a benefit it is to have the mentorship under Pat, ” she added. “A great teacher, such a humble human being, so much I've learned. ”
Nazreen succeeded in becoming the first Bangladeshi to climb Denali on June 23. She flew from Anchorage en route to Ladakh in the northern Indian Himalaya on June 30 nursing a frostbitten nose. To learn more, visit Facebook page Bangladesh on Seven Summits.
