Word: climber
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...East German man about 30 years old was seenclimbing the fence to the embassy. A policeofficer hung on, exerting all his weight to bringthe climber down. Refugees inside the fence clungto the man and shouted for help...
...masochistic middle-aged climber stands panting into the gaping dark, wondering what in God's name he is doing here. He is 17,000 ft. up, with 1,650 ft. still to go to the top. The temperature is unreasonably far below zero, hands and feet are numb, and the air is so thin that a few tentative steps leave the body screaming for relief. Perhaps this is how Hans Meyer felt when, 100 years ago, the German geologist became the first to ascend to the rarefied heights of Mount Kilimanjaro, an immense dormant volcano 49 miles long...
...walkers are alternately roasted by the tropical sun and chilled by low alpine temperatures; they sleep in unheated, unlighted huts, wash in ice-cold water and, after five days, emerge from the mountain dirty, haggard and exhausted. "Maybe the only satisfaction comes from looking back on it afterward," suggests climber Matt Claman, 29, a lawyer from Juneau...
...largest number of the 10,764 tourists who climbed the mountain last year came from the U.S. That can be blamed on Hemingway, says Iain Allan, a mountain climber whose Nairobi company arranges treks up Kilimanjaro, mostly for Americans. "Americans were brought up on his short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro, and they simply have to come and see for themselves." What they find is not one but two forbidding peaks: gaunt, craggy Mawenzi and snowcapped Kibo, the summit that looms over Harry, Hemingway's gangrenous protagonist, "wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white...
...most popular route up Kibo, known somewhat disparagingly as the tourist route, is, as British climber Ian Standbridge wryly observes, "no cheap vacation." Kilimanjaro National Park charges an entrance fee of about $150 a person for the climb, which begins at park headquarters in Marangu, Tanzania. For the guides, porters and food for the five-day trek, Marangu's two hotels charge an additional $250 a person. And don't forget generous gratuities. Money is constantly on the minds of the porters, who see each climb as a test of how large a tip they can extract from their clients...