Word: uemura
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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PRESUMED DEAD. Naomi Uemura, 43, intrepid Japanese mountain climber and adventurer; after the National Park Service ended an eight-day search for him on Mount McKinley; in Alaska. Three weeks ago Uemura became the first climber to make a solo ascent of North America's highest peak (20,320 ft.) in midwinter, but he lost radio contact the next day and was last spotted by a pilot on Feb. 16. The only remnants found by searchers were his snowshoes, a diary and the two 17-ft.-long bamboo poles he used to test the firmness of snow...
Radio contact with Uemura abruptly ceased the next day, possibly because subzero temperatures had weakened the batteries of his Citizens Band radio. On Feb. 16 the mountaineer was spotted by a glacier pilot near a snow-hole bivouac at 16,400 ft. Uemura waved, a prearranged signal that all was well. When he failed to reappear by Feb. 19, rescue efforts were begun, but they were frustrated by thick clouds, high winds and blinding snow. Two of Uemura's friends, Climbers Jim Wickwire and Eiho Otani, were dropped onto the mountain by helicopter at the 14,300-ft. level...
Indeed, the diminutive (5-ft. 3-in., 135-lb.) Uemura had been facing outsize dangers for nearly two decades. The unassuming farmer's son took up mountain climbing while studying agriculture at Tokyo's Meiji University. He became a national hero in 1970 when, as a member of the first Japanese team to successfully climb Mount Everest, he was the first to reach the 29,028-ft. peak. But his most rewarding feats were those performed, as he once put it, "in all the splendor of solitude." He explained, "It is a test of myself, and one thing...
...Uemura was burrowed deep inside, playing dead. The next day when the bear returned, Uemura killed it. Between his climbs and his epic journeys, Uemura wrote several books about his adventures...
...Uemura's original plans for this winter had been to attempt a solo 1,200-mile dogsled run across the South Pole from the Ross Sea to the Weddell Sea. But his early planning, which needed the cooperation of the Argentine government, was disrupted by the Falkland Islands war. Instead, Uemura set his sights on the Alaskan peak, which he had scaled alone before, in the summer of 1970. "I know that in the eyes of many people I would only look like a Don Quixote," Uemura once replied when asked what drove him. "But I always want...