October 20, 2008 11:44 AM

Kevin Vaughan on The Crevasse

RodneyLey(Q) Kevin, I am impressed by how much detail you have uncovered about Mike and Jim. When did you start getting interested in this story? How long have you been working on it? How do you get past people's hesitancy to talk about loved one?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Good morning Rodney! Basically, it's as simple as this: I heard Jim Davidson give a talk in Fort Collins in March 2007. I had just finished "The Crossing" -- about a 1961 school bus-train accident -- and I was at a writing conference where I was presenting and eating lunch and Jim started talking. After a few minutes I was taking notes on the back of my brochure and on my napkin. I knew this was a story I wanted to tell. I approached Jim afterward and asked him whether a newspaper had ever written an account of the accident. He said no, and so I asked him to consider letting me do it. He talked with Mike's family; they were supportive. And then we talked a lot about how it would work, what I would be looking for. For getting past people's hesitancy, the main thing I have on my side in a story like this is time. I was able to let Jim really think about this, and answer a lot of his questions, before he agreed to go forward. I also talked extensively with Mike's parents about what I hoped to accomplish, and gave them The Crossing to read. I think I was able to convince them that I was interested in doing this story the right way, and they all agreed to let the Rocky tell the story.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Do you have any climbing background? Did you have to learn about the sport while you were reporting the story?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I have no climbing background. I love the outdoors, and I backpack a fair amount, but if it involves ropes, harnesses and "exposure" I don't do it. I have an extreme fear of heights. Consequently, I admire people who climb because I know it's something I could never do. That made the story challenging, because I had to have Jim and others explain, in excruciating detail, how it all works. I wanted the story to be technically accurate, as far as the climbing goes, without veering into the area where it would read like a climbing manual.

Mark_Wolf(Q) "Cork" conjures one of the scariest images in the first installment. What is it and did you know about that expression before you started writing?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Essentially "corking" is what can happen when someone falls into a crevasse -- they can literally fall so far and so fast that when they get to a point where the walls close they get stuck. It can be impossible to get someone freed who has "corked." Jim pointed me to an account of a climbing accident in which a young man "corked" and his partner could not free him, despite hours of work. The victim was conscious and aware of everything, and his partner could not do anything for him. I shudder whenever I think about it; it strukes me as a really scary possibility on a glacier crossing. After Jim talked about it going through his mind during his fall, I knew I had to somehow convey that fear.

Socko(Q) Does the story ring with you and your experience in the outdoors or pushing your personal limits...?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) It rings with me in that way, yes. A couple years ago I did an 11-day, 57-mile backpacking trip with my oldest son. It was the hardest thing I've done in the outdoors, physically and mentally, and the sense of satisfaction was incredible after we got off the trail. So in that way, I think I can relate to what climbers feel. But make no mistake, I was never in any danger of doing anything more than spraining an ankle, so it's a very different pursuit.

Socko(Q) What in your opinion drives people like this..is it the inspiration of Abby, Colin Fletcher, Kerouac and other authors who "suggest" to be independent, push our limits, trust ourselves? I can relate to the two climbers and share many of their same feelings and drives...
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I think it is all of that an more. All of us have some kind of passion. For many people, it is some kind of a physical pursuit. That's what I sense about climbers. First of all, they do something that very few people do. Second, they go see places very, very few people see. I went to Yellowstone a few years ago, and they told us that 95 percent of the people never get more than 100 yards from a paved road. Well, my family and I did some hikes, so I know we saw country that was seen by a very small percentage of visitors. I think it's probably a lot like that.

RodneyLey(Q) The details about climbing gear in today's section were well written, and I found only a minor, minor point (I don't think there are any aluminum ice screws---only steel) that might be incorrect. People really don't know much about climbing other than Marine commercials and popular media. I think some people think climbing is for wacko's, you made it sound like a well thought out risk. Which it is...
Kevin_Vaughan(A) One of the things I struggled with was whether to talk about gear circa 1992, when Mike and Jim climbed Rainier, and whether to talk about it today. It has evolved a lot. I finally settled on 1992 gear descriptions, and Jim had some aluminum ice screws that were with him on Rainier. Of course now they're much more refined, and easier to place. But that was one struggle for me. Everything, really, has evolved. I spent time looking at Jim's 1992 ice hammer and his current model. Then as I thought about it, I had to decide whether to explain to people that gear has changed. Ultimately, I decided that detracted from the story, which is a human one, so I went with '92 gear descriptions and figured current climbers would understand.

Mark_Wolf(Q) You had to reconstruct Mike Price's life from interviews with those who knew him. What did you learn about him?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I think I learned that he was a guy I wished I had met. I have the sense that I could have spent a few hours with him over a couple beers and that he would have stood out in my mind for the rest of my life. I think what impressed me was that he pursued so many things -- the outdoors, and his own writing -- with such passion. It amazes me that someone who spent as much time in the forests and deserts as he did poured equal energy into reading and writing and thinking about the world. I also think I would have liked his sense of humor -- it strikes me that it is very like my own, sort of dry, sort of witty, and sort of hard to understand sometimes.

Socko(Q) Was Mike's family open to this story, did it take a lot of convincing? What do they hope the story will bring to the readers? What do you hope it will bring to the readers?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Mike's parents were very open to it from our first meeting, which Jim arranged. I think they hope the story will bring the same things I hope it will bring -- an appreciation for life, an idea that we should all slow down from time to time and think. I also believe at the end that people will draw inspriation from both Mike, and the way he lived his life, and Jim, and what he went through on Rainier and how he found a way to deal with it over a lot of years. There's certainly sadness in this story, but there's also an essential part of it that I believe is uplifting.

Mark_Wolf(Q) How and why did Jim decide to do public talks about the accident?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) This question is dealt with later in the series, but essentially Jim concluded that sharing what he'd learned about himself and a difficult situation might help others.

RodneyLey(Q) Kevin, in the spirit of disclosure and in closing: my wife and I knew/know Mike and Jim very well. On Mike's last night in Fort Collins in 1992 he came by my house to have a beer and chat about the trip to the Liberty. We walked up the hill to my kid's elementary school where they were having a community-school pig-roast BBQ. We bought Mike a sandwich, he gave my kids a piggy-back ride, it was the last time we ever saw him. When my wife started reading today's section, she put it down and said "i'll have to take this a little at a time". That's the type of guy Mike was; and the type of guy Jim is. They are the best kind of guys to have as friends.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Rodney, thanks for sharing that. I certainly knew that this series would be difficult for some people to read. That, I believe, is as it should be: Mike lost his life, and that should be paintful. It's what makes us human -- the care we have for people we love. To be honest, there were times when I was writing that I got emotional. Again, I took this as a good sign, and I hoped that the way I came to care about these two men would be transmitted through the story and that others would care about them, and what happened to them, too.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Rainier is a dangerous place. Eleven climbers were killed when a wall broke loose in 1981 and a climber was killed when a snow bridge collapsed a year before the tragedy you write about. What kind of feeling did you get about how climbers deal mentally with danger?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Since I was a little kid I have been fascinated with auto racing. I think there are a lot of parallels. Both can be dangerous and even deadly. But I think the people who do them derive such deep satisfaction from the pursuit that they are able to deal with the danger. There's a part today where we see that Jim gets scared climbing; I thought that was an essential realization, that most of these people are not crazy and fearless, but that they honestly assess the danger and deal with it as part of the entire package. Somebody asked me earlier today if I had ever climbed Rainier. The answer is "no" and, honestly, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have it in me to do it.

Mark_Wolf(P) Jim Davidson will be online with Kevin at 11 a.m. next Monday.

Mark_Wolf(Q) The diary Mike kept on his trip to Mount Kennedy 12 years earlier seems eerie in hindsight.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) It is eerie. One of the most interesting things I came across in pursuing this story was reading Mike's voluminous writings from Alaska. I'm talking about hundreds and hundreds of pages. Crevasses were a constant, around-the-clock danger. So to see his thoughts and fears about them, written more than a decade before he ultimately lost his life in a crevasse fall, was eerie.

Mark_Wolf(Q) What did you learn from reporting/writing The Crossing that played into how you approached The Crevasse?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Joseph Wambaugh, my favorte writer, said of his most famous work: "I was put on earth to write this story. Nothing could ever stop me from writing The Onion Field. I felt it was my sole reason for living." I sort of felt that way about The Crossing, a story that bounced around in my head for nearly 20 years. I think one thing I learned from it is how we are all shaped by our experiences, and all in different ways. That is very interesting to me, that we deal with grief and tragedy as individually as can be. I think I also learned that out of the worst of life there can be good.

RodneyLey(Q) Please accept my thanks to the staff of the RMN for taking on this project and doing a first-class job of it.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Rodney, thank you for your kind words. Obviously, I cold not have written this story without the support of Jim and Mike's family and friends, and without the support of this newspaper. Presenting The Crevasse was a team effort involving more than a dozen people. It is exciting to come in with an idea for a story and see so many people embrace it and throw themselves into it with the same level of care that I had.

Socko(Q) Thank you for a wonderful story
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you for your kind words. It was an honor to have the chance to tell this story.

Mark_Wolf(P) Thanks to Kevin Vaughan for his time and to our participants for the excellent questions.
Kevin_Vaughan(P) Thanks to all of you for your questions and interest. Next week, Jim will joint me for a chat at this same time -- I hope to see you all again then.

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