The Daily Campus

Issue date: 2/5/09 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Matt Lin Journalist and author Michael Kodas speaks at the Konover Auditorium Wednesday night.

Michael Kodas, a journalist and author of the new book "High Crimes," hosted a lecture last night at the Student Union co-sponsored by SUBOG and the UConn Outing Club. Kodas, a journalist most famously known for his work about Everest had a lot to say to an almost packed theatre.

He began by showing a video about Mt. Everest, proclaiming it as the "ultimate measurement of human accomplishment." After the video and giving everyone a little background about himself and his work, Kodas got into the nitty gritty of what he has witnessed on all these adventures to the Himalayas. While much of danger associated with Everest deals with nature and the elements, rarely, if ever, do people hear about crime on treks to the summit.

This is exactly what Michael Kodas' new novel is about and the point of discussion last night.

He first went to the Himalayas to climb a different mountain, Ama Dablam (nearly 12 miles from Everest), with his friend and mountain guide Ann Parmenter. After conquering that peak, both he and Ann had decided to conquer Everest someday. After much time, prodding and money Kodas was able to go with a Connecticut team to tackle Everest. However, this was primarily a press job for him. He joked multiple times claiming that the Hartford Courant was simply trying to get him off the payroll.

Upon his arrival to Katmandu, Nepal, where his base camp was located, Kodas realized the true commercial nature of the mountain. Everyone was trying to make a buck by offering to wash clothes or act as porters up the mountain. Even more alarming was the fact he found that there brothels of sorts at base camp. The shocking thing is that those revelations were just the beginning.

"A variety of our equipment began to vanish." Kodas said. "Ten bottles of oxygen that Ann and I would rely on were gone."

This was while they were climbing up and to make matters worse they were finding out worse things about one of their team leaders George Dijmarescu. George was a Romanian man from Connecticut who had climbed the mountain nine times while his wife, a Sherpa, had done it five times. He was previously accused of theft and they found out he had a very shady reputation. Kodas revealed that ultimately, once George found out Kodas planned on publishing all of this, that George openly threatened his life and made the expedition extremely uncomfortable. He almost made it sound like something from "Lord of the Flies." Kodas eventually revealed that George had beaten his wife in front of the entire team and she had to be sent back down for help. That was just a small sample of what Kodas revealed to the crowd last night. He also went into great detail about a story involving a daughter attempting to locate her father who was simply abandoned on the mountain.

After hearing much of the negative side of climbing and adventuring it was easy to become skeptical of the whole process to being with. The looks of shock on many of the audience member's faces were easy to read. However, Kodas assured the crowd that while what he is reporting is prevalent it is by no means the norm. "Climbers are able to remove the horrible parts and only remember the beautiful parts." He said. When asked if he would ever return to the mountain Kodas smiled and said,"Never say never."

"The talk was great," said David McGuirt, an 8th-semester journalism major. "He had very good insights and spoke about things that people normally don't talk about."

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