In a memoir printed in December, the skilled mountaineer and former Miss Finland Lotta Hintsa briefly described an upsetting incident with a “very well-known male climber” whom she didn’t identify.
Throughout a March 2023 enterprise dialogue within the man’s resort suite in Kathmandu, Nepal, he “kissed Lotta utterly with out warning,” Ms. Hintsa and her co-author wrote within the Finnish-language ebook, “The Mountains of My Life 2.” “The state of affairs was absurd, unreal and ugly.”
However in interviews with The New York Occasions, Ms. Hintsa stated her expertise was extra disturbing than she had described within the ebook. And her story highlights a priority that girls within the climbing world are beginning to discuss extra overtly.
Ms. Hintsa stated the person was Nirmal Purja, whose profitable 2019 quest to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks in file time was chronicled in a well-liked Netflix documentary. She stated he led her to the bed room, pulled off her shirt, trekking shorts and underwear and tried to take away her bra. She stated she repeatedly advised him no and supplied excuses to get him to cease with out agitating him. The episode ended with him masturbating subsequent to her, she stated.
“I simply must get out of this and faux that it by no means occurred,” Ms. Hintsa, 35, recalled considering on the time.
By means of his lawyer, Mr. Purja declined requests for an interview. The lawyer, Philip M. Kelly, stated in a written assertion that Mr. Purja “unequivocally denies the allegations of wrongdoing. These allegations are false and defamatory.”
As high-altitude mountaineering has gained reputation, ladies have grow to be more and more seen and formidable in a sport nonetheless largely dominated by males. Statistics from Mount Everest communicate to the pattern: Final 12 months, 65 ladies reached the summit — about 10 % of the climbers who summited — up from 45 in 2013 and simply 10 in 2003, in response to the Himalayan Database.
However in recent times, members of the broader climbing neighborhood have acknowledged that the game comes with unseen dangers, particularly for girls. Increasingly ladies within the sport, which incorporates all the pieces from indoor mountaineering to ascending snowy peaks, are coming ahead to speak about moments they’ve described as unsettling or worse.
In 2019, a bunch {of professional} feminine rock climbers began an Instagram account “in regards to the ridiculous and inappropriate messages, pictures, and solicitations we obtain in our DMs,” one of many ladies stated in a social media put up. The account, whose creators stated it was later shut down by Instagram, shared screenshots of harassing messages despatched to ladies within the sport.
In February, a 39-year-old climber named Charles Barrett was convicted of three counts of sexual abuse for repeatedly assaulting a girl who was visiting Yosemite Nationwide Park for a weekend climbing journey in 2016. The U.S. lawyer for the Japanese District of California stated in an announcement that Mr. Barrett had “used his renown and bodily presence as a rock climber to lure and intimidate victims who had been a part of the rock-climbing neighborhood.”
And in interviews with The Occasions, Ms. Hintsa and one other girl, a former shopper of Mr. Purja’s high-altitude guiding firm, described experiences in recent times by which he kissed them with out consent, made aggressive advances or touched them sexually towards their needs. They stated they felt powerless and cautious of angering Mr. Purja.
“I didn’t know what to do,” recalled Dr. April Leonardo, a household doctor from Quincy, Calif. She stated Mr. Purja repeatedly grabbed, kissed and propositioned her throughout an expedition to K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain. “I’m on this loopy climb. He’s my information. I don’t need to do something to place myself in jeopardy.”
The assertion from Mr. Purja’s lawyer additionally unequivocally denied Dr. Leonardo’s allegations.
Quickly after the encounters the ladies described having with Mr. Purja, they shared their tales with mates and kin and despatched them textual content messages about their experiences. The Occasions reviewed the textual content messages and confirmed the conversations with the opposite folks.
The outside recreation world has began to handle sexual abuse and harassment, although haltingly. In response to the #MeToo motion, members of the USA climbing neighborhood created an initiative in 2018 referred to as #SafeOutside to review the scope of the issue within the sport. The organizers surveyed greater than 5,000 climbers from over 60 international locations and located that 47 % of girls and 16 % of males stated that they had been subjected to undesirable sexual conduct whereas climbing. And some months in the past, The Mountaineers, an out of doors recreation group within the Pacific Northwest, created a sexual harassment and assault prevention advisory committee to handle the chance amongst its 15,000 members.
But it surely’s nothing new for girls to really feel mistreated within the sport.
“It’s probably the most susceptible place I can think about being in,” stated Alison Levine, the captain of the primary American ladies’s Everest expedition in 2002, who stated she skilled verbal abuse and threatening conduct from a information throughout that journey. The climbers turned again wanting the summit as climate situations deteriorated.
Ms. Levine continued, “The factor that was most difficult, the scariest, and produced probably the most nervousness and worry on that mountain got here from a human, not the setting.” She didn’t return to the massive mountains for an additional 5 years, then went again to Everest in 2010 and reached the summit.
“There may be a lot inherent danger within the setting itself,” she stated. “If you add in danger from interpersonal relationships, that makes it much more scary.”
‘The place a “No” Means Nothing’
This month, a whole lot of climbers scaled Everest and different Himalayan peaks. Above 8,000 meters (about 26,000 ft), they enter what is named the Demise Zone, the place there’s not sufficient oxygen to maintain human life for lengthy they usually expose themselves to hazards like frostbite, icefall, crevasses and high-altitude pulmonary or cerebral edema. Eighteen climbers died on Everest throughout the spring 2023 season, and this 12 months 5 have died and three have been reported lacking.
Purchasers pay tens of hundreds of {dollars} to aim these ascents — Everest expeditions begin at round $40,000 and may value six figures for a extra luxurious expertise — and entrust their guides with their lives.
Mr. Purja, 40, is considered one of mountaineering’s most recognizable and influential figures, with greater than two million followers on Instagram. Often called Nims, he’s a naturalized citizen of Britain, the place he lives together with his spouse and younger daughter. However in his native Nepal he’s revered because the sort of climbing celebrity the nation hasn’t seen since Tenzing Norgay accomplished the primary ascent of Mount Everest in 1953 alongside Sir Edmund Hillary.
By means of his guiding firm, Elite Exped, Mr. Purja has helped usher in a brand new period of economic climbing on the world’s tallest peaks and has inspired ladies on social media to participate.
He has guided high-profile feminine purchasers like Asma Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal household, and the Russian mannequin Victoria Bonya. “Thanks for uplifting me to push my limits. I’m grateful for all the pieces you taught me,” a Swiss climber named Christine Vogondy posted on social media final fall, with a photograph of her and Mr. Purja atop Gasherbrum I in Pakistan.
Ms. Hintsa, who grew to become an expert climber in 2018, crossed paths with Mr. Purja at base camps in Nepal and Pakistan whereas on the climbing circuit. They corresponded intermittently about expeditions they had been taking, and Mr. Purja invited her to information for his firm.
Mr. Purja was typically flirtatious in these textual content messages and in exchanges with Dr. Leonardo, in response to a overview of the messages by The Occasions. The ladies typically bantered again, and Ms. Hintsa, a former Sports activities Illustrated swimsuit mannequin, as soon as despatched a photograph of herself from the journal. Usually, although, the ladies modified the topic or didn’t reply.
Ms. Hintsa and Mr. Purja agreed to satisfy in Kathmandu in March 2023 to debate working collectively on an expedition Ms. Hintsa was organizing. Mr. Purja instructed having espresso in his resort suite to keep away from the eye he would get within the foyer, Ms. Hintsa recalled.
Given the tenor of a few of their earlier textual content messages, Ms. Hintsa stated, she sought to attract clear boundaries. She stated she texted Mr. Purja on WhatsApp that this was “not a booty name,” and that he replied agreeing that it was not. Ms. Hintsa not has this textual content change as a result of Mr. Purja’s app was set to make messages of their chat disappear after seven days.
In Mr. Purja’s suite on the Marriott on March 30, Ms. Hintsa recalled, she was “frozen” and “confused” as he led her to the mattress. She stated she felt like she was having an out-of-body expertise as he eliminated her garments at the same time as she continued to say no. She advised him she had her interval, she stated, however he didn’t cease. At one level he touched her vagina, she stated.
“I can’t get via to him. He’s on this extraordinarily aroused state the place a ‘No’ means nothing,” Ms. Hintsa recalled. She stated she was afraid to agitate him due to his power and the coaching he’d acquired in Britain’s navy, together with its particular forces.
She stated that Mr. Purja appeared to develop annoyed as she continued to refuse him and that he appeared to lose curiosity after she bodily resisted his eradicating her bra. She described feeling relieved when he started to masturbate, hopeful that the episode would quickly be over.
Mr. Purja then showered, she stated, which gave her time to compose herself and dress. They left the room and he confirmed her the shop he operates on the Marriott, then requested a driver to take her to her resort, she stated. Mr. Purja behaved as if nothing had occurred, she stated.
That day, Ms. Hintsa texted a pal describing her expertise. The Occasions reviewed the message. Later, she recounted it in individual to the pal, Heidi Paananen, who confirmed their dialog.
A driver for Mr. Purja, Krishna Bahadur Tamang, stated in a written assertion supplied by Mr. Purja’s lawyer that he took Mr. Purja to the Marriott that morning. He stated Mr. Purja returned to the automobile “inside 20 minutes.” Ms. Hintsa recalled being on the resort with Mr. Purja for near an hour, and she or he supplied time-stamped pictures she took that day on her approach to meet Mr. Purja and at his retailer. They corroborated her timeline.
Ms. Hintsa didn’t find yourself doing enterprise with Mr. Purja’s firm.
Widespread Drawback, Little Motion
Outside sports activities have distinctive danger components for sexual harassment and misconduct, stated Gina McClard, an Oregon lawyer specializing in gender-based violence prevention. In 2019, she co-founded a consultancy referred to as Respect Exterior that works with outside recreation teams similar to mountaineering golf equipment and information companies on insurance policies, procedures and trainings to forestall sexual harassment and discrimination.
These actions can entail weekslong expeditions to distant settings, the place members stay and sleep in shut quarters. The tradition surrounding outside sports activities, which celebrates pushing boundaries and glorifies individuals who pull off uncommon feats, may create conditions the place inappropriate conduct goes unchecked, she stated.
“A lot of the outside trade continues to be an ‘previous boys’ community,” Ms. McClard stated in an e mail. “If you don’t conform to how issues are executed, you could end up marginalized and iced out of the membership.”
Mr. Barrett, the climber who was convicted of sexual abuse this 12 months, is ready to be sentenced on Tuesday. He was prosecuted partially due to the 2018 #SafeOutside survey, in response to court docket filings earlier reported by Exterior Journal. The girl he assaulted answered the survey saying she had been raped by a “well-known, skilled California climber” on a visit to Yosemite. One other respondent stated she had been sexually assaulted by the houseguest of an expert climber she was visiting. Survey organizers adopted up with the ladies and linked them after they each recognized Mr. Barrett as the one that had assaulted them. The Yosemite hiker reported Mr. Barrett to the authorities in 2020.
Mr. Barrett’s was a well-known identify in California mountaineering. He wrote guidebooks on bouldering in in style areas like Mammoth and Bishop, and he ascended troublesome routes with the well-known American rock climber Alex Honnold. A 2016 profile in Climbing Journal, later taken down from the web site, described Mr. Barrett as “a grasp of the California climbing recreation.”
He was residing and dealing in Yosemite on the time of the assault of the feminine hiker. Mr. Barrett “violently raped” her after inviting her into the woods to look at a meteor bathe, prosecutors stated, and likewise assaulted her throughout a hike and within the worker housing space. Three different ladies, together with the opposite survey respondent, testified at his trial that he had sexually assaulted them. These incidents occurred outdoors federal jurisdiction, and state prosecutors didn’t convey prices.
Primarily based on her work with teams all through the outside trade, Ms. McClard stated that firm insurance policies hardly ever prolong past bodily security to incorporate psychological or emotional security of purchasers and staff. Most smaller outside corporations don’t have in-house human sources departments, she stated, and greater gamers within the trade haven’t invested the time or cash that she believes this problem requires.
“There’s no industrywide motion,” she stated. “I really feel like we’re alone in what we’re doing on sexual harassment within the outside trade.”
Making Advances at 17,000 Ft
Dr. Leonardo, 41, the California doctor, met Mr. Purja at a teahouse in Nepal in 2021 earlier than she summited Mount Everest with a distinct firm. She later discovered that he was organizing a guided ascent of K2 the next summer time. Drawn partially by the hazard of the climb, she signed up, paying $55,000 for the two-month journey, which started in June 2022.
After arriving at K2 base camp, at about 17,000 ft, the crew held a puja, a ceremony to pay respect to the mountain and ask for protected passage. She recalled that throughout the celebration afterward, she was searching for a trash bag and bumped into Mr. Purja, who took her to a storage tent to get one. As she turned to go away, she stated, Mr. Purja grabbed her arm, pulled her shut and kissed her. She recalled Mr. Purja then saying, “I’ll have you ever.” Surprised and uncertain of what to do, she stated, she walked out.
“I simply really feel like I must keep away from him and hold something from occurring, however I’m afraid to do or say something about it,” Dr. Leonardo recalled considering. One other climber on the mountain on the time stated Dr. Leonardo advised him throughout her journey that she and Mr. Purja had had this interplay and that she didn’t need to be alone with him. The individual requested to not be named for worry {of professional} or private repercussions.
On one other event, Dr. Leonardo stated, Mr. Purja confirmed up uninvited at her tent. She was in her sleeping bag, carrying a shirt and underwear, she recalled, and he crouched subsequent to her and stated he wished to test on her knee, which she had injured. Mr. Purja reached inside her sleeping bag, which made her really feel panicked, she stated, so she shortly pulled her leg out. He kissed her, she stated, and grabbed her hand and positioned it on his crotch, forcing her to really feel his erect penis via his pants. She stated she felt trapped in her sleeping bag, unable to go away as a result of she wasn’t dressed.
In response to Dr. Leonardo, Mr. Purja advised her he wished to have intercourse along with her however needed to wait till nobody was round, after which left.
One other time, she stated, Mr. Purja grabbed her arm whereas she was strolling alone via camp and requested, “When can I mount you?” He instructed they go to her tent, she stated, however she made excuses.
Dr. Leonardo despatched her father, Leon Leonardo, a textual content throughout her journey saying that Mr. Purja saved attempting to have intercourse along with her. “Not okay,” she wrote within the message, which was reviewed by The Occasions.
Two staff of Elite Exped on Dr. Leonardo’s K2 expedition, Chandra Bahadur Tamang, the top chef, and Ramesh Gurung, a senior information, stated in statements supplied by Mr. Purja’s lawyer that they supplied safety for the storage tent as a result of it contained useful gadgets and that Mr. Purja by no means went inside it throughout the expedition. Dr. Leonardo stated folks had been typically across the tent however nobody was there when she and Mr. Purja briefly went inside.
One other senior information, Pasang Tendi Sherpa, stated in an announcement that Mr. Purja “was not in any non-public setting” with Dr. Leonardo throughout the journey. Pasang Tendi Sherpa’s assertion didn’t clarify how he knew that and he didn’t reply to interview requests. Mr. Gurung didn’t conform to an interview. The Occasions couldn’t attain Chandra Bahadur Tamang.
For a number of months after the journey, Dr. Leonardo had cordial textual content exchanges with Mr. Purja, partly as a result of she was ready for reimbursement for some misplaced gear, she stated. She didn’t see him once more.
Warning Different Girls
The ladies who spoke to The Occasions about Mr. Purja stated that they didn’t know what recourse that they had. Elite Exped is a small firm run by Mr. Purja, and since the incidents occurred outdoors their residence international locations, the ladies weren’t certain what to do. They didn’t alert regulation enforcement or different authorities.
Ms. Hintsa stated she was telling her story in hopes of constructing the male-dominated sport of mountaineering safer for girls. Solely with time has she come to know the results of her expertise.
“I hadn’t realized the scars that it had left,” she stated. “It has made me understand that it’s not solely the rock fall or the avalanches which can be harmful for a feminine climber.”
Mr. Purja’s star has continued to rise. As a face of high-altitude climbing, he has labored with main corporations like Pink Bull and Nike, which this previous winter launched a clothes assortment impressed by Mr. Purja, referred to as 8K Peaks, and featured him in a towering Manhattan billboard. In December he acquired an honorary doctorate from Loughborough College in England. Outside manufacturers together with Grivel, Osprey and Scarpa have labored with him on co-branded merchandise.
Dr. Leonardo’s achievement of summiting K2, she stated, was tainted by what she skilled. She hopes that sharing her account will assist different ladies keep away from an analogous situation.
“I can’t let it hold occurring,” Dr. Leonardo stated, including: “I don’t need one other girl to must undergo this.”
Johanna Lemola and Bhadra Sharma contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed analysis.
