{"id":1353,"date":"2010-11-19T23:21:17","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/littleindian.awmyth.net\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2011-08-09T13:07:29","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T12:07:29","slug":"in-memory-of-alex-mcintyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/littleindian.awmyth.net\/?p=1353","title":{"rendered":"in memory of Alex McIntyre"},"content":{"rendered":"

few days ago,
\nI stumbled upon this webpage about
\nAlex McIntyre<\/a>
\nI am shocked to hear he died in an accident on Annapurna in 1982.<\/p>\n

Long ago, with my friends, I was an avid walker –
\nevery holiday I saved up for, had to be spent in the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

In post monsoon 1982, we had trekked to the Annapurna Base Camp.
\nIt was our last day when we met Mr Alex McIntyre;
\nwith him, if I remember right, was Mr John Porter.
\nThey arrived with their team of porters.<\/p>\n

There was no one else at the base camp except a couple of local shepherds.<\/p>\n

We invited them to our tent and and being our team cook,
\nI made them some sweet indian tea while their porters went on ahead
\nto find a site for their camp.<\/p>\n

We sat and chatted for a bit.
\nTheir third team member had become unwell
\nand had stayed back in one of the hotels enroute.<\/p>\n

We were, well leastways I was, awed to have met ‘real’ mountaneers.
\nWe shook hands and wished them luck, success and good weather. <\/p>\n

They went up and pitched camp, we struck ours.<\/p>\n

Nearly thirty years on, I somehow still remember him,
\nthat wicked smile
\nand a wicked wicked sense of humour.
\n\"Alex
\nHis hair was shorter than in the photograph.<\/p>\n

It was a small meeting; I find I had it filed away in my memory.
\nThis bit of news and his photograph brought it all back. <\/p>\n

We might have been the last people,
\nother than their porters, he met before starting on their climb.
\nWhich is why this news leaves me today with an empty feeling, <\/p>\n

Alex McIntyre:<\/span>
\ncruelly struck down in his prime by a single stone which hit him square on the head…<\/em>
\n– Link to: Mountain Heritage Trust<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

a sense of loss for a person I so little knew.<\/p>\n

I have long lost contact with my walking mates.
\nI would so like to, but am unable to share the memory with them. <\/p>\n

I write this just in case anyone reading this too may have known him.
\nTo share in his memory. <\/p>\n