Having just read Marko Prezelj’s article, “Based on a True Story” in Alpinist 21, I have to say that I am disappointed. While few people would deny that Prezelj is one of the most accomplished climbers in the world today, and that he had a mind-boggling year in 2006, I put down the issue with a bad taste in my mouth.
While the second half of Prezelj’s piece seems to be a reminiscence on the climbs and experience, the opening pages read like a bashing of a former partner that borders on libel. Regardless of what may or may not have transpired on any given climb, are the pages of Alpinist really the appropriate venue for this sort of rant? Even if everything mentioned did occur, the one-sided whining reads as juvenile and petty. If you are displeased with a partner find a new one rather than publicly dragging the old one through the mud.
Prezelj mentions specifically that he “knew an ego had been destroyed” after Koch, his partner, lowered off of a difficult pitch. With this article, one ego may have been destroyed, but another was certainly inflated. I only hope that the rest of the climbing community doesn’t see the fastest way to the top as being achieved by pushing your former partners down.