Moving mountains

In 1993, Greg Mortenson was only one of many Western mountaineers who had decided to take a stab at Pakistan's K2. After a trying 78 days that left him drained and exhausted, Mortenson's quest was cut short just 1,000 feet shy of the peak.

While recuperating in a remote mountain village with the help of hospitable locals, Mortenson benefited from a prolonged exposure to the Karakoram region of Northen Pakistan rarely experienced by the typical American adventurer. Stunned by the region's grinding poverty and lack of educational opportunities, Greg was so affected during his stay that he promised the villagers he'd return.

He kept his promise. From 1993 to 1996, Mortenson spent the majority of his time living in the Karakoram mountain villages. In 1996, he secured enough funding to found the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to implementing housing and education programs in the area. To date, the Institute has successfully completed 104 community-based projects.

Tonight at 7 at the downtown REI, Mortenson will present a slideshow designed to further carry out the promise he made to Pakistan's Balti people eight years ago. Through moving images of the beneficiaries of programs created by the Central Asia Institute, Greg hopes to inspire others to take action on behalf of conservation and education programs everywhere.

His 50-minute presentation has regularly sold out during its tour across the country, and tonight's show promises to deliver more of the same -- a lively and informative narrative accompanied by slides of breathtaking and at times otherworldly landscapes from Central Asia.

"If there's anything I want to emphasize through my slideshows, it's that anyone can make a difference when pursuing a community-based development strategy," Mortenson explained in a telephone interview from his office in Bozeman, Montana. "Through private fundraising efforts, our institute has been able to complete some 104 projects in the fields of education and healthcare, empowering thousands of Pakistanis in the Karakoram region. Because our institute has remained relatively small and flexible, we are able to channel money directly to the people on the ground who need it the most."

It is this top-down, bureaucratic approach to achieving change that has prompted Mortenson to turn down funds from such organizations as U.S. AID and the World Bank. The way he sees it, World Bank money that originates in New York must first be channeled through Geneva and major hubs in Pakistan before it gets to the people.

"What starts out a $100 donation typically ends up yielding only $5 to the locals. U.S. AID is literally begging me to accept money for my projects," Mortenson said. "But there would be strings attached and less opportunity for local decision making."

Mortenson estimates that out of his institute's $100,000 annual budget, 70 percent of the funds will go to education and literacy programs, with another 10 percent being allocated for potable water.

"In the region where I work, one-third of the children born into the world will die before they reach their first year, invariably to diarrhea. By my estimates, bringing potable water into these villages would drop this number by half," he explained.

Even though some 20,000 hikers have passed through the K2 area of the Karakoram region during the past 15years, Mortenson claims to be the only foreigner to have done significant work there.

"The Mt. Everest region, with its proximity to Nepal, is much more likely to attract people working on development. But the area I work in is remote, immersed within the borders of what the United States has deemed a 'rogue state,' and often resistant to education not in strict accordance with Islam."

Mortenson was originally prohibited from allowing girls to attend his community schools, for example, but later received a blessing from the supreme religious leader of the Shiites to disregard the ban.

Mortenson's fervent dedication to the people of Central Asia is no doubt due in part to his high opinion of the people.

"The people I've come across in Central Asia are among the friendliest and most hospitable in the world," he claimed. "There's a saying amongst the Balti people that with the first cup of tea you're a guest, the second cup a friend and the third cup a member of the family. Over the years, many climbers passing through the region have made promises to these people that were never kept. So when they didn't believe me the first time I said I'd return, I had to prove them wrong."