Grant 'Axe' Rawlinson

May 27th: Back in Kathmandu and the press

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by

Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson
in

Hi all!

I am happy to report I am back in the beautiful and relaxing Courtyard hotel in Kathmandu.  The hotel owners, Pujan and Michelle cooked us a beautiful steak dinner last night in a welcome back party.  After chewing on Yak steaks for the last 50 days, having an air flown Australian steak, my 4th hot shower in 50 days and sleeping in a real bed with sheets was absolute heaven.

What wasn’t heaven was reading some press articles in NZ papers which were cut and pasted from my last blog (click here to read).   I have seen at least two articles with the headlines “Kiwi climber repulsed by inexperience” and “Climber has no sympathy”.  Reading the short ‘cut and paste” articles gives a different emotion or feeling than the one I was trying to portray when you read my story as a whole.  I was not merely trying to make statement about inexperienced climbers on Everest and how they create dangerous situations by holding up other climbers.  I was attempting to give an honest as possible account of my climb to the summit of the world and what happened along the way.   Unfortunately the articles miss 95% of my story and make me sound negative. I have as a result received some very ugly emails from strangers criticising my character.

I can’t help what the media write, however should you hear of anyone incorrectly drawing conclusions about my character from the short article in the newspaper I would appreciate it if you could at least ask them to read my blog in its entirety before drawing any conclusions.

OK now that’s off my chest, I must head for the Singapore Airlines office to change my flight ticket back to Singapore.  I am really looking forward to getting back to Singapore and back to seeing Stephanie.

Cheers for now!

Axe

Comments

14 responses to “May 27th: Back in Kathmandu and the press”

  1. Mark Masters Avatar
    Mark Masters

    Don’t worry. The newspapers always make up their own version of the news but the up side is that they are fish and chip papers the next day. I am sure that most people will still applaud your overall achievement.

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  2. Tad Avatar
    Tad

    Hi Axe, Welcome back to a little comfort. The first my thought was to write “don’t worry” jurnos nowedays are a lazy bunch and only write a sensationalist crap. on top of that you have a bunch of an “armchair critics” who do not appreciate a great human effort because they’ve never done anything unusual or hard in their lives. I know such crap hurts. I’ve read your blog religiously and I really admired your honest and very visual writing so be proud of it, you gave us readers a great link with your world there and in my case a great link with Margaret’s world there too. Thank you very much and I hope you’ll still be in KTM tomorrow night so I can catch up with you and have a beer or scotch, if not see you in Sing soon. Keep your head very high, you deserve it.
    Chers Tad

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  3. Philippa Avatar
    Philippa

    G, Did those people that left the “ugly” emails sign their name with teddy bear characters, by chance? 🙂 We are always going to have people draw conclusions about us in life. Those that know you, that have taken the time to read your blog and read about your personal experience are the ones who will laugh when reading those type of articles. Focus on the good and know that you gave your readers an in depth account of what your journey was like. We can’t wait to see you very soon. Until then, keep well, positive and well fed! You have been greatly missed in Singapore.

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  4. Paul Harris Avatar
    Paul Harris

    The one first and only time we met was at the summit of Mt Egmont/taranaki in new zealand. As a much less experienced outdoors man (with an even less experienced mate) axe, you were extremely helpful and supportive and as i remember offered my mate a loan of some gear on the way down as he was having trouble. I also remember you talking of your plans to summit Everest, and well due to your modesty I kinda thought you may have been joking. To Ignore the media spin, one hell of a nice guy who shares his knowledge and passion. Once again awesome effort.

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  5. Steve Ebsworth Avatar
    Steve Ebsworth

    Axeman. Ignore the journos. You’re my hero! Looking forward to you getting back to Singapore and having a good catch up. See you soon bud. Travel well. Stiv.

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  6. Kate (Isadora) Smith Avatar
    Kate (Isadora) Smith

    No worries about newspaper reports they have to get an angle that makes for sales. I said it at the time and I have said it to others you are a “top bloke”. I enjoyed all your blogs but especially the one in question. You told it as it was and I found it very honest and quite emotional.Your followers enjoyed the journey step by step. By now you should be back with your family so rest and enjoy.Please give my warmest wishes to Debra and I trust her recovery is well on it’s way.Thanks again for a great couple of months what I am going to do now (still housebound) I really don’t know.It was great getting up each day to read the next blog Cheers Kate (UK)

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  7. Lonna Avatar
    Lonna

    Anyone who has been following you knows you’re not a negative person, so don’t give it another thought. It’s easy to distort things when taken out of context, and that’s what was done. Don’t let it get to you, what they’re saying is simply not true (and I would have wanted to shove the teddy bears up their $&@s too ;o)

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  8. Dazza Avatar
    Dazza

    Leave it to the press to sensationalize and put a spin on your words.

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  9. Barclay Morison Avatar
    Barclay Morison

    Don’t concern yourself about opinions of those who don’t know you or don’t bother to even read your articles in full. You know who you are, and those important to you know who you are, and that is what matters in life, so rest easy dude.

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  10. bassbrad Avatar
    bassbrad

    Axe, those of us who have followed your adventure know your true heart, no matter what lazy and malicious journalists and readers may think of you. Celebrate this experience and accomplishment as you move forward into the rest of your adventure.

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  11. Kellee Avatar
    Kellee

    The news item on TVNZ’s ONE News lead me to your blog. You will be able to watch it on demand through their website. It aired on Sunday night. Your blog paints an awesome picture of your character. Don’t worry too much about their misinterpretation of it all. They needed an angle for a story. Hopefully others read your blog too.

    My students will be reading it today in class. Cant wait to share it with them.

    Kellee
    Huntly,NZ

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  12. Kevin McManus Avatar
    Kevin McManus

    Ax , to hell w/ those negative articles/ and those people for that matter…. Really enjoyed reading your blog…. You just climbed everest mofo…..

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  13. John Talbott Avatar
    John Talbott

    It’s no surprise how things get misconstrued in the papers. You achieved a fantastic goal and good luck to you!

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  14. Lamby Avatar
    Lamby

    Mate, I scoop my dogs’ pooh up with newspaper. So if looking at it that way they actually are useful. (You were there, you know the story, the rest of us are mere observers fortunate to have you share this awesome experience. Thank you axe.)

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