Kingkaew Buatoom prays at Mount Shasta summit. Kingkaew Buatoom s family and friends have always had a hard time understanding why she d spend a fortune just to torture herself climbing mammoth mountains. But when she decided to climb Mount Shasta to honour His Majesty the King, the idea appealed to everyone.
Kingkaew has scaled more than 300 peaks around the world over the past 10 years with her American husband, Charles Mitchell, and in 1997 she was the first Thai to attempt Mount Everest. And, every time, she s had to explain why to her loved ones in Phayao province. But they didn t have any qualms about my tribute to the King, she says at the apartment on Bangkok s Soi Suanplu where she and Charles are spending a Thai vacation.
Their home is in Hawaii. Millions of Thais are honouring His Majesty ahead of his 80th birthday in December by writing postcards of gratitude or, perhaps, quitting smoking. Kingkaew and her husband, who s a physician, chose to tackle California s Shasta, one of the world s seven sacred Buddhist mountains.
Kingkaew named the endeavour Jai Tong , meaning Heart of Gold , an appellation commonly attributed to the King. Mitchell has spent a great deal of time in Thailand since 1981 and has witnessed what the monarch has done for his people. He thought his wife s idea was splendid.
We weren t sure if we could do it because no one had done it before, says the veteran climber, who s wearing a yellow T-shirt like Kingkaew s as well as a yellow wristband. Shasta is scaled hundreds of times each year, but the difficulty Mitchell refers to is the northwest route, where the surface varies wildly, from snow and ice to sheer rock. Mastering it demands skills that are just as varied.
With two professional climbing guides, they set off on August 13 carrying more than 220 kilograms back and forth from an upper base camp to Camp 1 at 10,000 feet. There were no porters on this excursion to haul their gear, unlike the Everest assault, which took six weeks and involved almost a tonne of material. Kingkaew, who weighs 50kg, hefted half her weight in gear all the way to the top of Mount Shasta.
More than once she was pulled over backwards, though she insists that, If you think it s heavy, then it s heavy - but it s not heavy if you don t think about it! They could have hired porters, she says, but we wanted this to be special . Kingkaew further showed her devotion to the project by paying the entire cost of the trip - about US$20,000 (Bt740,000) - whereas Mitchell usually covers their costs.
They next clambered up to Camp 2 at 12,500 feet, and by the 23rd they d reached the Red Tower, the final outpost before the summit. On the fifth night the rain came down in buckets, as if pouring disapproval on their effort, but then, Kingkaew says, it was as if everything went our way right up to the summit . The sky stayed clear from then on.
The team left the Red Tower at 3 the next morning and spent some 10 hours scaling the final 2,162 feet. At last they stood as far as Mount Shasta could reach: 14,179 feet up - more than 4,000 metres. At the top, where it s customary for climbers to leave token markers of their achievement, Kingkaew placed two flags - that of Thailand and the ensign of His Majesty s 80th birthday - and a Buddha amulet.
As well, the team left behind a special piton at the Red Tower for the next climbers to lash their ropes to - it s golden in colour, for the King, rather than the usual black. Kingkaew and Mitchell say the Shasta experience was unlike any of their previous climbs, more difficult even than Everest. Plenty of the peaks they ve scaled in the Himalayas have been higher and more challenging, but this project was particularly tough because they had to plan everything themselves.
Jai Tong is to be documented in a book of the same name, with special copies printed for the King and the Thai consulate in Honolulu. The couple hopes the book will be an inspiration to readers, showing that they can do anything they wish for the people they love and respect. Kingkaew, meanwhile, will continue to play the oddball in the family.
They still can t understand why the rigours of the peaks call her, but she doesn t mind. At least this once, they were with her every step of the way as she pioneered a new route up a holy mountain in the name of the King. Some people might knit a masterpiece for His Majesty, but climbing mountains is what I do best, she says.
This is my masterpiece.
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