Who invented the escalator

After, the trip, Pittman appeared in a commercial for Vaseline that billed her as a “world-class climber,” an outrageous boast that has been the subject of endless jokes. Her subsequent accounts of the Kangshung trip—including a lecture she gave at the Explorers Club—have made her less than popular within the community because of her habit of referring to the elite mountaineers she was with as her “climbing team,” as though they were her equals rather than her guides. Steve Swenson, one of the expert climbers with her on the Kangshung Face, defends Pittman and argues she has become too easy a target. “We were fixing all the ropes, and she was following after us,” he concedes, “but she contributed as much as anyone to the trip in terms of fund-raising, dealing with the sponsors and media issues.”

There is a long history of wealthy amateurs who are passionate about climbing, including Texas financier and oilman Dick Bass and the late Disney president Frank Wells, who co-authored Seven Summits (with Rick Ridgeway). Neither ever presented himself as anything but a beginner, and eac

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