Roskelley Will Take Time Off To Lead Trek In The Himalayas

Spokane County Commissioner John Roskelley, a world-class mountaineer, plans to leave the courthouse for three weeks in August to lead a trek in the Himalayas.

Roskelley will guide at least six clients on a sightseeing and mountain-climbing adventure in the remote Ladakh region of northern India. The group will attempt to climb Kanglachen, one of scores of peaks in the Himalayas that top 20,000 feet.

The region is near Kashmir, where a Spokane trekker was taken hostage in 1995. But Ladakh is far stabler politically.

Each client will pay Snow Lion Expeditions, the company arranging Roskelley’s trip, $4,000, not including air fare. Roskelley said the money he earns will pay for his expenses and those of one or two members of his family.

“This gives me an opportunity to keep my hand in travel and get a vacation with my family,” he said.

Roskelley said he agreed to guide the trip before winning re-election in November. Noting that he didn’t take a vacation “or even a day off” last year, he said he nonetheless expects to be criticized for taking off three weeks in a row.

Roskelley took a week’s vacation in late January to be host of a TV program on camping for the Family Channel. It has not yet aired.

Rosanne Montague, who has been clerk to the board of county commissioners for more than 30 years, said she couldn’t immediately recall a commissioner taking such an extended vacation. Commissioners set their own hours and decide for themselves how much time to take off.

Montague described Roskelley as a hard worker who normally is in the office when she arrives at 7:30 a.m.

“Good for him,” she said when told of the trip. “I think (travel) adds an important dimension to his skills as county commissioner.”

Snow Lion President Ron Barness said four people have paid for the trip. He said he’s confident it will fill, especially since the March issue of Men’s Journal magazine lists it among the 100 “newest, coolest, most cutting-edge adventures.”

“People definitely know who (Roskelley) is and they want to travel with him,” Barness said.

Snow Lion also has agreed to help Roskelley lead a trek to the remote eastern flank of Mount Everest in summer 1998. That trip will take about three weeks as well, Barness said.

Roskelley said he has made at least 23 trips to the Himalayas since the early 1970s. But this will be his first trip to the region National Geographic described as “the last Shangri-La.”

Roskelley, author of three books on mountaineering, has climbed many of the world’s highest peaks, including K2, a Himalayan peak that is considered much more difficult, technically, than Mount Everest. His attempts to climb Everest without supplemental oxygen were unsuccessful.

In comparison, Kanglachen should be a breeze.

Barness said Snow Lion sent two groups to the peak last year. Bad weather kept one group off the summit. All eight members of the second group - including four with little or no mountaineering experience - made the ascent under blue skies.

“Anyone with a strong constitution is going to be able to make it,” Barness said.

Spokane resident Donald Hutchings was taken hostage by Muslim separatists in 1995 during a trek in Kashmir. He still is missing, and one Indian newspaper has reported that he and other hostages were executed.

But while the State Department urges Americans not to travel in Kashmir, the agency’s telephone recording declares that “the Ladakh region has been unaffected by violence.”

Ladakh “is way out of the trouble area,” said Roskelley.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo Map of Ladakh region