Scene from Le Ballon Rouge, 1956
Yoshikazu Suzuki departed from Lake Biwa one fine morning of November 1992, riding his Fantasy.
A few helium-inflated rubber balloons attached to a home-made gondola. The Fantasy. He was a piano tuner, some say heavily indebted. Would his sponsored trip have brought him the money he needed? Nobody knows. Nobody knows the reason why he decided to take off. One day after his departure he lost altitude and was spotted by cost guards. He waved to them. Bye, I'm going to America. This was the last time anyone has seen him and his balloons.
For Joel, our friend from Geispitzen, gone missing while climbing Nanga Parbat.
The gondola is a beautiful touch. This is a way to disappear.
ReplyDeleteI've a number of friends who are climbers. None of them have undertaken anything on the scale of Nanga Parbat.
Thanks WB. What a poetic way to disappear isn't it. On a gondola, lifted up by rubber balloons. It must have been terrible for his family.
ReplyDeleteReading about Nanga Parbat, it seems that no one who attempted a winter climb ever came back. That says it all, really.