Tim Allen never debated whether to climb

By Erik Hemans

Western teacher Tim Allen never would have guessed that one of his greatest experiences in life would happen four miles above sea level.

During his first year of college, a few of Allen's friends introduced him to the sport of rock climbing. Little did they know, they just introduced Allen to a life long love.

His passion for climbing inspired Allen, 39, to climb two peaks in the world's highest mountain range in May and June. Allen, his girlfriend Michelle Sarruf, and friend Locke Hendry, climbed Lobuche East and Kwandge, two peaks located in the Himalayan mountains in northern Nepal.

Allen was born in 1960 near San Francisco, Calif., to a family who liked to hike. With two older sisters and three brothers, there was always someone around to occupy his time, he said. "When I was a kid my parents would always take us up hiking and camping in the Sierras," he said.

Allen's family moved to Washington in 1974. It wasn't until he moved to Bellingham for college, that his passion for climbing grew.

Allen had done a lot of hiking in his life. "I really didn't get seriously into climbing, though, until I got into college, where a lot of my buddies were into it," he said.

"There's a definite difference between hikers and climbers," he said, "We have to hike just to be able to get to where we are going to climb." Hiking just involves walking up a trail. Climbing involves using your hands, feet, rope, ice axes and whatever else it takes to get you to the top, he said.

He still has the scars to prove how much more dangerous ice and rock climbing are than hiking.

"One time I fell 1,800 feet down an ice face on a mountain," he said. His forearms are scarred from the friction burns he got during the fall.

Allen took spring quarter off this year to prepare for, and attempt his first climbing trip to the Himalayas. That climb was not like anything he had done before, he said.

He has climbed all around the U.S. and Canada, he said. The climbing trip to Nepal was his first outside of North America.

The peaks Lobuche East and Kwangde both lie in Sagarmartha National Park in northern Nepal. "These were both what they call trekkers peaks, which is kind of a misnomer because it makes it sound like you can just walk right up them," Allen said.

What it basically means is that the fee is smaller to climb them, he said. They payed a $300 fee for each peak they climbed, he said. Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is only miles away in the same park. "It is a $60,000 fee to attempt to climb Everest," Allen said.

"Before attempting to summit each of the peaks, we had to stay at a high camp at 16,500 feet for two days to let our bodies acclimatize," he said. When humans travel at high altitudes they must give their blood more time to create red blood cells, which hold oxygen in the blood. "You basically need thicker blood when you are climbing that high," he said.

Allen and his friends were forced to turn back at 19,000 feet in their attempt to summit Lobuche, which is around 22,000 feet tall. "I'm trained in wilderness and mountain first aid, and Michelle and Locke were beginning to show signs of extreme altitude sickness," he said.

Eleven days later they reached the summit of Kwangde at 20,417 feet. The difficulty between the two peaks also played a considerable part in why Allen didn't reach the top of Lobuche. "Lobuche was mainly an ice climb, making it a bit more difficult, whereas Kwangde was mainly a rock climb," he said. Allen has also accomplished other noteworthy climbing feats.

"My girlfriend and I found a new route in the Chillawack range in British Columbia that we named Raven," he said.

Allen has also put himself to the test psychologically and physically on solo climbs. "I take pride in some of the long traverses I've done," he said. "That's like 13 to 20 days out in the wilderness by myself."

Allen got his bachelor's degree from Western in 1981 and went on to get his master's in political science in 1983. He almost received his doctorate in political science from Boston University before returning to Western in 1986 to teach.

Allen has worked for the last 13 years as an instructor at Western. He works in the communications and political science departments, and with the honors program. He also worked as Western's debate coach for several years.

Allen is proud of the debate teams he coached at Western. "In the six or seven years I was running the debate program here (at Western) we finished 10th or 11th in the nation a couple of years," he said.

Two years ago, Allen gave the position of head debate coach to Dr. Kelly McDonald. "I've known Tim since roughly 1990, since I first started college," McDonald said. Allen was a debate judge and coach in the region when McDonald was debating in college, he said.

"He is one of the more conservative rock climbers I know of," McDonald said. Allen is careful and takes his climbing and teaching very seriously, he said. "He enjoys teaching and would never put someone in a position they were uncomfortable in, whether in rock climbing or in the classroom," McDonald said.

Allen brings his love for new challenges into the classroom with him. "Tim's a tenacious competitor at heart," McDonald said, "That's why he's so attracted to debate and climbing. He's always looking for a new mountain to climb literally and metaphorically speaking."

Allen is a busy man. "When I do have spare time I like to sail, spend time with my girlfriend and climb. That's it. That's all I have time for," he said.

Allen has also been practicing Kung Fu for a few years. Kung Fu has helped with his concentration and balance, which are important to climbing, he said.

Eventually Allen would like to take his hobby of sailing one step further and buy a boat. "I would like to buy a 30- or 40-foot sailboat and live on that for the six months of the year that I'm teaching," he said. He is planning to buy property in the town of Mazama, just over Washington Pass in the North Cascades, and live there when he is not teaching.