The challenge seemed insurmountable. After spending sixty-eight days above 18,000 feet to climb K2, I thought I knew something about tenacity, but Frank simply refused to take any setback as anything other than a challenge that had to have a solution. He made a deal with the Chileans to parachute a dozen fuel drums onto the glacier next to their base on the Antarctic Peninsula. Giles said it would be easy to land there and pump the fuel from the drums into the Tri-Turbo. “I’ve been reading about Shackleton,” Frank told me, “and I found a quote I like. ‘Difficulties are just things to
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