Climber Scales Heights in Effort to Understand Life in the Soviet Union

Only a thousand feet separated amateur mountain climber Jeff Segal from the peak of Europe’s highest mountain. But he never made it to the top of Mt. Elbrus in the Soviet Union.

His legs would not move, and the short distance became insurmountable. He had climbed too fast and his body had not acclimated to the altitude at more than 17,500 feet.

“It was so frustrating,” said the 21-year old Santa Monica resident, who returned Aug. 17 from a month in the Soviet Union. “The sickness was like paralysis. Your body stops moving and you begin to vomit.”

Segal was one of nine American college students who, with eight Soviet students, climbed Mt. Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

The students took part in a program that seeks to bring future leaders of the two countries to a better understanding of each other through mountain climbing. It is sponsored by the nonprofit U.S.-U.S.S.R. Youth Exchange Program in San Francisco and the International Mountaineering Camp of the Soviet Sports Committee.

Although Segal does not like to talk about staying behind while other members of the team climbed to the 18,510-foot peak, he fondly recalls the Soviet paratrooper who stayed with him and helped him down the mountain.

But “climbing Elbrus was only secondary,” Segal said while eating the pancakes he had missed so much in the Soviet Union. “I wanted to learn about the Soviet Union and its people.”

Segal, a graduate of Colorado College, said he took part in the program to find out why many Americans are so paranoid about the Soviet Union.

“The Soviets are just as paranoid about Americans as Americans are paranoid (about) the Soviets,” he said. “They are scared of an American invasion, and I think part of (their fear) they bring on themselves.”

Segal said, for example, that he saw television shows that depicted Americans as greedy and bent on figuring out ways to invade Moscow. “They show Americans stuffing their faces with food, Marines torturing Nicaraguans, and American Army officers saying things like, ‘I need a promotion, so let’s invade the Soviet Union.’ ”

Segal found some Soviet misperceptions of Americans amusing. “They think the only luxury items in the United States are blue jeans and Pepsi Cola. It is amazing how many American military men drink Pepsi instead of hard liquor in Soviet movies.”

But in his month in the country, Segal said, he found that “everything is on the verge of falling apart. I was surprised at how poor the country was.”

Segal’s Soviet companions were all students from Moscow University, he said, and most are studying to be engineers or chemists.

Unlike the American students, who had to write three essays as part of the selection process for the program, the Soviet students were tested on their climbing skills.

“The Soviets were very disciplined,” said Segal, adding that all of them were members of the university climbing club.

Although a Soviet secret service agent who called himself a journalist followed the students everywhere, Segal said the Americans and the Soviets spent more time together than officials usually allow visitors because the Soviets had co-sponsored the expedition. Tourists usually are not allowed to share quarters with Russians, Segal said, but the climbers had permission to do so.