Movie Executive to Lead Annapurna II Assault

Steven Brimmer wears a suit and tie five days a week, commutes 1 1/2 hours to work in a European sedan and calls the shots at a film company that did the sound for “Exorcist III,” “RoboCop II” and “Darkman.”

On Wednesday, the 40-year-old Malibu executive will fly to Nepal, strap on a pack as heavy as a fair-sized dog and try to make it to the top of one of the steepest, most hazardous mountains in the world.

If all goes well on jagged Annapurna II, Brimmer and his five-man team--including a Beverly Hills fireman, a Hughes Aircraft computer whiz and an Idaho landscaper--will become the first Americans ever to scale the 26,033-foot Himalayan peak.

Only one American team has even tried to approach the mountain, which is Earth’s 15th highest, but considered more demanding than many of the taller 14 because of its steep flanks. It has been successfully climbed only five times. Six men have died trying.

“When you come back from an expedition like this, you realize just how fleeting everything is,” said Brimmer, a husky man with specks of gray in his beard. “We and our business lives and our material possessions are just here for a moment. The real power is the planet, these gigantic mountains that will be here long after we’re gone.”

This is no ragtag team of weekend thrill-seekers, however. All are veteran mountaineers and either know each other from previous expeditions or come highly recommended. Three have been to the Himalayas before. Two specialize in climbing frozen waterfalls. One is a former Navy flight surgeon.

They will be bolstered on their two-month journey by six Sherpa guides, 8,000 feet of thick nylon rope, 140 pounds of freeze-dried food (with water it’s enough to feed one person for a year) and 18 rolls of toilet paper.

But they will also need good weather and a little luck to venture in this Southeast Asian mountain range, where extreme temperatures, thin air and avalanches kill nearly three of every 100 climbers.

“I’m not sure how much it means to the average citizen, but this is really a very difficult proposition,” said Glenn Porzak, president of the American Alpine Club, which has endorsed the expedition. “There is no easy route up.”

Most are willing to take those risks for the same reasons as Doug Kosty. The 32-year-old software engineer from Carlsbad usually spends his days designing and testing high-tech satellite parts for the Hughes Aircraft Corp. On a mountain, he says, you test yourself.

“You really reach way beyond whatever you do here in your day-to-day life,” Kosty said as he and his comrades packed almost 3,000 pounds of equipment into watertight drums that were shipped ahead. “There’s a lot of unknowns.”

A few of the things they do know: They will be awed by some of the most remote and pristine scenery in the world; they will be immersed in a rich, intensely spiritual culture; they will be so challenged physically that they will end up taking 10 breaths for every step; they will have come to depend on each other for their lives.

“Anyway,” Kosty said, “I’m just not the kind of person you’d find taking a cruise.”

Glenn Pinson, a 26-year-old member of the Beverly Hills Fire Department, believes the danger is relative.

“All the guys on the job, they tell me, ‘You’re nuts, kid,’ ” Pinson said. “But you’d probably think someone was nuts too if they told you to climb on top a burning building, cut a hole in the roof and climb inside when the smoke’s so thick you can’t even see.”

The danger in both cases, he said, is minimized by protective equipment. Like firefighters who wear thick coats, goggles and respirators, the climbers will be equipped with fiberglass helmets, walkie-talkies, headlamps, spike-soled boots, sleeping bags warm to minus-35 degrees Farenheit and just about waterproof everything.

Rounding out the team, which is paying for the $36,000 expedition out of its own pockets, are Bob Whited, 32, a Boise, Idaho, landscaper, Jeff Levis, 30, an outdoor equipment designer also from Idaho, and Jay Lasner, 35, a New Jersey physician.

They will hike for six days from Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, through the tropical Marsyandi River valley before reaching the foot of the mountain. At 15,000 feet, they will set up a base camp. Even if all goes well, it will take another month of painstaking climbing to make the summit.

The trip back down takes just three days.

Brimmer, who speaks fluent Nepali and plans to bring along a video camera to make a film about the lives of the Sherpas, suspects the experience will probably change each climber’s life.

“It’s like being on another planet,” he said. “No one comes back the same.”