Greg Mortenson‘s former climbing partner, Scott Darsney, sent an email to Outside magazine entitled “Three Cups of Tea Is Not Diminished by One Cup of WikiLeaks.” Darsney was one of the sources Jon Krakauer used to write his essay, “Three Cups of Deceit”–an essay alleging that the author fabricated parts of his memoirs.
Mortenson (pictured, via) wrote about a 1993 visit to the village of Korphe in his memoir, Three Cups of Tea. In the email, Darsney wrote that during the 1993 climb up K2 mountain Mortenson had gotten lost but returned half-a-day later. He theorizes that it’s plausible Mortenson may have been in Korphe during that time.
Here’s an excerpt from Darsney’s email: “If Jon Krakauer and some of Greg’s detractors had taken the time to have three or more cups of tea with Greg and others—instead of one cup of tea with a select few who would discredit him—they would have found some minor problems and transgressions. But to the extent to call it all ‘lies’ and ‘fraud’? No way. They would have come to very different conclusions. It takes a lot longer than one journalistic research cycle to have three cups of tea with someone.”