‘Zombies on Kilimanjaro’
This seems like another case of Don’t Use the Zed Word to me, but it unintentionally makes Zombies sound pretty awesome:
FRAMINGHAM —
World-traveling author Tim Ward will recount meeting “zombies” while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with his son, Josh, Thursday evening at REI Framingham.The author of six critically-acclaimed books, he will discuss his new travel memoir, “Zombies on Kilimanjaro: A Father-Son Journey Above the Clouds,” from 7 to 8:15 p.m. at the outdoors equipment store at 375 Cochituate Road.
…
What about those “zombies” Ward saw? He explained some climbers earn that nickname on Kilimanjaro when they turn pale from the high elevations and low temperatures on a climb that affects even experienced mountaineers with high altitude sickness.
See, they’re Zombies just because.. they’re pale? Isn’t that more a Vampire stereotype?
But wow, peaceful ‘Zombies’ who climb tall mountains. That doesn’t seem so bad really! What’s not to like about those ‘Zombies’?
I wish we could keep people away from the unnecessary pejorative usage of the term ‘Zombie’ though. Work to do. Work to do.
Title Updated to reflect spelling in real world, not in my head and my spellchecker’s bad word list.
About The Author
Hi – I’m the author of ZOK – thanks for the shout out about my new book. You would be amazed how integrate to the story Zombies are – and it’s not because they are pale that people near the top of KILI seem like Zombies, IRS because altitude sickness is rather similar to zombification in some ways.
You can read about it in the book – just published this week! Want a review copy? Please send a note.
Thanks for commenting, Mr. Ward! We’re always glad to receive feedback here at the ZRC.
I only wish Zombification was as socially accepted as altitude sickness. You don’t see hundred million dollar movies being made about hunting down mountain climbers!
And of course, we support Zombie mountain climbers, who probably face unique challenges.
Who knows, maybe your book will help inspire some sympathy for Undead adventurers of all stripes. We can certainly hope so.