A review by jlewisturner
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev

4.0

I came away from this liking Anatoli Boukreev, who describes himself as “a difficult man.” He seems to have profound self-understanding and a strong ethical stance about mountaineering and guiding/consulting. I didn’t feel so sanguine about G. Weston DeWalt, who seemed intent on writing around and about his subject, when he could have worked with Boukreev and a translator to put things in his own words. The contrast between Boukreev’s words (in one font) and DeWalt’s descriptive writing (in another) gives the text a herky-jerky feeling. Still and all, I appreciate the different perspective and the glimpses we get of a talented, distinctive, and “difficult” climber.