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alongapath 's review for:
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
by G. Weston Dewalt, Anatoli Boukreev
The 1996 Everest disaster was a beginning for me - the start of my love of non-fiction. There was something in the accounts of that devastation that even now, almost 30 years later, continues to pull my attention towards athletic, endurance and extreme ventures of all kinds.
But the entire Everest disaster embodies a classic example of "The truth takes the stairs". As soon as this disaster happened, Jon Krakauer wrote his personal account of the incident and had it published in Outside magazine 4 months later (Outside having footed the bill for his summit attempt). The pre-Twitter world was dying to know what had happened at the top of the world and this biased, prideful article was consumed as The Truth.
In his article and again in [b:Into Thin Air|1898|Into Thin Air A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster|Jon Krakauer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631501298l/1898._SY75_.jpg|1816662], Krakauer demonized Anatoli Boukreev, making him sound arrogant and irresponsible. Boukreev was made out to be the key reason that Hall, Fischer and Namba all died after summiting on that fateful day. Krakauer picked him as scapegoat and heaped him with blame.
But this book sets so much straight. Boukreev was one of 2 guides working under Fischer for Mountain Madness. In the pre-summit preparations, their key Sherpa developed HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and had to be removed from the mountain, accompanied by a second Sherpa from the team. As a result, Boukreev's role shifted more towards filling the gap of the 2 missing Sherpas and supporting the Sherpa team in their summit preparations. His role moved away from client comforting and pre-climb encouragement.
In a high-altitude fog himself, Krakauer couldn't have known the conversations that Boukreev had with his boss, Fischer, high above the South Col - conversations which directed Boukreev to descend quickly and prepare to rescue the failing climbers.
Walton (ghost writer) does a fabulous job of piecing together Anatoli's play-by-play of those critical 48 hours through interviews, journals and deep research. The heroic actions of Boukreev both on the mountain and in his subsequent rescue operations ended up saving about 10 lives, all while Krakauer lay prone in his tent, unable to assist his own teammates. Boukreev not only saved his own company's clients but also many from Krakauer's team and the Taiwanese team. And this was all done after Boukreev had set the ropes, established Camp 3 & 4 and summited Everest himself.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read Into Thin Air. Give Boukreev, in memoriam, the credit he deserves for his part in saving so many lives that brutal day.
But the entire Everest disaster embodies a classic example of "The truth takes the stairs". As soon as this disaster happened, Jon Krakauer wrote his personal account of the incident and had it published in Outside magazine 4 months later (Outside having footed the bill for his summit attempt). The pre-Twitter world was dying to know what had happened at the top of the world and this biased, prideful article was consumed as The Truth.
In his article and again in [b:Into Thin Air|1898|Into Thin Air A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster|Jon Krakauer|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631501298l/1898._SY75_.jpg|1816662], Krakauer demonized Anatoli Boukreev, making him sound arrogant and irresponsible. Boukreev was made out to be the key reason that Hall, Fischer and Namba all died after summiting on that fateful day. Krakauer picked him as scapegoat and heaped him with blame.
But this book sets so much straight. Boukreev was one of 2 guides working under Fischer for Mountain Madness. In the pre-summit preparations, their key Sherpa developed HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and had to be removed from the mountain, accompanied by a second Sherpa from the team. As a result, Boukreev's role shifted more towards filling the gap of the 2 missing Sherpas and supporting the Sherpa team in their summit preparations. His role moved away from client comforting and pre-climb encouragement.
In a high-altitude fog himself, Krakauer couldn't have known the conversations that Boukreev had with his boss, Fischer, high above the South Col - conversations which directed Boukreev to descend quickly and prepare to rescue the failing climbers.
Walton (ghost writer) does a fabulous job of piecing together Anatoli's play-by-play of those critical 48 hours through interviews, journals and deep research. The heroic actions of Boukreev both on the mountain and in his subsequent rescue operations ended up saving about 10 lives, all while Krakauer lay prone in his tent, unable to assist his own teammates. Boukreev not only saved his own company's clients but also many from Krakauer's team and the Taiwanese team. And this was all done after Boukreev had set the ropes, established Camp 3 & 4 and summited Everest himself.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read Into Thin Air. Give Boukreev, in memoriam, the credit he deserves for his part in saving so many lives that brutal day.