The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
Book Review: UNCONDITIONAL BOUKREEV , Joseph Aragon
Summary: 5 Stars
I am a twenty five year old male with many passions. One of my largest passions lies among the stories and information I absorb about the beautiful and illusive Everest. After reading the book I have only the deepest respect for Mr Anatoli Boukreev. The knowledge shared by Anatoli is through shear experience and love for the game. The true passion for what one loves often incourages us to exceed even our own expectations as shared with you in this story of confusion, chaos, and heroism.
Anatoli takes you on an emotional trip from the states to kathmandu and on to the top of the world. Although a great hero Anatoli and G. Weston DeWalt do an excellent job of maintaining a modest and humble story that reminds us of how even in the most chaotic of times one individual can rise above his/her own selflessness and survive on complete compassion to save another.
The naration by Anatoli himself is inspirational in itself. Anatoli is not the best with english, but is very precice and accurate in his descriptions which take you there.
I would simply like to thank Anatoli Boukreev for sharing his experience and passions with us. Truly an inspirational story of self will and love that shows what is in all if you can look beyond "I" and remember it is better to give than receive. An unconditional love.
Book Review: Waste of money
Summary: 2 Stars
When I purchased Into Thin Air a few weeks ago, the cashier told me that once I'd finished, I should read The Climb, as it was a response by Boukreev to Krakauer's account of the tragedy.
Not until I got to the postscript of ITA did I think anything in Krakauer's account even deserve a rebuttal. I thought ITA provided a well-balanced, well-developed account from a journalistic point of view. Still, remembering the cashier's words, I went out and spent the $15 on the Climb.
I found The Climb difficult to read mostly because I was never sure who was speaking. Switching from 3rd person, to Boukreev narrating, to unidentified speakers made the book jumpy at best, and completely unintelligble at its worst. I understand that DeWalt was providing a narrative of events, but DeWalt wasn't actually on the mountain that day. And from my understanding has never been on the mountain. So for anyone to speak with such authority about an event that they didn't witness always brings into question the truthfulness of their words.
It is much easier to believe that Krakauer, who was on assignment as a journalist, was keeping, at a minimum, a mental list of things that happened on the trek. He knew he would be writing about them, and undoubtedly assumed that those he was writing about would be there to read his words, and accuracy mattered. The concept that Boukreev remembers every detail of everything that was said or happened is farfetched if not impossible given these events took place over the course of two months. At one point in the book, Boukreev criticizes everyone on Hall's team as being old and slow. However in the debriefing, Boukreev assumed Krakauer was a guide and referred to him and Andy Harris as a strong climber. So which is it?
I don't particularly care who was at fault because it doesn't matter anymore. What I do believe is that Boukreev had no position being a guide. He was not interested in his clients, thought Americans were essentially worthless, and was portrayed even in The Climb to be interested solely in getting a paid trek up the mountain. This was Scott Fischer's error in judgement. It is also important to note that Krakauer was NOT a guide. He was an experienced climber with no 8000 experience. The guides were responsible for him and his safety, not the other way around.
In my mind, the only worth to this book are the maps, the photos, and the transcript of the debriefing on May 15th.
Book Review: World Class High Altitude Climber and Man You Wish You Knew
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was written primarily in response to Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." There is a heavy ring of truth in recounting and documentation of the May 1996 disaster on Everest, which makes me discount some of the "factual" reporting of Krakauer in his book.The story is gripping. Hard to put down; hard to imagine the difficulties and horrors of those dreadful two days.
In the end, I found Boukreev to be a remarkable man, a superb climber, and courageous - without doubt, a person I wish I had been able to meet. He also was a fine expedition planner, and very aware of the pitfalls and dangers of high altitude climbing. Indeed this book could be used as a checklist for expedition organization.
In 1997, he received high recognition from the American Alpine Club for his rescue efforts on Everest, and respect of members of the high altitude climbing community. We must, however, regret that he was tragically killed later that year on a winter climb of Annapurna on Christmas Day, dying before his public reputation was fully restored. This accident also prevented him from completing his mission at that time, to return to Kazakhstan to help organize and promote high altitude climbing in his adopted country.
Book Review: Would've Been Great if It Focused Solely On Boukreev's Description
Summary: 3 Stars
Parts of book by Anatoli Boukreev or related by Boukreev: 5 stars
*Any point of the story where DeWalt offers his opinion: 1 1/2 stars
*Post Script by DeWalt: 0 stars
The story of Anatoli Boukreev is truly an amazing one, and he rightly deserved any bit of honor placed on him after behaving heroically during the Everest disaster of 1996. His tale is inspirational and a true example of a man who lived to take on the elements of nature, and conquer them. Ultimately, nature may have won, but Boukreev's spirit will live on forever. Yes, it is written in broken english, and he has trouble in some of his descriptions, but it is one that needed to be heard.
His story, alone, earns 5 stars.
Jon Krakauer may be an impulsive and self-rightious human being. He also may be judgemental, and yes, he probably could've been more forgiving in Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster towards Anatoli Boukreev, the brilliant and heroic mountaineer who rescued the lives of at least 3 individuals in May of 1996.
With that being said, there is absolutely no excuse for G. Weston DeWalt's misleading, and downright dishonest post script. It is the main reason that I give this book only three stars. After reading this book years ago, along with Krakauer's, I picked up the revised and updated copy this week, and I have to say that DeWalt leaves me with a terrible taste in my mouth.
Within his postscript, DeWalt does the exact thing that he is accusing Krakauer of, which would be leaving out facts and printing misleading quotes. He also relies way to heavily on sections that are basically "this is what person A said in their statement, but she told me something differently behind everyone's back." He accuses Krakauer of leaving out important facts that he claims mislead the reader, but then does the exact same thing himself, on numerous occasions.
Example A: In his postscript, DeWalt repeatedly refers to an article in written by Steve Weinberg in the August 1998 edition of the Columbia Journalism Review, which argued that the facts Krakauer used were in dispute, when it had been advertised as non-fiction.
What Mr. DeWalt conveniently leaves out is that Weinberg is on the record as saying that he had not factchecked his own article with Krakauer, and was basing his entire thesis on what DeWalt had written because Krakauer HAD NOT written a postscript in the paperback edition of Into Thin Air. He later admitted, ON THE RECORD, that since he relied only on the evidence presented by DeWalt/Boukreev and had not confronted Krakauer with them, he had no way of knowing who was telling the truth. In fact, the only reason that Krakauer wrote his postscript was because DeWalt was running his mouth in the press, advertising this article.
While accusing Krakauer of using misleading information, DeWalt has the nerve to repeatedly quote an article as though it were fact, and yet the author has disowned the article, years before DeWalt's revisions!
EXAMPLE B: In both the Climb's postscript and in the much publicized debate that took place on Salon's website in 1998, DeWalt seems to find some sort of glee in reminding people that "No clients died on Scott Fischer's expedition (whom Boukreev was employed by)." Of course, he uses this as though Boukreev and Fischer's brilliant "plan" worked out much better than that of Rob Hall's expedition (of which Krakauer was a client).
Let's look at the facts of this statement- Fischer's expedition was NOT without casualties. In fact, there were two. A sherpa and Fischer, himself. Rob Hall's expedition had four casualties. However, only one of them does the fault rest solely on the mistakes made by Adventure Consultants. If one were to cast blame for the death of Doug Hansen, then yes, it was Rob Hall's responsibility to turn his struggling client around, instead of letting him finish his trek to the summit.
However, it is misleading and quite disgusting for DeWalt to act as though the other deaths would've been prevented in Fischer's group. Two of the deaths happened during rescue attempts. Scott Hall may have survived, had he left Hanson behind to save himself, and Andy Harris died attempting to rescue Hall and Hanson.
This leaves the death of Yasuko Namba. Boukreev, Beidleman, and Mike Groom (the only surviving guide on Hall's team) left Namba and Weathers behind because they didn't think they would survive. With no other guides left on their expedition, there was no one left who had the experience or the energy required to make an attempt. As everyone knows, Weathers survived, but Namba perished. Her death was a tragedy, and neither team could've done anymore than had been done that evening. The reason no one perished on Boukreev's team was because those were the clients, Sandy Hill, Charlotte Fox, etc... that were still showing some signs of life.
Finally, Mr. DeWalt likes to bring up the fact that maybe some of the fault lies on the fact that a member of the press, ie Jon Krakauer, was present on Hall's expedition. Ironically, Krakauer openly admits that he feels guilty and has never shied away from questions over whether his own presence helped contribute to the disaster of that day. What Mr. DeWalt leaves out is that his team also had media reports being broadcast across the world from their team as well. Not to mention that this particular person had sherpas hauling over one hundred pounds of equipment around in the Death Zone.
There are a lot more points that I could spend time rebutting, but I feel that I have used far more space here in this review than I am supposed to.
In the end, everyone who was witness to the 1996 disaster has a their own perspective on what took place. Boukreev's contributions, before his tragic death, is a welcome addition to the records. Jon Krakauer sees the events through his point of view, and Boukreev sees them through his. Neither is the definitive answer, and it may be that we will never have those answers.
I will leave you with a quote from Beck Weathers, from an interview he gave to CNN online on May 9, 2000:
"I think Jon Krakauer got it right. Ultimately, Anatole redeemed himself, and that's the way I prefer to remember him."
Book Review: You Have to Read The Climb
Summary: 4 Stars
All I want to say is that I am convinced that Anatoli did his best in a bad situation. The Everest tragedy of '96' could have made anyone look bad. In fact it did! Read Into Thin Air and The Climb. You won't waste your time - Consider the two perspectives... Krakaur the professional writer and Boukreev the experienced high altitude mountaineer. Enough said.