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: At first, i had NO intention of reading this book!
Summary: 4 Stars
As we all know, Anatoli is the villian of "Into Thin Air". Initially, I didn't even want to read Anatoli's side of the story. I'm glad I did.As others have stated, this book should be read in contrast to "Into Thin Air". After reading "The Climb", I now find this book as a more definitive account of the tragedy of 1996. The book asks a very important question: Why did Krakauer spend so much time dissecting the actions of Anatoli? all the clients of Scott Fisher's team (which Anatoli was a guide) made it back alive, while Rob Hall's expedition (which Krakauer was a client) lost 2 clients, a guide, and the expedition leader himself (with another client losing several limbs). I think Krakauer should have spent more time looking into the actions of his expedition leader than Anatoli.
However, i dont want to get too much into the Krakauer/Anatoli/Dewalt war-of-words that went on throughout 96 and 97. What i found so much more interesting about "The Climb" is a more personal account of what went on that fateful night. Most of the account is from the mouths of the climbers themselves. The debriefing transcript at the end of the book, when most of the members of Scott Fisher's team discussed what happened (the discussion occurred several weeks after the tragedy) not only is very descriptive of what happened during the ascent, while the climbers were on top of the world, the descent, getting caught in the storm, the "huddle", and the rescue, but it also gives insight into the personalities of the climbers. This is a VERY fascinating book--the everest book that i now find myself reading over and over again. Anatoli was a true hero.
Book Review: Behind the scene of a commercial expedition
Summary: 5 Stars
This is another story about the infamous climb of Everest that Jon Krackauer made so famous with his book "Into Thin Air". Anatoli Boukreev was one of the strongest climbers of all time, and he wrote this book because he was not happy about what Jon wrote about him. Although he is obviously not as good of a writer as Jon, I enjoyed his book more. His version goes behind the main scene and shows the business end and the intense logistics of a commercial expedition on a big mountain. Anatoli was the one who was up half of the night rescuing climbers while the rest of the survivors were passed out in their tents. It seems like almost everyone who was on this expedition wrote a book, but this is my favorite version. Dancing on the Edge of an Endangered PlanetBook Review: Bottom Line: The reader ultimately makes the 1996 Everest tragedy call!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll attempt to be succinct in this one: It's not just the proverbial "who do you believe" with regard to Jon Krakauer ["Into Thin Air"] and Anatoli Boukreev ["The Climb"] but it also encompasses the whole 1996 Everest tragedy because depending on who you ask or listen to, everyone has their own opinion or, indeed, pro-Krakauer/anti-Boukreev versus anti-Krakauer/pro Boukreev mind-set. And, true enough, all in-between!
Ultimately, and I render public kudos here to Amazon reviewer Tan Kheng Eng who perhaps put it best when he suggested, "read both books [...] Jon's book is by no means the official account of what happened [...] [and read] [...] Toli's account to get a balanced view." Well said! In effect, and bottom line, the 'reader' makes the ultimate call from what hopefully varied and multiple sources the reader has pursued and how much in-depth reading they have given to it.
I don't suggest for one second that there are any 'easy answers' nor any 'one' source that can be termed definitive. Let's also consider this: there are folks out there who will take the view that if they can't find 'your' name among the list of so-termed "8,000ers" [** Those who have climbed and summited the world's 14 highest mountains over 8,000 meters], then you "haven't the climbing credentials to say anything about it" [!] and I consider that to be pure bosh! Nor do I believe that one must be able to demonstrate that they've been on the Everest or K2 summit to render a point of view! On the other hand, I also find far too many "this is what they should have done" [!] remarks coming from folks totally non acquainted with the existing data [** fast forward to 2006 Everest and the David Sharp matter!] and who wouldn't know a belay from a ballet or perhaps hear the word "crampons" and quite possibly believe this is the first symptoms [!] of HAPE/HACE! That happens too! I'm not talking about so-termed "armchair mountaineers" as much as those who can allegedly pinpoint what went wrong and muse on what 'should' have been done had 'they' been asked or listened to, ahhh, all would have been well. Right. Or the classic, "Well, with our technology today, weather can be fully predicted!" [!]. Right. And serac falls too, yes? Or their belief that bottled oxygen brings the user to 'sea level' [! -- most of the authorities on this one suggest a 'climbing' difference of no more than 3,000 feet] as they comment using their commercial jet experiences [!] and how wonderful they felt within the pressurized cabin at 35,000 feet! Right.
Having said that, I do have one general view but I preface this by saying it's simply my own opinion and therefore no more right or indeed wrong than anyone else's opinion: I believe when the "role" of the climber 'switches' from that of a solo climber to that of a compensated "guide", then the "client" or "clients" plural de facto enter the equation and therefore what one may do 'individually' [climbing without bottled oxygen [where it is normally prudent to do so] as but one example] should, IMO and so stated, factor in the clients and their needs or indeed their mountaineering shortcomings or lack of high altitude climbing experience and not to mention the ability of the guide, and in 'that' particular compensated role, to remain clear-headed. It's not a matter of getting the 'guide' to yet another summit in his/her particular style or method, but getting the 'client' there! And, of particular cogence, back down again!
Let's face it, there 'are' folks who show up at places like Everest or K2 or Annapurna [et al] BC who simply shouldn't be there! Some have very deep pockets and wish to experience "the ultimate thrill" but their climbing experience may be woefully negligible. Further, and this isn't news either, there has been a proliferation of commercial entities offering to take folks to you-name-it but when that happens, the so-termed "guide" takes on the direct responsibility for the welfare of the client and thus 'personal' habits or 'styles' of the 'guide' doesn't necessarilly translate that this should then be the habit or style of the client!
Again, read everything you can get your hands on with regard to the Everest 1996 climbing season but note well the highly differing views or indeed the use of the oft cited colloquialism, to wit, "who do you believe?", well, in the end, the reader has to make the call. They may be right in their call but, and this is cogent, they also may be wrong. I suppose my essential grouse comes into play when it gets down to folks who proclaim that they are 'right' ... and by default, at least in their mind-set, 'all' others holding a contrary view are supposedly wrong.
Doc Tony
Book Review: Buyer Beware
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought this book with high expectations. Many Amazon reviewers have praised it, insisting that it's even better than "Into Thin Air." But now that I've read it, I don't understand those readers who gave it 5 stars. The writing is absolutely wretched. Boukreev and DeWalt have done the seemingly impossible: Taken a gripping tale of life and death on the world's highest mountain and made it a boring exercise in self-promotion. The relentless bashing of Krakauer was fairly entertaining for a while (I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next girl), but DeWalt badly overplays this hand, and by the end of the book his incessant criticisms of Krakauer, and his excessive praise of Boukreev, had the opposite of their intended effect. "The Climb" struck me as a transparently dishonest book. I was enlightened to read the comments from the reviewer below who revealed that Boukreev's publisher, St. Martin's Press, has a reputation for publishing books of dubious credibility.
Before you swallow DeWalt's cynical claims, read the updated chapter at the end of the new 1999 papaperback edition of "Into Thin Air." It confirmed all my worst suspicions about the trustworthiness of "The Climb."
Book Review: Credibility Counts
Summary: 4 Stars
I read some of the reviews posted here and don't recognize the book the reviewers are talking about. Did we read the same book? What I notice most frequently is that the negative reviewers zero in on the writing style and virtually ignore the content of The Climb, especially the "Response to Jon Krakauer" which was offered in the most recent edition. OK. I accept the fact that Into Thin Air is a better written book, no contest, but is that the sole measure of a book's value and importance? What about author credibility? The Climb, by simply and clearly laying out the facts, raises some disturbing questions about the story Krakauer has told and about his professionalism. A few things to consider: (1) Krakauer has said that he "implored" Beck Weathers to come down the mountain with him. Weathers, in tape recorded comments, has said that he asked Krakauer for help, but that Krakauer declined, saying that he wasn't a guide. (2) Boukreev, well before Into Thin Air was published, told Krakauer that Scott Fischer, the expedition leader, had OK'ed his descent ahead of clients. Did Krakauer reveal this? No. Instead, he suggested that Boukreev made a personal, selfish decision to save himself. (3) Krakauer says that his tentmate, Stuart Hutchison, left the tent when Mike Groom stumbled into Camp IV, that he was nowhere around when Groom begged for help with a rescue of Beck Weathers and Yasuko Namba. Mike Groom, in his published account, says that his request for help was made in Krakauer's presence. (4) Krakauer in an interview three years ago said that he might have been wrong in assuming that Fischer, in conversation with Boukreev, did not authorize Boukreev's decsent ahead of clients, but now, after having been criticized for not revealing Boukreev's explanation for his descent, says he suspects the conversation never took place because he saw Fischer boogeying for the summit immediately after he topped the Hillary Step. Oh, yeah? Consider this: In The Climb, Boukreev says that he spent ten or more minutes conferring with Fischer above the Hillary Step after Krakauer went over the edge. Possible? Makalu Gau, from the Taiwanese expediton and Fischer topped the Hillary Step about 2:35 PM. In a published interview Gau says he arrived at the summit at 3:00PM; Fischer didn't arrive at the summit until about 3:45PM. Fischer, who by eyewitness accounts was moving faster than Gau, was forty five minutes behind him on the summit despite the fact that they topped the Hillary Step within minutes of each other. That fact raises serious questions about Krakauer's "observation" that Fischer left the Hillary Step immediately after Krakauer went over its edge and offers ample proof that there was pleeeeenty of time for Boukreev and Fischer to confer. And, the list goes on.If writing style is all that matters in considering a book's meaningfullness, then my time is wasted in making these points. But it means something to me that no substantial fact in The Climb has been proven to be untrue and that members of Krakauer's own expedition have published differing accounts of events in which Krakauer has favorably presented himself. Given that, I'll endure the style of The Climb, which does suffer with the jerky translations of Boukreev's prose, and argue that others should as well.