The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.16 You Save: $8.83 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.25 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
Book Review: Difficult to read alone, but essential for Everestophiles
Summary: 4 Stars
As with most of the reviewers, I shall compare this book with Into Thin Air. I will echo the sentiments of others who say The Climb is not as well written or as lucid. It does, however, contain a good deal of information that is lacking in Krakaur's account.I must differ from other reviewers in some points, however. I never felt that Krakaur blamed Boukreev overly harshly when reading Into Thin Air. After having read The Climb, I have not changed my opinion. The fault seems to lie with Mother Nature (and perhaps Hall and Fischer). I do, however, faintly echo the complaint of some reviewers of Into Thin Air with this book - it seems a little self-serving to me. Krakaur at least gave the appearance of being impartial, and this book has the disadvantage of being a rebuttal at times (both because it was written after and also because I read it after).
I recommend this book, but not solely on its own merits. As numerous mountaineers have pointed out, the brain doesn't work correctly at 9km of elevation, so reading multiple versions of the same story is necessary. This book certainly fills an important spot, but if you only read 1 account of this fateful Everest expedition, I would have to recommend Into Thin Air. BTW, the IMAX Everest film also has some good material on this trek, for those interested.
Book Review: Don't Blame Anyone
Summary: 5 Stars
Both the Krakauer book and Boukreev story are fantastic reads. Both describe a tragedy for which there is no one to blame. At 29,000 feet, in this oxygen-starved environ, the mountain rules and even the best, most conditioned climber who may have successfully climbed Everest previously is still at the mercy of the mountain and the weather. For $60,000 plus, Fischer and Hall provided a trip up the mountain. For even a million dollars, no guide can guarantee the saftey of the climber and anybody who thinks otherwise is a fool. It could be argued that there is an inherent conflict in these paid expeditions since the company wants to succeed in getting clients up the mountain to attract future clients. It seems to me that in each of the accounts of Krakauer and Boukreev both Fisher and Hall did not want to disappoint their clients and may have pushed it on that basis. But there wasn't anybody on that trip who did not understand the risks of Everest. Everbody acted nobly under the circumstances, even the Sherpas.Book Review: Drama vs. Documentary
Summary: 5 Stars
With a tragedy, hardly can the public resist the desire for a story. Even better, a dramatic personal narrative with which the readers experience the ups and downs of the event from a first person perspective plus a heroic survival. All these are exactly what Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer offers.
I read ITA in a rush, couldn't put it down, and searched for other accounts of the event. All these demonstrate how successful ITA is as a popular read. The Climb is the second book on the event I picked up, and despite that, granted, TC is much less engaging compare to ITA, I value what's being offered in the book much more. ITA is dramatic; TC is objective and professional. ITA is constructed using personal observations, speculations, and opinions by Jon Krakauer as a writer and a story teller; TC offers factual records and direct quotes from multiple perspectives. ITA creates suspense; TC teaches us about complexity and human conditions.
I was bewildered when learned that Krakauer's account of his encounter with Beck Weathers (when he offered to help Beck) is quite the opposite from Beck Weathers's recollection (in which Jon refused by saying that he is not a guide). And I deeply sympathize with Anatoli Boukreev for his position as a professional mountaineer who encountered both language and cultural barriers yet still tried to navigate within these obstacles and did the best he can using his intuitions and judgments from years of experience. Compared to Anatoli's moment by moment knowing what he is doing as a high-altitude expert, Jon comes across as exactly who he is - an ambitious novice and a client wanting to achieve and to be served.
The Climb shows us human conditions - the mishaps, the judgments based on incomplete information, the confusions, the drive, the will to preserve oneself, and, in some cases, courage and human grace.
I highly recommended The Climb to those who have read Into Thin Air.
Without reading The Climb, you are left with a severely incomplete story, missing tons of opportunities for deeper reflections.
Book Review: EXTREMELY INFORMATIVE
Summary: 5 Stars
I gave Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air five stars because it was a thrilling and very readable account of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. However, as the previous reviewer, Robert Duran, has stated, credibility counts, especially when reviewing a book of this type. The Climb is not as well-written as Into Thin Air, but it still gets five stars in my book for its accuracy and detached, observant tone. Unlike Krakauer, who puts himself in the center of every scene, Boukreev remains impartial and conveys little emotion. Personally, I accpet Boukreev's account as the truer of the two. Krakauer should be ashamed of himself. He painted Sandy Hill Pittman has the "bad girl" of the expedition when Pittman actually has more high altitude climbing experience than does Krakauer! Krakauer also strongly hinted that Pittman and Mountain Madness expedition leader, Scott Fischer, were having an affair, but the woman having an affair was Lene Gammelgaard, a longtime "friend" of Fischer's whom he invited along on the expedition without making her pay a fee. (Pitttman, in contrast, paid everything owed before the climb, and I know if I need help on Everest I would rather depend on Pittman than on Krakauer any day.) I won't go into the other factual errors of Krakauer's book because previous reviewers have already done a better job than I. If you've read Into Thin Air, (and it IS exciting) no matter what you think about it, do read The Climb as well to balance things out and help you come to your own conclusions.Book Review: Essential but not as pretty as some other books about Everest 1996
Summary: 4 Stars
This book joins a group of other memoirs of the tragic 1996 season on Everest - - Jon Krakauer's famous "Into Thin Air," as well as chapters in Ed Viesturs' and David Breashears' autobiographies, among others. Boukreev stands in a special position among these. He behaved heroically in saving several climbers' lives in an emergency, but he has attracted criticism from Krakauer that, if he had guided differently earlier in the day there would not have been an emergency.
This book is Boukreev's response to his critics, and a full story of his role as a guide on Scott Fischer's expedition. The story begins with how he came to join Fischer, and the borderline fiasco of ordering oxygen bottles in Russia for the expedition.
The disaster unfolded as a result of decisions by two rival guides, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Thanks to Boukreev, only Fischer died among Fischer's team. Hall's team lost four, including Hall. Clearly, Boukreev deserves a lot of credit for the different results. But could he have done better? He summitted quickly, without oxygen, and returned to his tent to rest in case he was needed for a rescue. Apparently Fischer and Boukreev had agreed on this plan. But Viesturs, in an otherwise sympathetic account, wonders whether it would be better to prevent an emergency than to rest up in case of one. That point seems right to me, but it does not diminish Boukreev's heroism once the emergency develops.
Boukreev, whose English is shaky, wrote this book with Weston DeWalt. Most of the narrative is well polished. However, DeWalt chose to reproduce a transcript of their conversations during the key moments atop Everest. This decision gives the narrative an authenticity and immediacy, but I don't agree with it. Boukreev speaks stereotypical Russian-accented English and ends up sounding like Boris and Natasha from "Bullwinkle and Rocky." I liked DeWalt's reworking of the raw material up to that point, and I wish he had continued doing that.
If you're interested in the 1996 Everest disaster, this book is essential for you to make up your own mind about those events. If you're interested in mountaineering, it's a good book - - Boukreev was a phenomenal climber and this book provides a dramatic account of key events in his life. It doesn't put the 1996 story into full context as do the other books I mentioned above, but I'd recommend it nonetheless.