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: A good alternative to "Into Thin Air"
Summary: 5 Stars
As someone who is very interested in Everest, I found Boukreev's story much more compelling than Krakauer's. While "Into Thin Air" may have been better written, it suspiciously leaves behind important information necessary for the understanding of the 1996 tragedy. Boukreev's attempts to bring forth what really happened are supported by his use of actual transcripts of interviews, and debriefing sessions on Base Camp. After reading "The Climb", one must also challenge Krakauer's memory of the events that transpired... the fact that he is not a professional climber, that his oxygen supply was exhausted before arriving at Camp 4, and that he chooses to ommit statements from those involved in the climb, point to an innaccurate description. Anatoli Boukreev earns a well deserved respect with this book, as a hero, an elite climber, and a courageous human being who risked his own life to save those of people he barely knew... while his critics slept in tents on Camp 4.Book Review: Boring
Summary: 2 Stars
If Anatoli Boukreev could've gotten past trying to pose as a saint this might have been a good book. His ego gets in the way of every page. My understanding is that he wrote this book mainly to refutiate Into Thin Air. What a mistake, he is writing from such a defensive position how can one believe what he says. I'm sure the truth between him and Krakauer lies somewhere in the middle, but you sure won't find much of it in this book.Book Review: Less than one star if I could
Summary: 1 Stars
This book could have been an interesting and different point of view from Into This Air. Instead it is a defensive, ego inflating bore! Boukreev is trying out for sainthood, every page has a passage about how much everyone loves and respects him and about what a great climber he is. He offers no new insights into the tragedy, he is only interested in making himself look good and Jon Krakauer look bad. It doesn't work for me. I couldn't wait to be finished with it.Book Review: An essential companion to Krakauer's INTO THIN AIR.
Summary: 4 Stars
One can surmise that on the basis of two authors' (Boukreev & Krakauer) perspectives of the events leading up to May 10th-11th, the personal desire of Scott Fischer and Rob Hall to provide a "once in a life time" success for paying climbers combined with economic pressures to demonstrate a "we get results" commercially guided climbing enterprise, heavily influenced two private companies to push beyond their own boundaries of safety: being so close to the Summitt made the 2 o'clock rule extremely hard to enforce even though advance planning, under more rational conditions, had dictated it's necessity. Boukreev's interpretation that his actions were one of the few effective responses to a deteriorating situation (the range of details of which even Boukreev wasn't even aware) is convincing. I did not find this book to be a tired attempt of Boukreev to cover his *** after receving some negative press. Boukreev's perspective is appreciated for it's simplicity. He's a climber, first and foremost. He understands that climbing implies risk and demands self reliance (of everyone!) It is important for readers wishing to understand details of this tragedy (and details are something I just can't seem to get enough of regarding this climb) that he was not the notorious, inattentive and self absorbed employee of the Madness team as weakly implied in INTO THIN AIR.I found the transitional style of writing between Boukreev's simple, direct and somewhat broken-english and that of his co-author, DeWalt's interpretive polish refreshing. Technical at times, yes. But I don't see how anyone can appreciate these events without wanting more details. I'm developing an exhausting list of questions to fill in the blanks. This climb could be a FRONTLINE series. Many questions from Krakauer's book were answered when reading THE CLIMB. The reader gets a better understanding of individual characters and personal dynamics of the Madness team from THE CLIIMB; much better than what we see from Krakauer's depictions and/or Krakauer's insight into his own team members at Adventure Consultants. A must read for people wishing to know more about these events and getting a glimpse of what it is like to undertake such an ordeal.Book Review: A great story but a poor book
Summary: 2 Stars
I was underwhelmed by this book, which is surprising given that the story of the Everest debacle is a natural page-turner. Boukreev comes across as the least-blameworthy of several blameworthy mountain guides. Reading a story like this make you wonder why any sane person would try to climb Everest.