The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest | Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt

The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest | Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt | The debate goes on

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The Climb: Tragic ...

	The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1998 - 297 pages average customer review:based on 259 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

As the climbers of the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster vanished into thin air, one man had the courage to bring them down alive...

On May 10, 1996, two commercial expeditions headed by expert leaders attempted to scale the world's largest peak. But things went terribly wrong. Crowded conditions, bad judgement, and a bitter storm stopped many climbers in their tracks. Others were left for dead, or stranded on the frigid mountain. Anatoli Boukreev, head climbing guide for the Mountain Madness expedition, stepped into the heart of the storm and brought three of his clients down alive. Here is his amazing story-of an expedition fated for disaster, of the blind ambition that drives people to attempt such dangerous ventures, and of a modern-day hero, who risked his own life to save others..

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Must read this together with Into Thin Air

After i read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, i thought i knew all there was to know about the 1996 Everest tragedy. Was i wrong.

In Jon's book, Toli (Anatoli) was cast as a villian who knowingly put his clients at risks. After reading this book, i felt that Toli was the real hero in the tragedy. A few things strucked me:

1. Toli came across as a humble and private person who just wanted to be in the mountains. This almost spiritual tie with the mountains shone throughout this book. Climbing mountains was all he ever wanted to do.
2. Unlike Jon's book, this one didn't indulge in any conjectures. This gave Toli's account an air of honesty and somewhat more credibility.
3. Toli was a superb climber (probably the best on both expeditions) trained in the best Soviet traditions whose actions on Everest were made based on what he thought was best for the safety of the clients. It was way too easy for Jon and others, especially amateurs, to restrospectively point fingers at him.
4. Quite a number of people owed their lives to his personal bravery. I thought that this fact is the most telling point in the entire tragedy.
5. Toli's poor command of English hampered him in his work in the expeditions and prevented him from explaining why he did certain things. This unfortunate fact alone could have cast him in a bad light on everyone's account of what happened.

Read both books to find out what happened in 1996 but be wary of Jon's biased and ungrounded conjectures. Jon's book is by no means the official account of what happened. Read Toli's account to get a balanced view. Personally, i'm more inclined to believe in Toli's account. I was sad when i found out that this heroic man died in his beloved mountains in 1997.

Read both books and see if you agree with me.

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The debate goes on

Anyone who needs to place blame about the 1996 Everest disaster can pick one of many problems that happened on that climb -from manmade to "acts of God". Into Thin Air gives one climber's view, the documentary, Storm Over Everest, by David Breashears gives more views by those who climbed, and Boukreev's The Climb gives his account. Each persons' experiences and memories are different so few of them will ever match each others, and blame will never be able to be fully placed.
This is a more tedious book to read than Into Thin Air, but what a gift to read about this incredible man who appeared a bit of a villain in Krakauer's book. Boukreev seems like he was a unique, caring man, a poet in his love of the mountains, and of great physical and mental strength. He knew he belonged on the mountains, lived his life embracing them and eventually died there. Why? Because no one can be in control of nature, certainly not in extreme circumstances like high-altitude climbing. Those that feel they can keep themselves safe with the addition of "guiding" a group of climbers is acting with an even increased amount of hubrus. Even the brilliant Boukreev, as a consultant, could barely keep his expedition to Everest in 1997 together.
Those of you with dreams - I wish you luck in your endeavors but let the Everest disaster be a warning - know your field, know what is expected and don't count on others to push you through.
Read this book to understand the heart of those who push past limits to do what they love.

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Makes Into Thin Air seem very questionable

Having read Krakauer's book, seen the movie and watched the PBS doc, I read this, purported to be the closest to the ten sides of the truth in this adventure/disaster.
In a nutshell, Krakauer looks bad from this perspective, Sandy Hill Pittman still looks like a phony new money weasel, and Fischer looks much better than anywhere else; he is unfairly slammed in the tv movie if this book is at all true, and it does ring truer than the other projects (though the PBS doc Storm Over Everest is a must-see).
Worth reading for anyone into climbing and/or this incident, which says so much about our massive egos and small brains.

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The 1996 Disaster From Another View Point

In 1996 one of the worst mountain climbing disasters that ever occurred on Mt. Everest took place. This tale of death and near death has been told and retold a number of times. With too many people who have paid large sums of money trying to reach the top, disastrous weather conditions, and bad judgments, loss of life was inevitable. It can be argued, that some of these deaths were needless, and that other actions would have brought other outcomes. If you are going to read only one book about this disaster, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is considered one of the best, and if I had to choose between Krakauer's book and Anatoli Boukreev's The Climb, I would choose Into Thin Air. Still, there are often two sides to a story, and Krakauer heavily criticized the actions of Boukreeve in his telling. The Climb gives you another perspective on what happened, showing Anatoli Boukreeve as more of a hero than someone who could have done more as Krakauer alleges. He stepped into the storm and rescued three of his own clients, bringing them down alive in a raging storm. Yet, could he have saved others? People who were not part of his expedition? This is the crux of the criticisms levied against Anatoli. This book, in many ways, feels like Anitoli trying to defend himself against Krakauers criticisms, but if you would like to hear more of the story, from another point of view, then I would recommend reading this book. When you are done, you can try to make your own judgment on what really happened.

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