The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

by Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt

Overview

Everest, the major motion picture from Universal Pictures, is set for wide release on September 18, 2015. Read The Climb, Anatoli Boukreev (portrayed by Ingvar Sigurðsson in the film) and G. Weston DeWalt’s compelling account of those fateful events on Everest.

In May 1996 three expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Crowded conditions slowed their progress. Late in the day twenty-three men and women-including expedition leaders Scott Fischer and Rob Hall-were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disoriented and out of oxygen, climbers struggled to find their way down the mountain as darkness approached. Alone and climbing blind, Anatoli Boukreev brought climbers back from the edge of certain death. This new edition includes a transcript of the Mountain Madness expedition debriefing recorded five days after the tragedy, as well as G. Weston DeWalt's response to Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312206376
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/16/1999
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	407,419
Product dimensions:	6.26(w) x 9.23(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Anatoli Boukreev was one of the world's foremost high-altitude mountaineers. Twenty-one times he went to the summit of the world's highest mountains. For his heroic actions on Mount Everest in May 1996, he was awarded the American Alpine Club's highest honor, the David A. Sowles Memorial Award. He died in an avalanche while climbing in Nepal on December 25,1997.

G. Weston Dewalt is a writer and a documentary filmmaker whose work has been aired on PBS. He divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and London.

Editorial Reviews

Powerful...a breath of brisk, sometimes bitter clarity...Boukreev did the one thing that denies the void. He took action. He chose danger, and he saved lives.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Boukreev heroically rescued several climbers from certain death...[The Climb] gives an excellent account of the May 1996 disaster.” —Chicago Tribune

“Compelling...[The Climb] has a ring of authenticity that challenges the slickly written Into Thin Air.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Provocative...compelling reading, both as an adventure and a spiritual reckoning.” —The New Mexican

“Boukreev acted with extraordinary heroism...[In The Climb] first-person anecdotes, plus excerpts from taped base-camp interviews, are skillfully fleshed out by coauthor G. Weston DeWalt.” —Rock & Ice Magazine

“The Boukreev that emerges from this book is a thoughtful, articulate, even poetic man whose philosophy of life and mountaineering was uniquely his own.” —Ed Viesters, in The Will to Climb

From the Publisher

Mountain guide Boukreev tells his version of the events of the May 1996 Mt. Everest disaster, in which five climbers died, in an effort to clear his name of damning allegations made in Jon Krakauer's bestselling Into Thin Air. Boukreev is well known in climbing circles as a good, tough, experienced guide, not especially personable or given to pampering the clients, but utterly reliable, especially in tight situations. So it came as a shock when Krakauer called into question Boukreev's behavior on that fateful day: Why had the guide raced down the mountain before his clients? Was it because he was improperly dressed and climbing without supplemental oxygen? Was it true he 'cut and ran' when needed most, as charged by a Boukreev client whom Krakauer quotes? Boukreev provides a detailed history of his team's expedition (the book is told as an alternating duet, with Boukreev doing the play-by-play and investigative filmmaker DeWalt handling long swaths of color commentary), of the things that went right on the climb and the many that went wrong, as well as a minute examination of his climbing philosophy. And he successfully parries Krakauer's accusations: He was appropriately dressed and has photos to prove it; he climbs without supplemental oxygen because he feels it makes him stronger, not weaker, especially in situations where oxygen runs out; and, indeed, oxygen was fast running out for his clients, which is why he hurried down, with the consent of his team's leader, to be prepared to ferry tanks back up if needed. Not that the book is without its own glitches, such as inconsistency ('You can receive a lot more information observing the clients' external appearance' and'Appearances meant nothing'). Such a pall of anger and defensiveness hangs over Boukreev's account that only those with a personal interest in his reputation will find much solace in his story.

Kirkus Reviews