Synopses & Reviews
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..
Review
"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
Review
"Raw but powerful...[Boukreev] took action. He chose danger, and he saved lives." --
The New York Times Book Review"One of the most amazing rescues in mountaineering history, performed single-handedly a few hours after climbing Everest without oxygen by a man some describe as the Tiger Woods of Himalayan climbing." --Wall Street Journal
"[The Climb] has a ring of authenticity that challenges the slickly written Into Thin Air...Compelling" --Minneapolis Star Tribune
Synopsis
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.
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.