The Climb

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Summary: The Russian mountain man
Review: Have you ever heard of the tradgey on Mt. Everst? Well in the book The Climb it relys to you the whole story of what happen up on the mountain. Anyone that enjoys adventure would like this book. I mainly like it because it deals with how far to push yourself and when to stop and turn around.It want's you to know you can't be superman. The story starts off when a young man name Scott Fisher starts his own expedition to take people up Mt. Everst. He comes in contact with a russian climber named Anatoli which is a very quite person,yet does a lot of thinking. The rest of the story tells how the trip goes.Then comes the exciting part when The rest of the group don't come down the mountain Anatoli is left wandering what happen so he fights his tiedness and heads back out.Finding many people Anatoli saves the day but by then it is to late for eight other climbers that he could not reach. This book will keep you wandering what's going to happen next. I feel that anyone who loves to read would enjoy The Climb.

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Summary: Anatoli was a good climber, but a terrible guide.
Review: Okay. The book is more or less a waste of time, aside from the fact that it does seem to cast at least a little doubt on the motivations of Jon Karkauer in his characterization of Anatoli Boukreev in Into Thin Air. According to the (obviously biased) book by Bookreev, most if not all of the Mountain Madness clients were happy with Anatoli and considered him a hero, Scott Fischer approved of and even was planning on Anatoli's rapid descent after summiting without supplemental oxygen, so that he'd be available to bring up tea and oxygen to anyone in trouble, and Krakauer knew all this and still went ahead and characterized him in a poor light.

That aspect of the book almost made me want to read Into Thin Air again, just to see how really slanted it was against Anatoli. Almost.

On the other hand, despite the inclusion of a letter Anatoli sent to Outside (edited heavily to make the English readable by some friends of his, including, presumably, the coauthor of The Climb, prior to its sending), in which Anatoli "extends a hand" to Krakauer in an attempt to sort out the truth of the tragedy while in the same letter attempting to refute Krakauer's characterization, the book comes down very hard on Krakauer, and indeed on Rob Hall's team in general.

Rob Hall's team is constantly referred to as too old, too out of shape, too inexperienced, too purely driven by money and whim and not by any sort of athleticism or mountaineering whatsoever. It upplays Rob's desire to summit as many clients as possible (a reasonable goal given his line of work, wouldn't you think) in an attempt to redeem himself from the year before, while downloaying Scott Fischer's own drive to best Rob Hall on his first attempt at commercially guiding the expedition. While Scott is questioned in the regard that he might have been "overly eager" to help his clients, and therefore caused his own death by sacrificing his own acclimatization while taking care of clients, the haphazard planning and lack of organization are barely touched upon. And while most of the comments by climbers are attributed anonymously ("a climber on the Mountain Madness expedition," or "one of Rob Hall's clients," etc.), any time Jon Krakauer makes a comment or falters on a hill, or makes a decision that at all effects anyone beside himself,

he's mentioned by name, and never once in a positive light. His decision to wear crampons would come into question if mentioned, I'd bet.

Then there's the end of the book. Fully two thirds through the book, the survivors are all down from Everest. There are (quite literally), an "Afterword," an "Epilogue," a "Return to Nepal," and a couple other "last words" in the book. That's n-1 too many. There's an inordinately long amount of time spent on how difficult the press was immediately after the tragedy, which is perhaps worth mentioning, as I'm sure they were brutal, but not a chapter's worth. I don't need to know about every interview Anatoli gave, if they could all be characterized as, "I didn't speak very good English, so I got frustrated that they weren't understanding me and I gave up." And they were all that way.

Then there's the trip up Everest for the country of Indonesia that Anatoli was the lead guide on... a sort of, "See, I survived the tragedy, unlike Rob and Scott, because I'm a better mountaineer. And see? One year later, I led another perfect expedition. I'm a god on this hill." Absolutely unnecessary in the context of the book. Were it a biography on Anatoli, I'd understand, but it's not, as it's missing 19 previous years of climbing experience.

Finally there's an account of the day Anatoli died (in an avalanche on Annapurna I, Christmas Day of last year). That, I think, is a fitting end for the book, and I agree with its inclusion. It's perhaps the most poignant writing in the whole thing though, which given the gravity of what happened on Everest, versus a freak avalanche killing too mountaineers who were not attached to a commercial expedition, sheds even more light on the bias of the entire work.

All in all, I took away the following: there was an enormous tragedy on Everest, caused by circumstances and bad decisions and the coincidence of both. Anatoli Boukreev was a tremendous mountaineer and saved a number of lives that day, IMHO because he was a _terrible_ guide. By that, I mean he was a great climber, and because he was interested in purely his own conditioning and progress the entire time, he was healthiest and best suited for the task when the time came. A lucky coincidence on a day full of unlucky ones, luckier still that he was brave enough to do what he did. Jon Krakauer definitely didn't bow down and blow Anatoli, but he might have been more charitable.

Rating:
Summary: thrilling and breathtaking
Review: I loved it. I must have soiled myself atleast three times with anticipation of what was to come. It even made me a little "happy".

Rating:
Summary: A good compliment to Into Thin Air, Toli needed to be heard
Review: The Climb offered me a deeper perspective of the tragic events of the Everest summit. When I first read Krakauer's Outside article, then Into Thin Air, I thought Boukreev was betrayed rather harshly. So I was eager to hear his version. The Climb is more defensive than narrative, but with good reason. When a person's character is publicly criticized without the decency of reviewing the facts, I think it's fair to say it would be normal for anyone to be a little defensive. I liked Toli's style. He seemed very professional. I am also impressed that he went back to Everest the following spring to pay respect to Scott Fischer's and Yasouka Namba's body. I wonder what Krakauer did.

Rating:
Summary: A must read if Everest is in your heart
Review: I just finished reading "The Climb". I found this book purely by accident after reading "Into Thin Air". I found "The Climb" a much more factual and believable account of the Everest disaster than "Into Thin Air". Jon Kraukowers book is based from an authors point of view who had never climbed and lived through an Everest Expedition. He was very unfair in his characterization of Antoli. He made him sound so cold and uncaring of his fellow clients and climbers. After reading "The Climb" I have no doubt felt assured that if ever going to Everest I would have 100% confidence to place my life and climbing ambitions in his hands.

Rating:
Summary: riveting
Review: After reading The Climb, I reread the relevant portions of Into Thin Air to see what somebody wrote a whole book rebuting. I didn't find all that much. The debate about using oxygen. The sentence saying "Experienced guides would ... question" his quick descent and that it may have contributed to the death toll. A client states that he "cut and ran". Nothing particularly strong was said by Krakauer and he acknowledges Boukrev's brave actions in the rescue. Boukrev's behavior was a minor issue compared to other factors such as ignored turn-back times, poor radio communications, and insufficient oxygen supply which were more directly responsible for the disaster. In any case, all of Boukrev's clients made it down alive which is more than enough testimony of his efforts.

Into Thin Air is definitely better written and more complete but the Climb is a complimentary read which yields a different perspective and some additional facts.

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Summary: Suspenseful and Spellbinding
Review: I found the book extremely powerful and heartwrenching. Once I started to read it I could not keep it down. In light of the fact that the events at Everest on May 10, 1996 did happen and with tragic consequences, I feel that rawness of the writing makes it even more real and foreboding. The tension is sustained until the shattering climax. Boukreev did appear to be at times emphatic and defensive about his role at the summit which I think was forced by the allegations in "Into Thin Air". While recognizing why he would want to do so I feel that reference to "Into Thin Air" was not necessary. This book has a great story and drama of its own and classifying it as a rebuttal to "Into Thin Air" only minimizes its value. All controversies aside one should not ignore - how the clients of "mountain madness" fared in the end. That I feel is the ultimate truth.

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Summary: This book captured my soul.
Review: In the last three weeks, I read Into Thin Air, climbed my first 4400er (Mt Whitney), and read Climb. Thin Air may to some read better, but Climb captured my heart and soul. 'Toli most assuredly and deservedly lives with the Goddess Sagarmantha now, as do also Hall, Fisher, et al. Had Thin Air not been so unkind to Boukreev, I would never have known of the loss of this great climber that other, smaller people can only write about but never understand or approach. This is a must read book if you read Thin Air 1st.

Rating:
Summary: Decent read but too defensive
Review: I read Into Thin Air first and found it fascinating. I read this book to get a different perspective. This book spends too much time defending Boukreev. Without being there it's difficult to tell why certain things were done but both books give a good insight into what happened. Into Thin Air seems a more balanced book. The question after reading this book is why did Boukreev go down quickly to rest for a possible rescue when he had no radio to find out who to rescue or where?

Rating:
Summary: Good book if you're into Everest
Review: Slow start, but gets better. It doesn't have the breathless tension of "Into Thin Air." In my opinion, one of the single worst mistakes of this expedition is that radios were not given to Beidleman and Boukreev. This boggles the mind. All of the guides should have had radios so they could keep in touch with each other. That's elementary, even for a non-adventurer like me.