Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book about a Trategy on Everest
Review: I don't understand Mr. Carpenter's review. Aftre reading "Into Thin Air" I was interested in reading Boukreev's story. I must admit I started the book with a pre-conseption that Boukreeve was going to write an appology and mabe try to attack or dismiss Krakau's (sp?) accounts of his actions on the moutain. I am convinced that Anatoli did the best he could under the circunstances and while Krakau sleep, Anatoli made severl attempts and succeded in saving at least three lives. While not wishing to attack Mr. Krakau's action on the moutain I do believe that Analoti Boukreev's actions were truly heroic that day. The book while a bit appologetic is very well done. It keep me very interested in the events and help me get a different prespective of the tragic events on Everest in 1996.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic ... really
Review: Interesting account of the 1996 Everest disaster. In "Into Thin Air" Jon Krakauer points a pretty strong finger at Boukreev for not performing the duties a guide is paid to perform (such as staying with the people who paid for you to be there.) Mr's. Boukreev and DeWalt point a pretty strong finger back and suggest that Mr. Krakauer didn't do much to help either. Good point, until you remember that Mr. Krakauer wasn't hired to be the resident expert on all things climbing. That was Mr. Boukreev's job. Mr. Krakauer (or Outside Magazine) paid to be on Everest (bartered space in the magazine for the publicity.) Mr. Boukreev was paid, quite handsomely, to provide expertise and safety to the climbers. The assertion that "Scott Fischer knew and agreed that I would go down ahead of everybody and drink tea" cannot be verified, but seems to be somewhat situation ethical. The fact that Mr. Boukreev made it back up to the South Col to rescue a couple of people is heroic in nature. The fact that he rescued only the ones from his crew and left two from the Rob Hall crew to die is almost criminal. However, I suppose the most scorn I feel is for Mr. DeWalt, who saw his cash cow and rode him until he died, and then was never heard from again. Shame on you Weston. When you couldn't hide behind Anatoli, poof, you were gone. Pathetic ... really
Rating:
Summary: Short of the Summit
Review: The Climb gave me a new look on the '96 Tragedy other than from Krakauer and Lenne's books, so it was worth a read. However, the book should not be within the ranks of "novel" status. It should be among the "counter-arguement" ranks. It concentrates entirely too much on "damage control" for Anatoli and not on the climb. The book doesn't even hint that Anatoli may have been in the wrong on several occassions (because I believe there were several). There were also many instances where the author drives home the arguements that Krakauer makes in "Into Thin Air". Even the greatest have their moments of bad decisions... this book is one of them for the author.
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Summary: Boukreev Exonerated
Review: Although it's been some time since I read that book, I remember well how my opinion of Boukreev was changed by his forthright and believable explanation about the events of May 10, 1966. I believe he knew instinctively a disaster was in the making if the weather turned sour, and it certainly did. The firm 2:00 turnaround time was disregarded by practically everybody there. If the experts present, namely Hall and Fischer chose to ignore that rule, then the less experienced people would do the same. Leadership by example. Boukreev was smart enough to know he would contribute very little if he had remained in the vicinity of the summit and die with the rest. It was much better to retire to the sidelines and preserve his strength, not to speak of his life, and offer assistance, oxygen and other support when no one else would have been able to. Fischer knew it and condoned the plan. Krakhaur made a hasty and unfair judgement of Boukreev which bordered on character assassination. You can hardly blame Boukreev for being a little testy about it. Krakauer made his own contribution to the misery of others with his observation of having seen someone thought to be missing walking toward camp and reporting this news to the climbers family when in reality the climber had fallen off, if I'm not mistaken, the Kangshung face.Krakauer knew that Beck Evers had miraculously made it back to camp but didn't bother to check on him during the ensuing night. Weathers spent the night in high-velocity sub-zero winds in a damaged tent unable to get his jacket on because, as I recall, it was tangled in his watch. Krakauer's reaction when he found Evers alive the next morning amounted to... "Well, I'll be darned!" and Evers remarked with his dry humor "What does a fellow have to do to get some help around here." Boukreev heroically and without regard to his own safety located the lost climbers who had strayed in the wrong direction and were huddled in the wind and ice. Several people who would have almost certainly died, lived as a result of Boukreev's efforts. How many did Krakauer haul in? Yet, the implication is that Boukreev was a coward who ran back to camp to save his own skin. And there may be some truth to the fact that he might have been concerned about his own safety. Self preservation is not stupidity and I don't care if he was a guide, he had no obligation to make a great show of dying for his clients. Those people knew enough to be aware you don't hang around on top of Everest socializing and patting each other on the back for very long. Certainly not until four or five oclock in the afternoon. Anyway, that's my view and I believe Krakauer did Boukreev a great injustice. This book cleared it up.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book
Review: For the people who think it was terribly written, all I have to say is that you must look beyond the writing and see that Anatoli was a real heroe. He was the one who went out in the middle of the 1996 storm to go save some climbers. He even went up the next morning to be w/ ROb Hall in his final moments. So buy the book, its worth the money. Maybe it's not a written masterpiece, but it's much more deeper than some think.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: For the ones that like adventures and specially for the ones that read "Into Thin Air", this is another view of the same adventure and tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: A Hero's Tale
Review: I readed both, Into Thin Air and Breshears book before I read the Climb, and my impression is that Krakauer was not fair to Anatoli, and was not honest to the truth.
Anatoli saved three lifes on his own, found Beck Weathers when he was wondering(got help for him) and never gave up on Scott Fischer. When things got out of hand, he was the only one who took action to actualy save lifes (risking his life), and that is the fact, the rest is intrigue. He was the only one who did something when people were in trouble, after the storm all the help in the world was avaiable, but during...
The book is a plain description of what happened there, it is not as well written as Into thin air, but in my opinion is more honest. Anatoli is the real hero of that story.
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Summary: '96 Everest Tragedy from Another Perspective
Review: I enjoyed this book. No two perspectives are ever the same, and this holds true for each person who was part of this tragic climb in May '96. I first read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and then went on to read Lene Gammelgard's "Climbing High" before reading Boukreev's account of the same disaster. I found Boukreev to be rather modest and introverted when I read his account. He worked hard throughout the expedition, carrying loads and doing what needed to be done in establishing camps and fixing lines for the clients. He may not have spent as much time schmoozing with his clients, but he was still working on learning the English language. I came away from the book with respect for this unassuming man who did what he could (which was more than any of the others in Fisher's and Hall's teams) considering his drained strength and energy after climbing to the summit. I found it interesting that Hall's guide who made it back to camp during the storm, never went back out with Boukreev to try to help his two stranded teammembers (Beck Weathers and the Japanese woman). I think that Boukreev suffered from all the negative attention that he received and just wanted his perspective of what happened on the mountain to be heard.
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Summary: At first, i had NO intention of reading this book!
Review: As we all know, Anatoli is the villian of "Into Thin Air". Initially, I didn't even want to read Anatoli's side of the story. I'm glad I did.
As others have stated, this book should be read in contrast to "Into Thin Air". After reading "The Climb", I now find this book as a more definitive account of the tragedy of 1996. The book asks a very important question: Why did Krakauer spend so much time dissecting the actions of Anatoli? all the clients of Scott Fisher's team (which Anatoli was a guide) made it back alive, while Rob Hall's expedition (which Krakauer was a client) lost 2 clients, a guide, and the expedition leader himself (with another client losing several limbs). I think Krakauer should have spent more time looking into the actions of his expedition leader than Anatoli.
However, i dont want to get too much into the Krakauer/Anatoli/Dewalt war-of-words that went on throughout 96 and 97. What i found so much more interesting about "The Climb" is a more personal account of what went on that fateful night. Most of the account is from the mouths of the climbers themselves. The debriefing transcript at the end of the book, when most of the members of Scott Fisher's team discussed what happened (the discussion occurred several weeks after the tragedy) not only is very descriptive of what happened during the ascent, while the climbers were on top of the world, the descent, getting caught in the storm, the "huddle", and the rescue, but it also gives insight into the personalities of the climbers. This is a VERY fascinating book--the everest book that i now find myself reading over and over again. Anatoli was a true hero.
Rating:
Summary: A book that only tries to defend Bourkreev's actions.
Review: The author of this book fails miserably in his writer's duty to objectivity. He fails to clarify information on numerous occasions and, according to subsequent interviews with climbers, takes his own interviews out of context. All in an effort to defend guide Boukreev's selfish actions of not taking oxygen up Evererst which is what any professional guide should do. This book is Boukreev trying to deny his failure. True, he had other courageous actions on Everest, but not bringing oxygen was not one of them.
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