The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

by Boukreev; DeWalt

• ISBN13: 9780312965334
• ISBN10: 0312965338
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-07-15
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Summary

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...

Author Biography

Anatoli Boukreev was one of the world's foremost high-altitude mountaineers, arguably the finest of his generation. He had summited eleven of the world's 8,000 meter peaks without the use of supplementary oxygen, some of them, including Mount Everest, multiple times. In all, he attempted twenty-one times he was successful. Born in Russia where he received the Master of Sports with Honors, Boukreev had made his home in Kazakhstan where in 1998 the President of that Republic awarded him posthumously the "Erligi Ushin" Medal for his contributions to high-altitude mountaineering and for his personal courage.

G. Weston Dewalt is a writer and investigative filmmaker who specializes in human rights issues, the confluence of humankind and the environment, and biography. His film Genbaku shi: Killed by the Atomic Bomb compelled the U.S. Department of Defense to acknowledge that American POWs had been killed during the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. He divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and London.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Mountain Madness	p. 1
The Everest Invitation	p. 13
Doing the Deals	p. 25
The Clients	p. 36
The Trail to Everest	p. 42
Doing the Details	p. 50
Base Camp	p. 58
Khumbu to Camp II	p. 64
Camp II	p. 77
The First Delays	p. 86
Toward the Push	p. 98
The Countdown	p. 109
Into the Death Zone	p. 121
To the South Summit	p. 133
The Last Hundred	p. 143
Decision and Descent	p. 151
Snowblind	p. 160
Walk or Crawl	p. 170
The Rescue Transcript	p. 182
The Last Attempt	p. 199
Mountain Media Madness	p. 206
Afterword	p. 225
Epilogue: The Return to Everest	p. 230
Postscript	p. 251
In Memory	p. 255
Everest Update: A Response to Jon Krakauer	p. 261
A Review from the American Alpine Journal	p. 299
Mountain Madness Everest Debriefing: A Transcript	p. 304
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.