Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Book Analysis: "The Climb" by Anatoli Boukreev

Introduction

On May 10, 1996, four groups of climbers set out to summit Mount Everest - one group led by Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants, another led by Scott Fischer of Mountain Madness, an expedition organized by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and a Taiwanese expedition. The day would turn out to be the single most disastrous event in the mountain's history, killing 8 and injuring others after an unexpected blizzard ravaged the climbers, trapping them high on the mountain. This analysis recounts the official accounts of occurrences between May 10, 1996 - May 12, 1996 and the telling of the events from two sides of the same tragedy written into two books: "Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster" by Jon Krakauer and "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest" by Anatoli Boukreev - accounts that have remained controversial and conflicting in their beliefs of what and who was to blame. We started this analysis segment with Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.


About this Book's Quality


Fearful, I am, that this book neither meets the expectations I set for it and that instead of telling the tale of a harrowing tragedy, it sets out to sell itself as a prolonged press release, elevating Anatoli Boukreev and his "friends" as "mountain extraordinaires"!

While I don't like to speak ill of the deceased, I do, however expect for a certain level of honesty be present when authoring a nonfiction book based on a true story, of which many accounts exist. From the beginning, the author sets the scene for the entrance of mountain guru/highly accomplished guide, Anatoli Boukreev. All of this is true, but in the context of the book he's writing, about a disaster that killed 8 people in 1996, it's a bit inappropriate and leaves one thinking about whether or not this is an attempt to clear his name of the claims made by Jon Krakauer in "Into Thin Air", or a memoir about a man's life and his experiences.

"Right from chapter one, the author is opening the scene for a play in which he alone is the star act and his co-author, the cheering one-man audience egging him on."

He does the same when describing his friends. For example on page eight, he makes one of his first mentions of Scott Fischer, his boss and leader of the Mountain Madness commercial expedition company; he sets about to make a note to extend the reader's knowledge of who Scott Fischer is. However, the note reads more like a post-mortem expertise resume than a note. It's almost as if he's trying to do damage control regarding mistakes Fischer may have made back in 1996, which may have contributed to the disaster. Right from chapter one, the author is opening the scene for a play in which he alone is the star act and his co-author, the cheering one-man audience egging him on.

Analysis of The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev


It appears that Boukreev's whole reason for being in Nepal was to revitalize his prowess as a mountaineer, as his native Kazakhstan had all but abandoned the efforts of sponsoring summit bids for home-town mountaineers. He in fact was broke, looking to find work and found it in Scott Fischer, but not before overbidding his wage price by almost double what anyone else would pay, effectively taking advantage of a newcomer to the mountain who was desperately trying make a dent in the industry and needed expert climber.

Boukreev was to be a guide for Fischer, however he neither acted like one nor did he even attempt to aide his clients in getting to the top. He climbed alone, without oxygen and descended alone, without clients. His defense for this is that he was from the "old school", a person who believed that those willing to climb a mountain, should be able to do so without assistance or coddling. Which would be fine by normal standards, but when you're taking on a PAID job as a guide for paying clients, whom you know have limited experience of high altitude climbing, you are almost obligated to act as an assisting guide. Otherwise, you shouldn't take the money or the job - you know what type of clients you're getting and the extra help they'll need.

In my opinion, Boukreev was looking for fast money to hold him over and "sponsor" to get him another Everest summit notch on his belt. Unfortunately, his refusal to help Fischer with much of the tasks contributed to his death, exhausting Fischer to the point he could not withstand the summit and descent.

He makes a defense that he descended quickly because he was climbing without oxygen, and was not supposed to expose himself for long without it at such altitudes - that it'd be better if he went to high camp and was refreshed in case he was needed in the event of a disaster. Well he was needed, and possibly, his decision to do this allowed him to have a lot of strength to later help his clients. But then again, if he had been a responsible guide an summited with oxygen, even a tank in reserve, he may have been able to assist his team in descending much faster, avoiding the brunt of the storm.

Later on, more descriptive and less "all about me" writing takes place, however when compared to other books about the same experience, this one lacks in descriptive merit, creative wording and sheer authoring talent. There is no eloquence here, there is no satisfaction of expectation. This book is simply one man's "I might as well, since everyone else will" attempt at telling the story of a tragic event he happened to experience as well.

I CANNOT discount Anatoli Boukreev's final acts of courage and endurance. He saved lives, he went back out into a monster storm to bring back the barely living (of his own group). I am not saying he wasn't a damn good mountaineer; I'm saying he's not a good author, and neither was the partnership between him and his co-author.

There are a few books out there that recount the events of May 10, 1996 with honest writing and descriptive, respectful text. Those authors who made the inner evaluation of whether or not they should write their accounts, and proceeded in the name of honesty and bearing their soul, did so in a way that can only classify the retelling as ART, especially Beck Weather's Left for Dead.

If you'd like to take a crack at understanding the 1996 Everest Disaster, I highly recommend the following books:

Films & Episodes of Interest 

  • Everest. Dir. Baltasar Kormákur. Perf. Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin. Universal Pictures, 2015. Film. 
  • Frontline: Storm Over Everest. Dir. David Breashears. Perf. Neal Beidleman, David Breashears, Guy Cotter. PBS, 2008. DVD.
  • Everest: IMAX. Dir. David Breashears, Greg MacGillivray, and Stephen Judson. Perf. Liam Neeson, Ed Viesturs, David Breashears. Miramax, 1998. DVD. Available on Netflix
  • Everest: The Death Zone. Dir. David Breashears and Liesl Clark. Perf. Jodie Foster, David Breashears, David Carter. Nova, 1998. DVD. On YouTube Pt1. Pt2. Pt.3 Pt.4
  • Into Thin Air: Death on Everest. Dir. Robert Markowitz. Perf. Christopher MacDonald, Peter Horton, Richard Jenkins. Columbia TriStar Television, 1997. DVD.
  • Johnson, Gareth, dir. "Into the Death Zone." Seconds From Disaster. 26 Nov. 2012. Television.
All movies and episodes have been linked to Youtube where available. We encourage you to purchase the DVDs if possible.

    Articles of Interest

    Notice of Deaths During & After 1996 Expedition

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