Into Thin Air is very well written, but of course it's one man's viewpoint. One of the most important oother viewpoints is covered in Anatoly Boukreev, in his book about the same exact climb,
The Climb. Boukreev doesn't have Krakauer's talent as a writer, but he does explain a lot of the things about his style of climbing that Krakauer didn't understand. Unfortunately, Boukreev never got to tour and promote his book -- he was killed in an avalanche in the Himalayas (I think on Annapurna... I'd have to look it up) before the book was published.
All of the stuff from the expeditions to discover the fate of George Leigh-Mallory and Eddie Irvine from the '27 climb is worth reading.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Heh. Great minds are tuned to the same station.
I just looked online and found out almost everyone in the 96 disaster wrote a book.
The links are from Travel Review Books, with whom I haven't dealt. Just found 'em on the net.
I have a lot of mountaineering books -- I did a couple of South American attempts, but am old and slow and retired from climbing, and have never been within hundreds of miles of Everest -- but haven't read these. I have read Breashears's book but can't recall the title, sorry. It's also good.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F d.o.l.
Right Annapurna.
http://classic.mountainzone.com/news/boukreev-avalanche.html Boukreev Killed on Annapurna
Scroll down this page for earlier reports on the avalanche
Weston DeWalt's statement in the wake of Anatoli Boukreev's death on Annapurna
Monday, January 5, 2pm PST
Weston DeWalt, who co-wrote The Climb with Anatoli Boukreev, has issued this statement to The Mountain Zone after hearing confirmation that the famed Russian climber died in a Christmas Day avalanche on Annapurna in Nepal.
DeWalt's Statement:
I met Anatoli Nikoliavich Boukreev on May 28, 1996, eighteen days after the tragedy on Mount Everest. When I heard his story and those of the other survivors I recalled a quote that I had tacked over my desk more than five years before. The words are those of Andrey Tarkovsky, a Russian film director. He said, "I am interested above all in the character who is capable of sacrificing himself and his way of life — regardless of whether that sacrifice is made in the name of spiritual values, or the sake of someone else, or of his own salvation, or of all these things together. Such behavior precludes, by its very nature, all of those selfish interests that make up a "normal" rationale for action; it refutes the laws of a materialistic world view. It is often absurd and impractical. And yet — or indeed for that very reason — the man who acts in this way brings about fundamental changes in people's lives and in the course of history. The space he lives in becomes a rare, distinctive point of contrast to the empirical concepts of our experience, an area where reality — I would say — is all the more strongly present." Anatoli Boukreev, in my experience, was one of those characters, and I am honored to have collaborated in his effort to tell his story.
A few days after Anatoli and Dimitri Sobolev had gone missing on Annapurna, I got a phone call from a leading, weekly news magazine. The caller was "fact" checking a sketch of Anatoli they were planning to run. As he read, the caller said, "Anatoli Boukreev will most likely be remembered as the villain of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air ." I stopped the reader and said, "likely not." I said I thought Anatoli would be remembered for the consummate climber he was. I said I thought it would be remembered that his peers had seen him through eyes different than those of Jon Krakauer when they awarded him the David Sowles Memorial Award for his valor on May 10 and 11, 1996.
Considering the avalanche that took Anatoli and Dimitri away, I remember a conversation I had with Anatoli in December, 1996 about his almost having lost his life during the rescue of two fellow climbers on Manaslu the year before. Anatoli said, "There is not enough luck in the world. That night I got somebody's share." Remembering those words, I think that it's not that Anatoli ran out of luck on Annapurna on Christmas day, but that he gave it to somebody who needed it more. I haven't the words to express how much he will be missed.
— Weston DeWalt, Co-Author of The Climb
I ordered the David Roberts "True Summit" book earlier this evening based on the mention in the article. Now, I have a whole list of "must reads". Crazy thing of it is, I live in Wisconsin, the thermometer is currently sitting on 4 degrees and I'm chasing down Mount Everest books to read!