Above the Clouds

Although having a personal interest Wylie does accomplish the fact that Anotoli Boukreev was greatly denigrated by Jon Krakauer in his Into Thin Air while only mentioning the fact once.....Rowell's being associated with the book convinced me of Boukreev's authenticity....he was truly a mountaineer...I think Krakauer recognized this fact but because of his bias and his paycheck together with his group's failure on Everest he felt compelled to place the blame. He apparently failed to accomplish this as evidenced by the awards and accolades Boukreev received by other mountaineers.....but Boukreev was his victim and all Krakauer was looking for was an American audience, and as I said, a paycheck.......This book is not an attempt to portray Boukreev as he wasn't but accomplished to show Boukreev as he really was, truly an outstanding individual....truly and individual....his returning to the mountain to find Scott Fisher and Yasuko Namba only indicates the person he was......

A joy to read - this man had the spirit of a true mountaineer. His co-author did a wonderful job.

This book is based on the journal of Anatoli Boukreev and his diary of mountaineering. The book does a great job of describing his life before large expeditions and his struggle to make it to the top. The book does also focuses on his life and relationships as well as his personal accounts of his adventures. The journal rarely goes into his deep feelings which gives a better understanding of how he was as person. However, when it does go deep, it speak deeply and touches the essense of mountaineering.

Anatoli Boukreev was one of the most remarkable mountaineers in history. This book gives the reader great insight into Boukreev's thoughts, as well as the Soviet culture. Having read many other books, the similarities between Soviet athletes, chess masters and intellectuals is stunning. Anatoli Boukreev hints at the pressure placed upon him and others prior to the fall of his government. "Above the Clouds" has excellent narratives about climbing, but it is much more than that. His writings about the Everest tragedy are striking.

This is a terrific book by one of the most famous and least-understood mountain climbers of our time. Boukreev was known to only a small group of mountaineering insiders before the publication of Krakauer's Into Thin Air and then Boukreev's own bestseller The Climb. Here, he reveals himself to be a thoughtful, poetic yet tough-minded, and extremely intelligent writer. This book not only covers adventures on Everest, Mt. McKinley, K2, Annapurna, and elsewhere, but also reveals little known and fascinating details about Russia and Kazakhstan and the USSR climbing culture in which Boukreev was raised. Anyone interested in climbing will love this book. (It has terrific photos too, most of them taken by Boukreev from the tops of the peaks he scaled.)