The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest

Very good book. An honest book with a step-by-step explanation of everything that happened. A complex book, written with all the details of what really happened. This is not an easy read before bed. Mountains are beautiful, but high mountains are not for everyone. It's always a risk. Thanks a lot!

The closest you can get without having actually been there. First-hand accounts from the mouths of the climbers make for a fascinating read. The writer did a great job of putting this together.

I didn't enjoy this book and in fact I lost so much interest I didn't finish it. This book had the feel of being written to rebut someone else's story instead of just telling the stories from the writer's/subject's point of view. I don't need to know how he feels about Krakauer's experience from Krakauer's point of view. Everybody experienced the Everest tragedy in their own way. It's all about perspective and I didn't want petty BS.

I read most of what's written about Mt. Everest and other climbing adventures but I only climb through the adventures of others. While I read "Into Thin Air" when it first came out, I only recently got around to reading Mr. Boukreev's excellent recitation of the tragic events of the '96 spring climbing season events as he experienced them. Mr. Boukreev's recounting of this tragic day in the history of Everest climbing is a great adventure story with many lessons about the realities of high altitude climbing, commercial expeditions, and the variables that come in such an extreame environment. "Into Thin Air" offers one perspective. "The Climb" offers a different perspective written by a participant in the event with an extensive resume of high altitude successes. A narrow-minded person could say that "The Climb" is Messrs. Boukreev and DeWalt writing about the greatness of Mr. Boukreev. To them I'd say "Why not?" Mr. Boukreev has earned his place in high altitude climbing and his actions in the '96 tradegy were nothing but heroic. This is a must read for an adventure reader and certainly for students of Everest climbing. My recommendation is to read both "The Climb" and "Into Thin Air". It's not an "either" "or" type of question. Both are must reads.

Like many others, I felt that Anatoli Boukreev was an arrogant man after I read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air." But the truth is that he was the only one who saved lives during the storm that night on Everest. The prose is choppy but honest, and explains why Anatoli didn't use oxygen in 1996, why he descended early and how his strategy in guiding the Indonesian team in 1997 was affected by his own health. Also, it was refreshing to read about the Everest experience through the eyes of a superlative climber in the top form of his life. A year after the tragedy, Anatoli returned to the upper reaches of Everest and buried Scott Fischer and Yasuko Namba. That doesn't seem arrogant or uncaring to me. For further reading on Boukreev, I recommend his "Above the Clouds," and Maria Coffey's "Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow."

I got this book for Christmas from the same friend who gave me "Into thin air" a year ago. The Krakauer book leaves you both stunned and outraged (see my review), and while it is clearly very well written, it leaves many questions open. Boukreev's book answers a lot of these questions. Written with the intention of clearing his name, his account of the tragic events that engulfed the Mount Everest Expeditions of '96 comes across as very genuine and matter-of- fact. While it lacks Krakauer's slickness, it is still a very good and somehow more believable story. Krakauer was on a different expedition team than Boukreev, and while Krakauer's account is written as if he were part of all the expeditions that where up there and knew everything about them, Boukreev focuses on what went on with the Mountain Madness team that he was on. The main information on the mountain events is translated from Boukreev's diary, and his co-author has Dewalt has filled in the connecting information. In spite of this patchwork style the book is very readable and has an authenticity to it that Krakauer's book is clearly lacking.