The Climb

By: Anatoli Boukreev, G. Weston DeWalt

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

The Climb is a true, gripping, and thought-provoking account of the worst disaster in the history of Mt. Everest: On May 10, 1996, two commercial expeditions headed by experienced leaders attempted to climb the highest mountain in the world, but things went terribly wrong. Crowded conditions on the mountain, miscommunications, unexplainable delays, poor leadership, bad decisions, and a blinding storm conspired to kill. Twenty-three men and women, disoriented and out of oxygen, struggled to find their way down the southern side of the mountain. In the dark, battered by snow driven by hurricane-force winds, some of the climbers became hopelessly lost and resigned themselves to death. Anatoli Boukreev, the head climbing guide for the West Seattle-based Mountain Madness expedition, refused to give up hope. Solo, climbing blind in the maw of a storm that continually threatened his life, Boukreev brought climbers back from the edge of certain death.

©1997 by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt (P)1998 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Boukreev was true hero on Everest. You will appreciate this through this account.

I read John Krakauer’s Into Thin Air before and felt that his portrayal of Boukreev was unjust. This is a critical read to better understand the full picture of a very complex situation in an incredibly difficult and dangerous place. In my eyes, Boukreev was a hero.

A classic

This book is a great mountaineering classic. It shares Anatoli's true story of what happened on Everest in 1996, unlike other stories that have surfaced (like Into Thin Air). It is honnest, and it helps understand what happened without blaming anybody and staying humble (once again, unlike Into Thin Air).

Must Read!

Interesting and entertaining, I've listened twice now. Must read to get full perspective of 1996 disaster. Much more believable account than that of 'Into Thin Air.' Boukreev should be remembered as a hero.

Excellent read. Good/fair account of events.

I throughly enjoyed the simplicity, style, unbiased, and factual re-telling of Anatoli's experience on Everest in the spring of 1996. Personally, I much prefer Anatoli's book to the judgmental, emotional, selfish and biased account of Krakauer in "Into Thin Air". I do love and quickly devoured both books.

Clearer version of the events of Everest Tragedy

This book explains Anatoli’s version of the tragic events that took the lives of Fischer and Hall and several others on Everest. Why climb magazine would not publish Anatoli’s letter is beyond me. The popularity of Jon Krakauer? Not sure. I’ve read three books on the events and it seems few were really ready for this climb.

Good Story. Poor delivery via App

I've come to love Audibel and have listened to many books with zero problems until this one. Electronic delivery of the story through my App and iPhone was very poor on this one. Story kept stopping and had to be restarted causing small missed segments. This was disappointing. I have never experienced this before. Otherwise it was great. Well narrated.

Excellent

The best audio book I've heard all year - 5*

If you’ve read Into Thin Air…

Then you should definitely read this; a true account of the ‘96 Everest Tragedy as seen through the eyes of a well respected and highly disciplined high altitude climber. I really enjoyed the Krakauer book when I first read it, but in hindsight, I believe that he lacked any insight into Anatoli Boukreev and his actions that terrible day, and was just looking to assign blame and sell books. Clearly, he did both. I think Mr. Boukreev was done a grave disservice, and robbed of a large portion of the credit he deserved for his heroic actions in an impossible situation. I think he did the best he could with the options he was given, and his legacy to the high altitude climbing world deserved better than to be tarnished by one of the people who was either unwilling or unable to offer any assistance when it was most needed. I almost feel like he was looking for a means of expunging his own survivor guilt, and chose what he perceived to be an easy target—a Russian climber who had a very different approach to climbing, combined with a poor command of the English language. I find that more than a little cheap. If you’ve read Krakauer’s book, definitely give this a try. I think you’ll come away with a broader understanding of the many bad decisions and mistakes that lead to the disaster, and what seems like the almost inevitable outcome.

Riveting

A riveting, honest, reflective, and above all harrowing response to Into Thin Air. I highly recommend this read.

Anatoli - a great mountaineer, an amazing man.

What a sobering, sobering read. I cannot imagine how the '96 expedition must have haunted Boukreev. For him to return the very next year and find Scott and Namba, and to give them a burial - I cannot begin to comprehend what goes into an effort like that.

Anybody who criticizes Boukreev for what happened in May '96 (I'm looking at you Krakauer), has no clue about the caliber of this man. What a mountain of a man.