Customer Reviews
Another side of the story - By: John Williams, 28 Jul 2008 
Having read Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, I read The Climb thinking that it would complete the picture & give me a balanced view of what happened on Everest in 1996, when storms hit a number of commercial expeditions resulting in the deaths of eight climbers. It did so to a degree, & the account by Boukreev the climb & of his rescue of three members of his expedition is certainly gripping, but there were aspects of this book that spoiled it a little for me. The most interesting part of the book is the first part, which describes the expedition & Boukreev's heroic rescue of three of his fellow climbers. The Mountain Madness debriefing transcript at the end is almost as interesting, but in a different way. In between these is sandwiched a lot of argument about Jon Krakauer's account & his criticisms of Boukreev. I found this irritating, distracting, unnecessary & undignified. The Climb is tilting at windmills here. After alll, Krakauer is not unreservedly critical of Boukreev. He describes Boukreev's rescue efforts & gives him credit for them. He does also question the wisdom & motives of some of Boukreev's actions, but I think this fair enough; he wrote his account very soon after the events, & admits to the incompleteness of his knowledge. He is also critical of the Everest 'industry' in general, & most of alll of himself.
The Climb is not such an engaging read as Into Thin Air. Perhaps this is because Boukreev was not a writer himself & his command of English was poor, so he had to collaborate with someone who could write, but who was not an eyewitness to the events. Krakauer has the advantage of being both a participant, an eyewitness & a good writer, so his account, while it may have gaps & inaccuracies, is much more compelling. It certainly gives one a greater feel for the atmosphere & the characters involved. If you want to read just one account of the events described in this book, then I would recommend Into Thin Air. You may then feel compelled to read The Climb for the sake of balance. This review seems rather more negative than I intended it to be, so let me finish on a positive note. The Climb tells a gripping story of true life drama, tragedy & heroism. You will want to know how it ends. Boukreev, although he describes himself as a 'difficult' person, comes across with great humanity, honesty & heroism.
A gripping read - By: Alan F. Lord, 09 Nov 2007 
Having read most accounts of the 1996 Everest disaster, I find this to be the most compelling & the most believeable. I could not put the book down until it was finished. Even the transcripts at the end made good reading.
Boukreev Vindicated - By: PCM, 23 Oct 2007 This is the TRUE story of what happened on Everest on 10th May 1996, & gives the lie to Krakeurs spurious, self-absolving account - not worthy of mention here - where Krakeur - 'exhausted' - stayed in his tent when Boukreev asked for help to go & search for the lost climbers. Boukreev was demonstrably one of the greatest climbers of his generation, & his name will adorn the golden hallls of Everest's history long after Krakeur has spent the last of his 30 pieces of silver. The Climb is a beautifully written, well organised & very moving story - particularly when, at the end, we learn of Boukreev's ultimate fate amongst the mountains he worshipped.
Tourists take on Everest - By: N. A. Edwards, 28 Mar 2007 
This is guide Anatoli Boukreev's version of the events of the Everest tragedy of May 1996.
As a guide & not a 'customer' Boukreev paints a dim (but seemingly honest) view of the climbers, base camp, the tour companies & of the whole Everest industry.
Most of the protaganists come across as not particularly nice people, whose motivation for climbing the worlds highest peak is solely so they can write a book & tell the folks back home what high achievers they are.
Boukreev subtly explains that alll you need to climb Everest is a lot of money, a reasonable degree of fitness which anybody can attain, & an expert guide like himself. You dont need previous Mountaineering experience provided you can tick these three boxes.
One of those books I couldn't put down - By: S. Rose, 15 Sep 2006 I was gripped by this book & found it hard to put down. It came across as factual, interesting & absorbing, & I'm not even a climber! Although I've never met him, I have a huge amount of respect for Anatoli Boukreev as a result of reading this book. In contrast, I tried to read an account of the same expedition written by Jon Krakauer but the bits I dipped into were pages of gossip about other members of the team (it came across in a 'gossipy' way to me), & something I couldn't quite put my finger on that grated with me somewhat. Possibly not a fair comparison, but from browsing through Into Thin Air for about half an hour I'm unlikely to read Krakauer's book in full. I found Boukreev's account to be more about Everest, the expedition, & ... well, it was just a nicer read.
Ironicallly, the bits in Krakauer's book I read about other members of the expedition reallly told me more about Krakauer himself. He seemed to go into too much detail about other people's private lives, whereas I was interested in what was going on at Everest. Boukreev's book (and Weston De Walt) came across to me as more focused, structured, well written, fair, factual in a non-judgemental way, & avoided making assumptions without stating that they were assumptions. It was an adventure to read, & to gain some insight into what it's reallly like to climb Everest. It was also reassuring to hear that not alll climbers of Everest put reaching the summit ahead of saving another human life.
I highly recommend this book, & am unable to fault it in any way.
