Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate Review

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Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate ReviewIt was a great achievement to have been the first (along with team mate Peter Habeler) to have climbed Everest without supplementary oxygen. This is a candid account of the climb, along with the human story - Messner's inner tussles with himself, his emotions during and after, his long-standing dream of Everest without oxygen, and finally how it's almost an anti-climax when the dream is achieved... dream over, what next?
Messner states in the introduction, "If a man cannot reveal anything [of his feelings], he has nothing to say." Messner has tape recorded his thoughts and feelings of the moment during the days on the mountain, and has written this book as authentically true to the feelings at that time - rather than any mis-remembered or glorified version from a comfortable chair at home.
However the writing style is somewhat disjointed - jumping from one interesting incident to another rather than a cohesive (but likely more boring) complete narrative. I guess this book is a translation from the German. I certainly did not read it for its literary merits, it was more for the incredible story itself.
At the beginning of the book, there is a several pages long quote from Norton's account of the 1924 expedition which ended tragically with Mallory and Irvine being lost in the upper reaches of Everest. This early expedition has the roots of the debate concerning supplementary oxygen - whether it was physically possible to climb to the top of the world without it and the ethical issues of "would it be by fair means?". This sets the context nicely for the rest of the book.
It is a story of immense physical and mental endurance, all kinds of mortal dangers including ice-falls, avalanches, storms... the number of times the Sherpas and climbers have to go back and forth between base camp and higher camps under threatening, unstable ice walls that can fall and crush everyone without notice - to setup ladders across crevasses, cut ice steps, carry supplies to higher camps. All of which is a necessary part of achieving the summit. I particularly loved the descriptions of the storm at high altitude which Messner and two Sherpas got caught in, with their primary tent ripping in one night, then the struggle to put up a secondary. And how this incident impacted his confidence about going on, and how he overcame those mental battles.
Messner gives due credit to the Sherpas without whom any expedition cannot succeed, giving their names and photos in the book. But it still comes across as an uncomfortable relationship between the "Sahibs" and the Sherpas. The inequity is disturbing - I'm sure it exists in the real life of all Himalayan expeditions and hence it comes out in the narrative.
What makes this book special is the minor details that Messner chooses to record - such as some mundane conversation in a tent cooped up with a climbing partner, or how he taught the Sherpas some pasta recipes - these things give you a window into expedition life.
You also get some insight into expedition politics, interactions among team members. One thing that strikes me is, the incredible self-centered attitude of each person on such expeditions - each one goes with ambitions and hopes of achieving glory, personal fulfillment, whatever - and knows that they cannot "go it" alone - and hence the teams. But teams are only good as long as they don't hold one back from their ambitions... if that is threatened, "each man to himself" is the motto that comes across.
The excellent color and black&white photos interspersed with the narrative add a lot to the story too.
True to what he said in the introduction, you do get an idea of the man behind the climber. It is a great mountaineering book, but be warned that there's a lot of emotional angst in it!Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate Overview

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