Accidents in North American Mountaineering, 1998, Vol. 51 Book

Well, finally getting around to making a few notes about this book which I read at the same time as a bunch of other Everest-summiting books. All are pretty good, and I'm about to order some others I ran across, including K2, The Savage Mountain,K2 Triumph and Tragedy, The Last Step The American Ascent of K2, and The Endless Knot K2, Mountain of Dreams and Destiny: i.e., it's time to switch mountains.

The literature of mountaineering has evolved. It used to be they were stories of teamwork and assistance. Now, it seems, the treks to the top have become lines (literally) of people hanging on to ropes preset by Sherpas -- the real heroes imho-- just waiting their turn to get on top so they can have bragging rights the next time they head for the bar. Every imaginable disability from double amputees(one guy's prosthesis fell off so a Sherpa had to climb up several thousand feet with a new one) to a fellow with only one lung, to the oldest, or first MD, or first moron, a guy with multiple bones screwed together from a motorcycle accident, etc. has to make the climb now. Everest has become a veritable traffic jam of upper middle-class hero wannabes. And people die. And they no longer help each other. The picture presented by recent books is one of dismal back-biting, chaos, and catastrophe. But they are great fun to read for slugs like me sitting in front of the fire.

Dark Summit portrays the 2006 climbing year, second in tragedy only to 1996 -- see Into Thin Air A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster. Personally, I think they should shut the mountain down and leave it alone. Problem is, as with everything, there is too much money to be made.