Kingdoms of Experience
The opening sections of this book feel like you are reading a Western. In 1985 Mal Duff finds that he can mount an expedition. The only problems are that he has no team and he has no money. He starts to recruit and he starts to fund raise. He builds his team - reliable people he has worked with before, people who have struggled in the past but he seeking a second chance, young guns (know throughout the book as "Boy Racers") who are looking to impress in places they have never been before. If you are familiar with the Magnificent Seven, you will recognize the structure, although Mal Duff ends up with a team of 19, not seven!
So a team of 19 climbers , or possible a number of teams totaling 19 climbers, attempt to climb the NE ridge of Everest. The last people to try were Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman - and they died in the attempt.
If the fact that the 19 climbers did not always work as one team is the central thrust of this very well written account, then the presence of Tasker and Boardman is the glue that holds the whole narrative together. The expedition is going "where only thoughts had trod since `82" and the knowledge that the bodies of Tasker and Boardman were still up there, somewhere, lost in the snow is a constant theme. At one stage even the "gear and hill food" that the dead men left on the "hill" are added to the calculations needed for the expedition to reach its goal.
In many ways this book challenges what the notion of success in mountaineering is. On one dies. On one losses fingers or toes. No one gets to the summit. Did the expedition fail or succeed?
The shear hard work, the repetative nature of a non-alpine style assault and the fear and doubt that fill the minds of climbers on such expeditions are wonderfully recreated. There is little glory here - only day after day of hard work. The story is hugely improved by the inclusion of sections of many of the participants diaries, written in the cold light of the expedition.
This is a first rate expedition book, free from histrionics and self glorification. This may largely be due to the fact that the author was a relative novice climber and had no reputation to maintain or forge.
Highly recommended.
So a team of 19 climbers , or possible a number of teams totaling 19 climbers, attempt to climb the NE ridge of Everest. The last people to try were Joe Tasker and Pete Boardman - and they died in the attempt.
If the fact that the 19 climbers did not always work as one team is the central thrust of this very well written account, then the presence of Tasker and Boardman is the glue that holds the whole narrative together. The expedition is going "where only thoughts had trod since `82" and the knowledge that the bodies of Tasker and Boardman were still up there, somewhere, lost in the snow is a constant theme. At one stage even the "gear and hill food" that the dead men left on the "hill" are added to the calculations needed for the expedition to reach its goal.
In many ways this book challenges what the notion of success in mountaineering is. On one dies. On one losses fingers or toes. No one gets to the summit. Did the expedition fail or succeed?
The shear hard work, the repetative nature of a non-alpine style assault and the fear and doubt that fill the minds of climbers on such expeditions are wonderfully recreated. There is little glory here - only day after day of hard work. The story is hugely improved by the inclusion of sections of many of the participants diaries, written in the cold light of the expedition.
This is a first rate expedition book, free from histrionics and self glorification. This may largely be due to the fact that the author was a relative novice climber and had no reputation to maintain or forge.
Highly recommended.