Everest's deadly lure: The world's highest

mountain bridges the gap from mythic

timelessness to Imax pop culture. So expect a
run on Everest books during the local run of the
Imax film Everest, especially Jon Krakauer's Into
Thin Air.
Dheensaw, Cleve . Times - Colonist ; Victoria, B.C. [Victoria, B.C]12 Feb 1999: C7.

ProQuest document link

ABSTRACT (ABSTRACT)
If the almost palpable anticipation surrounding the opening of David Breashears' sweeping film Everest today at
the Imax theatre in the Royal B.C Museum is any indication, the pull-up-the-drawbridge types have been lying to us
all along: Victorians don't necessarily believe small is beautiful. Everest, the mountain, is as big as it gets.
Breashears' Imax expedition is the subject of a book, Everest: Mountain Without Mercy by Broughton Coburn
(National Geographic Society, 1997), that expertly captures the sense of awe one must feel on Everest. Coburn
presents the Breashears climb from an almost otherworldly Buddhist/Sherpa sensibility. That makes the brutal
story-within-a-story of May 10, 1996, all the more jarring.
For those less inclined to cruising cyberspace on Everest, there's no shortage of books on the subject. In addition
to the ones listed above, Beyond Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest by Stacy Allison (Dell, 1996); [Edmund
Hillary] and Tenzing Climb Mount Everest by Bob Davidson (Silver Bur, 1993); and Everest: The History of the
Himalayan Giant by Roberto Mantovani and Kurt Diemberger (Mountaineer, 1997) are especially worth a look.
Canadians on Everest (Temeron, 1990) by Bruce Patterson, now an editor on the Times Colonist news desk, gives a
solid overview of this country's efforts up to the late 1980s.

FULL TEXT
If the almost palpable anticipation surrounding the opening of David Breashears' sweeping film Everest today at
the Imax theatre in the Royal B.C Museum is any indication, the pull-up-the-drawbridge types have been lying to us
all along: Victorians don't necessarily believe small is beautiful. Everest, the mountain, is as big as it gets.
And its majestic hold on our imaginations hasn't wavered since May 29, 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary of New
Zealand and Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay -- the two chosen summitters on old India/Raj hand Col. John Hunt's
expedition -- gave the Lion one last roar before the British Empire faded into the sunset.
Like Roger Bannister's breaching of the four-minute mile in 1954 and Neil Armstrong's "one small step for man" in
1969, the story never gets old in the retelling. But four-minute miles are commonplace now (even through no
woman has come within 10 seconds and no one over 40 has ever done it) and trips to the moon lost their epoch-
making lustre after Apollo 11.
Interest in Everest, however, has never waned in the 46 years since Hillary and Norgay -- despite the fact people
now make it to the highest point on Earth in bunches each October/November and May. Just the mention of new
expeditions conjures images of dangerous but breathtaking human achievement as Mount Everest bridges the gap
from mythic timelessness to Imax pop culture.
So local bookstores can expect a run on anything to do with Mount Everest during the run of the Imax film,
especially Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air (Random House, 1997), which spent more than a year on the New York

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Times bestseller list and sold an astounding 800,000 hardcover copies and which continues to sell in the millions
in paperback (Anchor, 1998) and in the illustrated version with a new postscript by Krakauer (Random House,
1998).
On the same week that Breashears planned to climb Everest with his Imax camera -- no small achievement in itself
-- absolute chaos reigned on the mountain on May 10, 1996, as a blizzard suddenly closed in on three separate
groups vying for the peak that afternoon. It left in its wake eight dead, including four from Krakauer's New Zealand-
based group led by guide Rob Hall, who was one of those killed.
The centre of Everest expedition planning in the U.S. is not far from us in Washington state and it was the group
led by Scott Fischer of Seattle that suffered the other four casualties, including Fischer himself.
Everest's height is fearsome to even contemplate: It towers to 29,028 feet (8,848 metres) -- just under the level at
which Boeing 747s cruise. Krakauer was looking to scale the summit that fateful May day three years ago for an
article he was writing for Outside magazine about those amateurs who pay guides like the late Hall and Fischer
$65,000 US each for the chance to follow in the steps of Hillary and Norgay. It is that 17,000-word piece about the
tragedy that Krakauer expanded into his book Into Thin Air.
Into Thin Air has split the world climbing community because of its harsh assessment of the actions that day of
Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev, the chief assistant guide of Fischer's group. Boukreev answered back with his
own account in his book, The Climb, co-authored with G. Weston DeWalt (St. Martin's Press, 1997).
The Climb is rawly written by a rugged mountain climber; it is unpolished and unrefined compared with the
harrowing eloquence displayed by professional writer Krakauer in Into Thin Air.
The public clearly sides with Krakauer's version of events as Into Thin Air -- as bleak and carnage-ridden as the
story is -- has become a compelling icon of outdoor adventure writing. The Climb, by comparison, has been little
read.
Breashears, whose film crew heroically aided in the rescue effort after the tragedy, sides with Krakauer's take on
what unfolded over that of Boukreev, who has since died in a climbing accident on Annapurna.
Breashears, out of respect, decided not to film any of the dead bodies for his Imax opus as he passed them days
later to the summit. Photojournalists and news cameramen, who are used to recording the carnage of wars and
auto wrecks, have criticized him for that.
But Breashears stands by his decision and told Outside magazine: "To film people at their weakest and lowest
moment -- later on you would just feel dirty. I didn't want to go to the grave knowing that when the chips were
down, I pointed the camera at those who had suffered the most."
Breashears' Imax expedition is the subject of a book, Everest: Mountain Without Mercy by Broughton Coburn
(National Geographic Society, 1997), that expertly captures the sense of awe one must feel on Everest. Coburn
presents the Breashears climb from an almost otherworldly Buddhist/Sherpa sensibility. That makes the brutal
story-within-a-story of May 10, 1996, all the more jarring.
Krakauer, Breashears and the few hundred who try every year now to tame the beast named after Sir George
Everest, the former British surveyor-general of India, are all part of the growing commercialization of the world's
highest point. A total of 126 people reached the peak last year. The four deaths in 1998 bumped the number of
dead from the various Everest expeditions to 161 since 1924.
This thin-air tourism is a long way from when the first attempt to summit ended in disappearance for the ill-fated
George Leigh Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924 and, finally, that glorious May day in 1953 when the peak was
finally achieved for the first time by Hillary and Norgay. News of Hillary and Norgay reached London on the same
day as Queen Elizabeth's coronation.
For a beautifully written, drippingly nostalgic look back on that day, click onto Jan Morris's account from last year
on the Salon magazine Web site. Morris, the greatest travel writer of our time, was on the mountain and covered
the historic moment as correspondent James Morris for The Times of London (yes, she was once a he).
Morris is also the most prolific and thoroughly unapologetic chronicler of British Empire lore -- don't look for her
ever to refer to Everest by its Tibetan or Nepalese names Chomolungma or Sargarmantha -- and her achingly lovely

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piece positions Hunt's, Hillary's and Norgay's triumphant moment as the last great hurrah of empire.
Salon, when it isn't exposing Bible-thumping U.S. Republicans as adulterous hypocrites, has done a good job on a
number of other fronts including extensive coverage of the Into Thin Air versus The Climb controversy. To access
the Morris piece and the Krakauer/ Boukreev camps' print feud, just type in the word "Everest" in the search box on
the top left corner of the Salon magazine main page.
Punching in a general Everest search on the Internet will keep you busy reading for weeks, but the Outside
magazine site offers some particularly interesting insights into the 1996 tragedy, including the original article
Krakauer wrote for the mag.
For those less inclined to cruising cyberspace on Everest, there's no shortage of books on the subject. In addition
to the ones listed above, Beyond Limits: A Woman's Triumph on Everest by Stacy Allison (Dell, 1996); Hillary and
Tenzing Climb Mount Everest by Bob Davidson (Silver Bur, 1993); and Everest: The History of the Himalayan Giant
by Roberto Mantovani and Kurt Diemberger (Mountaineer, 1997) are especially worth a look. Canadians on Everest
(Temeron, 1990) by Bruce Patterson, now an editor on the Times Colonist news desk, gives a solid overview of this
country's efforts up to the late 1980s.
For youngsters, Sir Edmund Hillary: To Everest and Beyond by Whitney Stewart and Anne B. Keiser (Lerner, 1996)
and To the Top: Climbing the World's Greatest Mountain by Sydelle A. Kramer (Random House, 1993) are
especially striking and should set young minds ablaze with thoughts of adventure and achievement.
Cleve Dheensaw is a Times Colonist sports writer, author and fan of Mount Everest lore.
PHOTOGRAPHY FROM INTO THIN AIR, THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION
Above: Page 270 -- Late in the afternoon on May 10 (Scott) Fischer took this photo looking down from the top of
the Hillary Step as his team descended into the gathering storm.
Left: Page 382 -- Scott Fischer.
Top right: Page 379 -- Anatoli Boukreev.
Bottom right: Page 409 -- Jon Krakauer.

DETAILS

Company / organization: Name: Imax Corp; Ticker: IMAX; NAICS: 512110; Name: Random House; NAICS:
511130

Publication title: Times - Colonist; Victoria, B.C.

Pages: C7

Number of pages: 0

Publication year: 1999

Publication date: Feb 12, 1999

Section: Life &Arts

Publisher: Infomart, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.

Place of publication: Victoria, B.C.

Country of publication: Canada

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 Publication subject: General Interest Periodicals--Canada

Source type: Newspapers

Language of publication: English

Document type: Review

ProQuest document ID: 345709797

Document URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/345709797?accountid=145163

Copyright: (Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 1999)

Last updated: 2012-01-29

Database: ProQuest Central

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