According to Boukreev he wasn’t having any trouble with the oxygen or altitude, and he brought oxygen with him just in case, which he later gave to someone who needed it more. I just don’t see in his account any indication that he was climbing only for himself or that he felt he needed to rush down for his own sake. And I believe him because he was extremely experienced and why would he have trouble? He knew his limits and he reported feeling worried for many of the clients. I believe that the only reason he went down was to wait for the stragglers and be in a better position to help them if necessary. Whether Fischer agreed to that, well, we probably will never know.
I guess it comes down to how credible you think Boukreev is, and, I mean, he was a hero, nobody questions his heroic actions that night, so I give him the benefit of a doubt.
Another factor is that anyone climbing without supplemental oxygen is going to need to go up and come back down quickly - just because they can make that run doesn’t mean they aren’t in the Death Zone, too, and that they aren’t deteriorating. They’re just doing so more slowly and perhaps starting from a higher fitness level. Plus, probably, some inborn advantage.
Seems to me that someone like Boukreev who is able to make the climb without oxygen would still do better with oxygen if he’s attempting rescue(s). But hey, I’m not a mountain climber, I wasn’t there, and as far as I recall from the various accounts that’s not what Boukreev did anyhow.
It’s called the Death Zone for a reason. Boukreev, from the accounts I’ve read, did assist clients on the way up. But he couldn’t stay with those clients because he wasn’t using supplemental oxygen. If he had an emergency 02 bottle that he turned over to someone on his way down that’s great. But there’s no question that he descended the mountain ahead of his clients. The idea that he was altruistic in doing so is ludicrous. That’s the major problem with Bourkreev’s account of what happened. If he thought “job done” and went back to Camp IV thinking he had no further duty to the Mountain Madness clients, then I respect that, And kudos to the efforts he made after he woke up amidst the disaster and went out to rescue others. But it’s bullshit to think that, at the top of Mt. Everest, that he as a guide whose main interests were the safety of his clients, chose to go down the mountain ahead of them. That’s the problem. If it was known by his clients that he would be descending ahead of them, he’s in the clear. If he was expected to shepherd his clients down, he clearly didn’t do so. I think it was known that he would be descending before clients because he wasn’t using supplemental oxygen. If his clients had a different expectation, then Boukreev’s actions are hugely suspect.
Another mountaineering disaster book worth reading is Forever on the Mountain, about the 1967 disaster on Denali. A group of climbers were caught in what might be the worst conditions mountaineers have ever encountered. There’s some blame throwing and controversy with that one too, but I thought it was pretty good when I had the must-read-all-the-mountain-disaster-stories bug.
I just want to note that stating that Bookreev went up, “tagged the summit” then immediately descended is not true. By all accounts, he stayed at the summit for an hour and a half helping the clients get up and back down on their way. I am not sure how long it is reasonable to stay in the death zone even with oxygen. Meanwhile, what should he have done as a guide? He summitted with Krakauer then stayed at the summit waiting for more climbers while Krakauer started his descent. Should he have waited at the summit until everyone had made it and then brought up the rear? Would it have made sense to have both him and Fischer bringing up the rear?Should he have gone down immediately with Krakauer? Should he have chosen one or two other clients to guide down? I think that particular expedition may not have had a clear enough plan for which guide was supposed to do what and when.
I’m glad I’m not alone in suddenly randomly being interested in this subject. My husband recently asked me, “Have any of your sudden interests ever not been about threatening circumstances?” Not really, no.
One last note about Bookreev then I promise I will let it go because I don’t want to seem solely like an apologist for him. I definitely think that there were miscommunications on that team as well as a huge language barrier.
However, one of the points I took away from his book was that he was very attuned to his body’s limits. He routinely climbed without oxygen and wasn’t sure how using oxygen would change his abilities.In other words, using oxygen may have given him an unrealistic sense of security. As noted above, though, he did carry oxygen.
Besides the language barrier, perhaps the cultural gap came into play, too. People from different parts of the world tend to think differently and approach things differently than westerners do.
On Boukreev‘s wiki page it says he successfully summitted the 8,000 meter peaks 18x over 8-9 years. Boukreev was very accomplished, seasoned, and he knew his body’s limits up there in the death zone.
Right. I didn’t get the impression from him that he didn’t care about his expedition members. I got the impression that he was concerned for them, but that his idea of what was best for them differed from those of his peers. He genuinely seemed to believe that they needed to learn to work out their problems on their own because the presence of a guide was not guaranteed. It’s the difference between a helicopter parent and someone who thinks unsupervised play is best for child development.
This appeared in my Instagram feed. It’s a flyover of Nanga Parbat and is beautiful and mesmerizing. Nanga Parbat, at 26,660’ / 8,126m, is the 9th tallest mountain.
I know you had a follow-up post, but I just wanted to note: It’s not right to say Krakauer’s report is suspect because of hypoxia, and not say the same about Weathers’. They were on the same mountain, subject to the same conditions. If anything, I’d give Krakauer higher credibility because he was in still good enough shape to get back to the camp.
I agree. Also, Krakauer was on assignment. It was his job to notice things as they happened. I think it really messed him up thinking he’d seen Andy Harris and later discovering he was wrong, in part because it is his job to pay attention and get things right.
Still, it always seems absurd that there are unidentified bodies on the mountain. Doesn’t anyone notice? “Hey, where’s Jim?” “Didn’t he come down? No? Then he’s still up there.” It’s not like anyone can sneak away. So if you’re missing a guy in your group wearing a blue parka, and there’s an unidentified body at 28K feet wearing a blue parka that wasn’t there yesterday, I think we know whose body it is.
Perhaps we’ve reached a threshold wherein others, hearing you’ve been up Everest, aren’t interested in the view, or how gruelling it was, etc. such as they might have been in times past.
I should think we’ve reached the point where, anyone discovering you’ve climbed it, will now shift to asking if; anyone died? Step over any bodies? Was it one long line? Was basecamp full of garbage, hookers & blow? Do you feel responsible for all that?
That’s not a conversation you’re likely to enjoy repeating, I’d guess.
If you can’t brag on your feat without impertinent questions ruining everything, maybe that will take the shine off the apple for future potential climbers.
