Conquering Everest - two tales from different perspectives

I am not a big reader of non-fiction but I do like reading biographies. To my surprise, I have read a number of sporting/extreme sports biographies that I have really enjoyed so I thought I would share two of them with you.

Over the summer holidays I picked up Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, an account of an expedition up Mount Everest in March 1996 – a climbing season that saw the largest number of deaths on the mountain, with eight from the group that climbed to the summit on the day that Jon did. Jon, a journalist and seasoned climber and mountaineer, joined the expedition on assignment for his magazine to write an account of how attaining the summit of Everest has been made accessible to everyone, no matter their climbing ability, as long as they can pay.

To me, the commercialism of climbing Everest revealed in the book was eye opening, as I grew up in New Zealand where Sir Edmund Hillary's summiting of Everest was the subject of many school projects. Up until now, my perception was that reaching the summit of the world’s highest mountain was something that only very few could do, a feat of awe and wonder. Reading Jon Krakauer's book made me feel a little sad that this was no longer so. The descriptions of the camps with the sewerage and rubbish, the gastrointestinal upsets experienced by all, and the attitudes of the different groups to each other - not one of help and assistance for mutual benefit, but competition and only looking after your team – definitely removed any sense of wonder that I use to have. Throughout the book I kept asking myself why the people climbing couldn’t see that there was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Obviously, I am not an extreme sportswoman!

Prior to reading Jon’s experience, I had read an account of a more recent climbing season in Lincoln Hall’s, Dead Lucky: Life After Dead on Mount Everest, where eleven people died. In May of 2006 Lincoln Hall was left for dead on Everest after collapsing from altitude sickness and being unable to be revived by the two Sherpa he was climbing with. Like Jon, Lincoln hadn’t climbed at this level of challenge for sometime as he was devoted to family, but couldn’t resist this last crack at the unobtainable.

While covering similar ground, these books have stories told from two different perspectives. Jon’s book on is the story of reality - how could this happen, and why has this beautiful, unique area been allowed to be denigrated by “tourism”. In contrast, Lincoln’s story is more uplifting in nature, focusing on man triumphing over nature and miracles do happen. Unlike a lot of non fiction books, both are written well and were worth reading if only to shake my head in wonder at why men and women challenge themselves in this way.