Nick Heil

"But what tended to prompt the most intense discussion, beyond the course of action, beyond even the lurid spectacle of men and women suffering slow deaths at high altitude, was the suggestion that the modern circus on Everest had exposed something essential about who we are as human beings - an insight that reverberated among climbers and non-climbers alike. More specifically, the cavalcade of deaths during 2006 raised the highly uncomfortable possibility that, in fact, we are not all in show more this together - that we are simply the latest edition of a complex species tenuously drawn together into social systems that mask our genetic predilection towards selfishness and competition. The argument, followed to its logical conclusion, had less and less to do with climbing mountains and more to do with the foundations of human sociology, and it challenged some of our most cherished assumptions about the roots of compassion and altruism."

I am an armchair climber. I love mountaineering books. There seem to be so many of them now, as everyone wants to tell their side of what happened on Everest in the deadly 1996 and 2006 seasons. And this book doesn't shy away from the hard questions. Why do people climb Everest and other mountains at such great cost - not only monetarily but also in lives? Why do people fail to help their fellow man when mortal peril is so obvious?

I enjoyed it and if you're in to Everest literature, or curious about it, I would recommend it. show less

There are three kinds of books about climbing expeditions; those written by serious climbers - these are usually not particularly well-written, but are gripping because of their passion and the drama of their lived experience; Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; and books written by non-climbers or amateur climbers who are hoping to write a successful book just like Into Thin Air. Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season by Nick Heil falls firmly into that third show more category.

In 2006, a decade after Into Thin Air was written, Everest was even more crowded with more climbers who required greater comfort and more help to reach the summit and return safely. On the north (Tibetan) side of Everest, the biggest and most luxurious outfitter is run by Russell Brice, who throws the best parties and is the one responsible for stringing the lines that allow all those climbers to reach the summit. Heil is fascinated by Brice and most of the book is told from the points of view of members of his team of guides and climbers.

That season saw several deaths, but the controversy referred to in the subtitle is the death of one man and the survival of another. David Sharp was climbing alone, using a climbing outfit solely as a way of getting access to the mountain. He climbed without sherpas and without anyone knowing his plans. He ended up stranded above a tricky bit of climbing (the Second Step) and while he was noticed by several climbers and passed by at least forty, no one helped him in any substantial way, despite his obvious peril. Another climber, who had been left for dead, was found by climbers heading up to the summit early the next day. He was rescued, in an effort that involved several teams.

Afterwards, questions were raised about why one man was rescued and the other abandoned. These are not unfamiliar issues and while the question of who gets rescued and who is not, and when is abandoning an attempt to reach the summit the right decision and when is the summit (given the time and money required to even make the attempt) more important than another adventurer's life. Ultimately, Heil's book is a disappointment. While his account of what happened over those few days is gripping, he fudges the serious questions he raises and is far too infatuated with Brice and his impressive business to pay serious attention to the issues of the ethical considerations of climbing a mountain that is a capitalist free-for-all, with the wealthiest climbers being able to purchase the certainty of a rescue being attempted if they run into problems, as well as the many unprepared climbers seeking to be the first of a category to summit (in this season, the first double amputee and the youngest teenager, for example) or simply gain the bragging rights, without the needed experience on other difficult peaks. show less

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this book - I'm not into mountain climbing or Everest and really don't know much of anything about it other than it is a thing that people sometimes do. Yet this book was fascinating and I devoured it. The writing style was very engaging and managed to not be dry at all, even with all the history and backstory included. The timeline wasn't completely straightforward and there were a LOT of people introduced so it was a bit difficult to keep everyone straight show more (which was really the only drawback to this book) but the pacing and style made it very easy to keep going. Perhaps someone that has more of a background in mountaineering books might feel that the first chapters spend too much time on the history of summiting on Everest but it I appreciated it. I did have to look up a number of mountaineering words (that I'm sure I will forget rapidly). Really fascinating. show less

This is one of the best mountain climbing books I have read; maybe the best. Not only was it meticulously researched, packed with interviews and information, but it was also really well-written. I was totally hooked.