DESCENT AHEAD OF CLIENTS
“I knew that Anatoli had gone down. I had no problem with that. I knew that it would have been nice for him to stay, but at the same time it wouldn’t have necessarily facilitated our descent any better. I wasn’t aware of his instructions to go down immediately from Scott, but after hearing that, I support that. I think that’s a very good idea, and, in fact, had he not gone down, his efforts at the bottom collecting people wouldn’t have been possible.”
—NEAL BEIDLEMAN,
Mountain Madness guide,
Mountain Madness Everest debriefing, May 15, 1996
I began formally interviewing Anatoli in the first days of June 1996, within four weeks of the tragedy on Everest and approximately eight weeks before Jon Krakauer’s Outside article began appearing on newsstands. During that interval, on at least three different occasions, I asked Anatoli to walk me through the sequence of events that had led to his descending ahead of clients on summit day. His answer, consistent from one telling to the next: above the Hillary Step, as Scott Fischer was ascending and Anatoli was preparing to descend, Anatoli and Scott agreed that Anatoli should descend as quickly as possible to Camp IV, their highest-altitude camp, and stand by to assist climber-clients if they were late returning and needed assistance.
Since in his Outside article Krakauer had chosen not to include Boukreev’s explanation that his descent ahead of clients had been authorized, and since Boukreev had immediately questioned Krakauer’s omission of it, both Anatoli and I were curious as to how Krakauer—in his forthcoming book, Into Thin Air—would relate the events above the Hillary Step where Fischer had authorized Boukreev’s descent.
When I purchased a copy of the newly published Into Thin Air, I read:
“After we [Krakauer and Fischer] exchanged pleasantries, he [Fischer] spoke briefly with Martin Adams and Anatoli Boukreev, who were standing just above Harris and me, waiting to descend the [Hillary] Step. ‘Hey, Martin,’ Fischer bantered through his oxygen mask, trying to affect a jocular tone. ‘Do you think you can summit Mount Everest?’
“ ‘Hey, Scott,’ Adams replied, sounding annoyed that Fischer hadn’t offered any congratulations, ‘I just did.’
“Next Fischer had a few words with Boukreev. As Adams remembered the conversation, Boukreev told him, ‘I am going down with Martin.’ Then Fischer plodded slowly on toward the summit, while Harris, Boukreev, Adams, and I turned to rappel down the Step.”*
The account didn’t ring true. I read again the transcripts of the several interviews I had conducted with Martin Adams, a Mountain Madness climber-client. I read again the transcripts of the interviews I had conducted with Anatoli. I called Martin Adams. It was a lengthy conversation. According to Adams:
1. The exchange between Martin Adams and Scott Fischer (“Hey, Martin, do you think you can summit Mount Everest?”) had not occurred in Krakauer’s presence, but as Adams was peering over the edge of the Hillary Step and while Fischer was climbing up. Krakauer had been out of earshot and had not heard the conversation (see pp. 152–153, The Climb).
2. Boukreev, yes, had told Fischer he was going down with Adams, but Krakauer had not heard that comment.
3. Neither Adams nor Krakauer were privy to whatever conversations Boukreev and Fischer might have had after Boukreev’s “I am going down with Martin” comment because, as Krakauer and Andy Harris were rappelling down the Hillary Step, Adams was peering over the edge watching their progress.
On April 21, 1997, I spoke with Jon Krakauer. At first, he was reluctant to talk openly and said, “This stuff I’m telling you—I have some problem talking to you because you’re not just a journalist; you’re Anatoli’s attorney.” When he got it straight that I wasn’t an attorney, Krakauer relaxed somewhat and I went immediately to my primary interest, Krakauer’s presence above the Hillary Step and the events to which he had actually been a witness.
Initially, Krakauer claimed to have been a witness to Anatoli’s first encounter with Fischer when Anatoli had told Fischer he was going down with Martin Adams. Krakauer told me, “There were five people present for that. Scott and Andy Harris are dead. Anatoli, Martin Adams, and I all heard this conversation.” Later, after I told Krakauer that Adams had said that Krakauer had not been present when Boukreev made that comment, Krakauer moved away from his position and said, “What I do know is what Martin told me, and that’s how I reported it.”*
As to the second conversation, during which Fischer had approved Anatoli’s descent, I asked Krakauer if he knew “for a fact” that the conversation had not happened as Boukreev had reported it. Krakauer said he felt it hadn’t happened as Boukreev had represented it. Then he offered, “I could be wrong about that. I’m not—I didn’t—I was there. I left the Step before Anatoli. Now Scott himself—I thought their conversation had ended by that point. Maybe I’m wrong. I wasn’t there.”
CONCLUSION
“I do think it’s inexcusable that the paperback edition of Into Thin Air ignores the charges in Boukreev’s book. There is a dispute here, and how are readers supposed to know the truth?”
—STEVE WEINBERG, author of “Why Books Err So Often,” Columbia Journalism Review, July/August, 1998, quoted in Dwight Gamer’s “Coming Down,” Salon, August 3, 1998
In his “Postscript,” in defense of his decision not to acknowledge in Into Thin Air Boukreev’s explanation that Fischer had authorized his descent, Krakauer says that he “found many of Boukreev’s recollections to be singularly unreliable.” I have heard Krakauer offer this excuse before. Eight months prior to Anatoli’s death, during a phone conversation I had with him, Krakauer said he had transcripts of interviews with Anatoli in which Boukreev had offered “conflicting testimony,” one time saying that Fischer had okayed his descent, another time saying that Fischer had told Anatoli to go down.
Because I knew the limitations of Anatoli’s English and had, by the time of my conversation with Krakauer, spent more than two hundred hours in conversation with Anatoli, I could readily understand the possibility of his making those statements but not seeing any arguable difference between the two. On more than one occasion, in going through the events above the Hillary Step, Boukreev explained to me. “Fischer says, ‘Okay, go down.’ ” In that expression, as I understood it then and do now, was an agreement and an order. In effect, “Yeah, Anatoli. Okay. Go down.”
I suggested to Krakauer that a possible explanation for the “conflicting testimony,” as he had called it, was Anatoli’s poor command of English. Krakauer responded, “The language problem admittedly is a real problem here. Anatoli is at a huge disadvantage. His English isn’t perfect, and that’s a problem.” With agreement on that fact, I told Krakauer that I wanted to “take a look at the interviews,” thinking I could share them with Anatoli and give him an opportunity to address Krakauer’s questions, but those transcripts were never shared with me or with Anatoli, who was then very much alive and willing to respond.
And, what of Fischer’s conversation with Bromet in which Fischer described a plan for Anatoli’s descent ahead of clients in the event that Fischer perceived potential difficulties for his clients? Krakauer offers in his “Postscript” the promise of “compelling evidence” that no such plan ever existed. The evidence?
Krakauer says that no climbers in the Mountain Madness expedition, including Boukreev, were aware that Fischer had a plan,* suggesting, it seems, that a plan only becomes a plan when someone other than its creator becomes aware of it. If that is the suggestion, I don’t buy it.
I have no doubt, based upon Bromet’s statement and Fischer’s acknowledged purpose for hiring Anatoli, that Fischer had a plan in mind and that atop the Hillary Step, given the lateness of the hour and the fact that his clients were sucking on a limited supply of oxygen, he put his plan into action. Krakauer’s attempt at semantic snooker, suggesting that because there was not a plan “in place,” there was no plan at all, is no credit to his credentials as a journalist.
&nb
sp; “I don’t know why he descended alone from the South Summit, ahead of everybody else, abandoning his clients; as I said in my article, I can only speculate.”
—JON KRAKAUER
Memo to: Mark Bryant and Brad Wetzler, Outside; et al.
August 5, 1996
“So, do I wish I had portrayed Boukreev differently in writing this book? No, I don’t think so.”
—JON KRAKAUER
“Postscript,” Into Thin Air: The Illustrated Edition,
November 1998
Krakauer’s choice to ignore, absolutely and entirely, Boukreev’s explanation that Scott Fischer had approved his descent and Scott Fischer’s conversation with Bromet in which he offered that he had in mind a plan to have Anatoli descend ahead of clients is, in my opinion, indefensible. If Jon Krakauer had reason to question Boukreev’s veracity, he had the pages of Into Thin Air in which to make and prove his case while Anatoli was still alive. Instead, he chose not to publish information that I think was critical to an understanding of the Everest tragedy. He showcased his judgments instead of allowing his readers to consider all of the available evidence.
—G. Weston DeWalt, London/Los Angeles
April 1999
*Michael Starr, “Into Thin Air: Big Chill on Everest,” New York Post, November 9, 1997.
†Bernard Sofronski was identified in the review as the movie’s producer.
*Yasuko Namba was a member of the Adventure Consultants expedition who lost her life on the South Col. Her lonely death was a subject that Anatoli often visited in our conversations together. She died “so close” Anatoli would say, meaning that her tent was no more than five hundred yards from where she perished. When Anatoli climbed Everest in 1997 with an Indonesian team, he took time on his descent to cover her body with stones. He told me, “Was for respect.”
†A journalist for the Detroit News described the movie, Into Thin Air: Death on Everest, as “a morgue report overlaid with hoary music.” Members of the mountaineering community were even less generous in their assessments.
*Later, Wickwire said, “We took into account all of the information that was readily available to us… . In Boukreev’s case, this included his nonuse of oxygen as well as his quick descent ahead of the Mountain Madness clients.” After their considerations, Wickwire said they had no difficulty in deciding that Boukreev was deserving of the award.
*This tape is described in the “Authors’ Note” that appears in the first pages of this book. A partial transcript of the tape is reproduced in this edition of The Climb.
†I had explained to Beidleman that I was interested in discussing his memory of certain events on Everest (among them his time on the summit) and some of his comments on the Everest Base Camp debriefing tape recorded on May 15, 1996. Given the sensitivity and seriousness of the subjects I wanted to discuss, I asked him to go on the record, because, as a general rule, I try to avoid interviews that are off-the-record. I believe that the person being interviewed, unless he or she has a genuine reason to fear physical endangerment, should be accountable for his or her words.
*These page numbers refer to the St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition, November 1997. Quotes from the interview with Viesturs appear on pp. 119–120 and p. 149 of this edition (St. Martin’s Griffin trade paperback edition, July 1999). Future references to pages in The Climb will be to the pages of this edition.
†Galen Rowell was writing a review of The Climb for The American Alpine Journal when Krakauer contacted him to offer some critical commentary on the book. Rowell’s review is reproduced here with his permission and that of the American Alpine Club.
‡In the spring of 1998, Rowell went to Nepal where he trekked to the Everest Base Camp. While walking through the Khumbu region and during his visit to the Everest Base Camp, he talked with more than thirty Sherpas, many of whom had been on Everest in May 1996. He has reported that he found no Sherpa who blamed the tragedy on Boukreev, nor any Sherpa who knew of anyone who did. He did find, he said, that the Sherpas had been deeply saddened by the news of Anatoli’s and Dimitri Sobolev’s deaths on Annapurna I on Christmas Day, 1997.
*On the Web site www.salon.com.
†In his article Gamer examined an issue that I considered no less important than the manner in which Krakauer had represented Boukreev’s actions on Everest and one that I hoped would encourage a more careful reading of Into Thin Air. Garner pointed to the differing—”if not entirely irreconcilable”—accounts by Krakauer and Beck Weathers of what had happened when, during his descent, Krakauer had encountered Weathers, who was having trouble with his vision and was waiting for Rob Hall to help him down the mountain.
Gamer says that, in his Into Thin Air account, Krakauer said that he had “implored” Weathers to come down to Camp IV with him and offered, “I’ll be your eyes. I’ll get you down, no problem.” Gamer then compares Krakauer’s story with one that Weathers offered in a tape-recorded speech. Weathers, recalling his encounter with Krakauer, begins with his explaining the seriousness of his problem: “Jon, I don’t think I can wait any longer. I think Rob’s going to have to understand, but it’s starting to go south on us. And I’m going to need somebody to act as my eyes. And it’s not a big deal. We’ll just go a little bit slow… . And Jon was clearly not happy with this idea. His body language and … his first reaction was to say, ‘Beck, I’m not a guide.’ ”
*Three months before publication of his “Postscript,” Krakauer was quoted in Dwight Garner’s Salon article as saying of Boukreev’s rescue of Charlotte Fox and Sandy Hill Pittman, “He may have been fearless. But he was also pretty goddamn motivated,” because, Krakauer said, “if Boukreev had been having tea when a lot of people died,” it “wouldn’t have looked so good.” In that same article Garner quotes Krakauer as describing the members of the American Alpine Club, who honored Boukreev, as “elitists” who didn’t like him very much.
*The September issue, according to a former Outside employee, was fast-tracked, and it began to appear on newsstands as early as the last week of July 1996.
†Jon Krakauer, “Into Thin Air,” Outside, September 1996.
*An August 24, 1996, letter to the letters editor of Outside Online (www.outside.starwave.com), an on-line news and information source that had a cooperative relationship with Outside.
†Pierre Bourdieu, On Television, trans. Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson (New York: The New Press, 1998).
*Boukreev felt that Krakauer, in both his Outside article and Into Thin Air, had focused much more critically on the Mountain Madness expedition than he had on his own Adventure Consultants expedition, and that, given Krakauer’s proximity to his team, he might have offered more insight into the decisions and actions that had led to the tragic losses they had suffered.
†Boukreev’s limited command of English often made it difficult for him to understand questions that were put to him from the audience, and he was often frustrated by his inability to clearly communicate the fullness of his thoughts in a language that was not his own.
‡In an August 6, 1996, letter to Krakauer (Russian to English translation), Boukreev encouraged Krakauer to meet with him and discuss their differences. He wrote, “I understand you are planning to be in Salt Lake City and have been invited to participate in the Outside magazine symposium on the subject of Everest. I am planning to attend and look forward to seeing you there. I hope that in the crush of things we will have an opportunity to sit down and talk.”
**It was arranged that Linda Wylie, with whom Boukreev had been living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, would share a microphone with Anatoli and read his presentation to the audience.
*He referred to a specific situation that had greatly disturbed him, an Internet posting—immediately after his 1997 summit of Everest—of news that he had found a body at the base of the Hillary Step. Boukreev had not been able to positively identify the body—that of Bruce Herrod, a climber/photographer who had disappeared the year before. Boukreev had wanted to see if an iden
tification of the body could be made and family members notified before news of his discovery appeared in the press.
†In his “Postscript” Krakauer has said that, immediately after the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festival debacle, he and Boukreev met briefly and that the two had “agreed to disagree” about certain issues. A witness to the Krakauer-Boukreev conversation, Linda Wylie, has said that Krakauer’s interpretation of their meeting is, at best, questionable. Boukreev, she’s said, had been surprised by Krakauer’s aggressive outburst and the hostility of his comments. “It was Jon being Jon,” Wylie said.
*St. Martin’s Press Paperbacks edition, August 1998.
†Krakauer was correct when he called to the attention of St. Martin’s Press that, in the initial printing of the hardcover edition of The Climb, Boukreev and I had misidentified the area in which Andy Harris’s ice ax was found after the tragic events on Everest. Boukreev and I, after considering accounts of the IMAX expedition’s having found both Andy Harris’s and Doug Hansen’s ice axes between the Hillary Step and the South Summit, had confused the location of where Hansen’s was found with that of Andy Harris’s. In all paperback editions of The Climb, a photo caption was deleted to correct what had been an honest and regrettable mistake.
*Sandy Hill (Pittman), a Mountain Madness climber-client, recorded the debriefing and made a copy available to Boukreev.
*Additionally, Krakauer has reported in his “Postscript” a complaint from Beidleman that he found The Climb to be “dishonest.” The charge is puzzling since Beidleman did not act upon my invitation to him, made prior to publication of the mass-market paperback edition, to submit changes he might want to see made in The Climb.
†Boukreev had approved publication of relevant sections of the transcribed Mountain Madness debriefing tape prior to publication of the St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition, but the length it would add discouraged its inclusion.
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