This is the poem Anatoli left with me before leaving for Annapurna. It was written after his successful summit of Everest in 1995.
SUMMIT
Daybreak stars interface time with space.
On the summit’s altar
Light falls like rain from black sky,
Pouring down purifying my body,
Washing my soul with serenity.
Will and every act of kindness emanates
Traveling for centuries
Carried on cosmic winds.
Life is a trifle
And you have risked all earnestly.
Earthly compassion,
Conscious comprehending
Strength overcoming
Mindfulness discerning good and evil.
Live fully heart at one with the Earth.
Returning home, I breathe easier.
My life appraised from the vantage of Himalayan slopes
Healed are the doubled agonies of my bloodless wounds.
No summit is gained without pain.
Walking a knife-blade ridge to the summit
Cold steel light illuminated your image.
Next to me, climbing with me were a troop of men
Their past lives marching.
Lives cut short by love that was true.
Songs left unfinished
They could not tell you why love
Sacrificed life for the blue mountains.
I came down to you
Bearing thoughts and dreams
To live their unfinished melodies
So you would hear and understand them.
—Anatoli Boukreev
NOTES
4. CHOGORI, THE SIREN’S SONG, SUMMER 1993
1. The heart of the Soviet school’s scheme for climbing high was a pattern of acclimatization and rehabilitation. A plan was developed relevant to the height of the peak and the speed those climbing could travel at different elevations. Speed of ascent depended on the physical condition of the climbers, adaptation to altitude (acclimatization), and the conditions on the route. Everyone knew his personal variable, but in general the higher you go, the slower you go. After proper acclimatization and carrying a load of twenty kilograms, I can ascend 300 vertical meters an hour on normal terrain up to 7,000 meters. Between 7,000 and 8,000 meters carrying ten to fifteen kilograms, I gain 200 vertical meters an hour. Above 8,000 meters my rate of ascent with minimal weight is 100 vertical meters an hour. Generally, I can go down twice as fast as I can go up on the same terrain.
The altitude of the last camp and last elevation for acclimatization on an 8,000-meter peak is derived by a simple formula. Subtract the vertical height one can ascend and descend in ten hours from the mountain’s summit height. You make trips to acclimatize at 500-to-1,000-meter intervals up to that height. Each acclimatization trip is two to four days long, depending on the altitude to be achieved. Following each trip there is a two-to-five-day rest period. The rest period depends on the time spent on the previous trip.
6. THE MARKETPLACE
1. Scott Fischer summited Everest for the first time in 1994 and Lhotse in 1990. Anatoli mistakenly understood that Scott had climbed Everest and Lhotse back-to-back in the spring of 1994. Anatoli set out to repeat this feat as a sign of respect for Scott’s mountaineering life after his tragic death on Everest in 1996.
7. THE ROADS WE CHOOSE, 1995
1. A different translation of portions of the Dhaulagiri and Manaslu expedition accounts was published in the 1996 American Alpine Journal in an article Anatoli wrote titled “The Roads We Choose,” edited by Christian Beckwith and translated by Beth Wald.
2. No pasarán translates as “it is impossible to go there.”
3. Samochuvstvie is a Russian word that refers to a person’s total psycho-physical state of well-being. There is no exact English equivalent.
8. THE END OF AMBITION, 1996
1. Anatoli later learned this man was Adventure Consultants client Beck Weathers.
9. EIGHTY DAYS, FLYING AT NIGHT, 1997
1. A differently edited version of this expedition account appeared in The Climb. Included in that version are expedition details that I have omitted here to avoid repetition, and answers to specific questions that were posed by coauthor Weston DeWalt, which elaborate on points Anatoli did not cover in his original account of those events.
10. LETTERS FROM ANNAPURNA
1. Leki ski poles, which climbers use for stability on snow.
CHRONOLOGY OF ANATOLI BOUKREEV’S LIFE
1958
January 16, born in Korkino, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia
1970
Began mountaineering and rock-climbing education in the Ural Mountains
1974
Began high-altitude training, Talgar, Tien Shan Mountains, Kazakhstan. First ascents of 5,000-meter peaks. Earned Mountaineer of the First Category rating, USSR
1975
Graduated Korkino High School, Russia
1979
Graduated Chelyabinsk University for Pedagogy, bachelor of science, physics, and bachelor of science, physical culture, specialty cross-country skiing
1979–81
Lieutenant, Army of the Soviet Socialist Republic, Central Asia Military District, Almaty, Kazakhstan, Mountaineering Division
1980
Communism Peak, 7,459 meters; Lenin Peak, 7,134 meters. First summits of 7,000-meter peaks. Earned Master of Sport, Mountaineering, USSR
1981
Suffered a debilitating three-month bout of meningitis
1981–91
Head coach and program director, Cross-Country Ski Program, collective farm in Mountain Gardener, Kazakhstan
1981–97
Reserve officer, instructor, and coach of high-altitude mountaineering, Seventh Asia Military District Army Sports Club, Almaty, Kazakhstan
1981–93
Successfully completed over thirty ascents of 7,000-meter peaks and two hundred other peaks above four thousand meters in the Tien Shan, Pamir, and Caucasus ranges with the national climbing team of the USSR or Kazakhstan. Four-time Snow Leopard
1986
Climbing leader, first Romanian expedition to Lenin Peak
1987
First round-trip speed ascent of Lenin Peak; eight hours to summit, fourteen hours round-trip
First place, national competition, speed ascent of Communism Peak
First place, national competition, speed ascent of Mount Elbrus, 5,642 meters, Caucasus Mountains
1988
First traverse of the Pobeda Massif, twenty-two kilometers above seven thousand meters, West Summit to Peak Topografov
1989
April–May, traverse of the four 8,000-meter-plus summits of Kanchenjunga, Ylung Kang to South Kanchenjunga, supplemental oxygen used. Summited Kanchenjunga, 8,586 meters. New route to Central Kanchenjunga, 8,489 meters, Central Couloir, South Face
June, Awarded Honored Master of Sports, International Class, USSR (this class was reserved for Olympic gold medalists or for athletic achievements of equivalent endeavor) and the Order of Personal Courage, USSR, by Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow
July, auto accident on returning from climbing in the Pamirs
First place, speed-ascent competition on Mount Elbrus
1990
February, first winter ascent of Pobeda Peak, 7,439 meters. Summit attempt abandoned at 7,100 meters to rescue disabled climbers
April–June, first trip to America
April, Mount McKinley, 6,194 meters, summited via Cassin Ridge route
May, Mount McKinley, solo speed ascent, ten and a half hours
August, Khan-Tengri Peak, 7,199 meters, summited
August, Pobeda Peak, first solo ascent, thirty hours
October, first place, International Elbrus Race, Caucasus Mountains
October–November, second trip to America
1991
Dhaulagiri, 8,172 meters, summited May 10, new route via West Wall, fir
st Kazakh expedition to the Himalayas
July, Lenin Peak, Communism Peak, summited with Balyberdin’s St. Petersburg team
Mount Everest, 8,848 meters, summited October 7, South Col route, member Russian-American Everest expedition
Collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, privatization of sports
1993
May 14, personal guide to seventy-year-old Jack Robbins, summited Mount McKinley
July 30, K2, 8,611 meters, Abruzzi route
Fall–winter 1993–94 spent in Telluride, Colorado
1994
Makalu, 8,481 meters, climbing leader, Condor Adventures commercial expedition, summited first tower, April 29
Alpine ascent of Makalu with Neal Beidleman, summited main summit in forty-six hours, May 15
September, guide and climbing leader, Condor Adventures, Cho Oyu expedition. Commercial expedition aborted due to refugee problem on Nepal-Tibet border
October, guide, Himalayan Guides (Edinburgh, Scotland) commercial expedition to Island Peak
1995
Mount Everest, summited via North Ridge route, Tibet, May 17, climbing leader and guide, Himalayan Guides commercial expedition
Myramornya Stena traverse, 6,500 meters, and Khan-Tengri, guide with Simon Yates and Peta Waite for Himalayan Guides expedition
Dhaulagiri, summited October 8, solo speed ascent, seventeen hours and fifteen minutes; round-trip, twenty-four hours and thirty minutes
Manaslu, 8,156 meters, summited December 8, Kazakh National Expedition, third successful winter ascent of Manaslu
1996
Mount Everest, summited via South Col route, May 10, guide, Mountain Madness expedition, Scott Fischer, leader
Lhotse, 8,511 meters, summited May 17, solo speed ascent, twenty-one hours and sixteen minutes
Cho Oyu, 8,153 meters, summited September 25, self-supported solo ascent
Shisha Pangma, summited North Summit, 8,008 meters, October 9, solo ascent
“The Roads We Choose” published in American Alpine Journal
Letter of Commendation, U.S. Congress, for rescue on Mount Everest
Bus accident between Tashkent and Almaty, October 25
May 17, 1995–May 17, 1996, successfully summited five 8,000-meter peaks
1997
January 13, contract with St. Martin’s Press for The Climb
Mount Everest, expedition climbing leader and coach, first Indonesian Everest expedition, summited via South Col route, April 26, supplemental oxygen used
Lhotse, summited with Simone Moro, May 26
Broad Peak, 8,047 meters, July 7, solo ascent, thirty-six hours. First ascent of the season
Gasherbrum II, 8,068 meters, July 14, solo speed ascent, from Base Camp at 5,800 meters to summit, nine hours and thirty-seven minutes
“Oxygen Illusion” published in American Alpine Journal
July 25–August 25, summit and traverse of Myramornya Stena and Khan-Tengri, leader of New Mexico expedition
Publication of The Climb, St. Martin’s Press
December, awarded American Alpine Club’s David Sowles Award for 1996 rescue of clients and attempted rescue of Scott Fischer
Annapurna attempt with Simone Moro and Dima Soubelev, via West Ridge and Annapurna Fang
Disappeared in an avalanche with Kazakh sportsman Dima Soubelev on December 25
Posthumously awarded the Order of Personal Courage, Republic of Kazakhstan, by President Nazarbayev
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Anatoli won my affection and loyalty because he was a good man, not because he was a great mountaineer. Finishing the project that we had started has been both a pleasure and an honor. I have our agent, Kathleen Anderson, and our editor at St. Martin’s Press, George Witte, to thank for this opportunity. There are not enough words to express how gently I was supported while writing and rendering this book. Marie Estrada, George Witte’s assistant, was my patient ally throughout the production of the final manuscript.
I was not a writer, and if this effort has made me one, Tony Colwell, my mentor, deserves much of the credit for my evolution. Tony passed away on Thanksgiving Day, 2000, after climbing his own Everest. He did that demonstrating as much style and courage as Anatoli. My neighbor, artist Julie Kandyba, created the maps and the graphic used on the dedication page. The graphic is her imaginative rendering of Nicholas Roerich’s logo for Pax Cultura. Julie read my manuscript repeatedly, each time as though new, and I owe her a trip to Central Asia for her interest and support. Writings in Russian provided most of the rich palette that I had to paint from, and they were translated word for word by the conscientious efforts of our friends Natalia Lagovskaya and Barbara Poston. The thoughtful readings and votes of confidence that Galen Rowell and Jed Williamson have given this effort would have been counted by Anatoli as the highest praise.
By a fortunate alchemy of birth Anatoli was liberated to explore the extremes of human potential, and thus he experienced a greater measure of what is possible for a human being on earth. I cannot communicate fully what it was like to be a woman with a man in our circumstances. Most often we were encompassed by geography that was humbling in its magnificence. The reflection of that beauty lit us and our time together. I will say that I am grateful that it was so difficult and that so much was required. Neither Anatoli nor I was given to canonizing cults of personality, and this book is not about that. Degrees of his wit, sturdiness, and humanism that I have encountered in so many of his countrymen (his sister Irina, Vladimir Frolov, Natasha Bashkirova, and Valeri Khrichtchatyi’s sons to name but a few) have made me believe that these are characteristics of Russian culture. I hope that I have lived up to Anatoli’s standards for honesty and attention to detail, and that my work translates something beneficial about a man, his culture, and the contributions of his generation of Soviet mountaineers.
The Anatoli Boukreev Memorial Fund was established in 1998 and is dedicated to the promotion of mutual understanding and friendship across cultures through shared love of mountains and mountaineering. A portion of the revenues generated by this book goes to support fund projects. For more information contact:
Anatoli Boukreev Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 737, Boulder, Colorado 80306
Or visit the fund Web site at www.boukreev.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anatoli Boukreev was (with G. Weston DeWalt) coauthor of The Climb and a world-renowned high-altitude mountaineer. Twenty-one times he reached the summit of the world’s highest mountains. For his heroic actions on Mount Everest in May 1996, he was awarded the American Alpine Club’s highest honor, the David A. Sowles Memorial Award. You can sign up for email updates here.
Also by Anatoli Boukreev
The Climb (with G. Weston DeWalt)
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CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
EPIGRAPH
DEDICATION
FOREWORD
MAPS
INTRODUCTION: TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE
THE JOURNALS
PROLOGUE: DECEMBER 1989
1. AMERICA, McKINLEY, SPRING 1990
2. FROM ELBRUS TO ELDORADO, FALL 1990
3. THE YEARS BETWEEN, 1991–93
4. CHOGORI, THE SIREN’S SONG, SUMMER 1993
5. MAKALU, SPRING 1994
6. THE MARKETPLACE
7. THE ROADS WE CHOOSE, 1995
8. THE END OF AMBITION, 1996
9. EIGHTY DAYS, FLYING AT NIGHT, 1997
10. LETTERS FROM ANNAPURNA
EPILOGUE: SMALL PIECES OF PIE WITH BITTER GRAVY
Above the Clouds Page 27
