Dark Summit

Dark Summit

Review #1

Dark Summit audiobook free

The topic of how humans deal with hazardous natural environments in which they’ve voluntarily put themselves is perennially interesting. It’s not only about how they approach the physical challenges but also the mental, psychological, emotional, and spiritual ones. The author has done justice to this enormous topic, drawing insightful, complex, and compelling portraits of many of the people who confronted Everest in this climbing season. This is one of the few books I’m actually tempted to reread very soon after having finished it. I say this even as a non-athlete who hates cold weather: this book offers thrills and chills, pun intended, that are only intensified by a cozy chair and a hot drink. Highly recommended!

Review #2

Dark Summit audiobook

I was happy to find this book. I was a big fan of the Discovery Channel series and found myself hurting for David Sharp and his family but saw only the limited portion on Sharp in which Max Chaya found him on his way down from the summit. Later I heard that climbers from Himex had passed him on the way up which made me feel a lot of anger towards them. I think that this book presents a more nuanced and balanced view of the events surrounding Sharp’s death. I believe that it must be noted that Sharp was on the mountain without adequate support and that responsibility laid squarely on his own shoulders. If you watch the Discovery Channel series, which I highly recommend, you can’t count the number of times a Sherpa or a guide have to prod a climber to keep going when they want to lay in the snow. Some of them would surely have succumbed if not for their support system. It’s an expensive proposition to climb Everest with one of the large expeditions but considerably safer. Still if you pay $40,000+ to climb and then have to abandon your summit bid to help a stricken climber who hasn’t come prepared that would really suck. Human compassion would tell you to stop and help but you’d have to balance that with how much help you could actually provide. You simply can’t get a guy down the mountain that far who is not able to help in the process. It’s a supremely harsh environment and one in which human beings are not able to live without acclimatization and oxygen and even with that they are still catabolizing their muscles just to survive. If you watch the Discovery Channel series you realize how often Himex does come to the rescue with oxygen, injectable dex, Sherpas etc all at considerable cost to Himex in money and resources. They also use the medical support that Himex and IMG has because they are not prepared to offer medical help to their climbers The climbers who are not so prepared watch to see when Himex is leaving for the summit, essentially taking a free ride on Himex weather forecasts and fixed ropes, so that they know when to start their own summit bids and that contributes to the traffic jams that occur. It seems to me that each climber on Everest needs to take individual responsibility for his/her own welfare, understanding that rescue may not be possible and that it is not up to someone else to waste their own $40,000 expense to climb to try to rescue you if you get into trouble high up. It is not the job of a Sherpa from a well run expedition to save you if you get into trouble. Mountaineers are some of the toughest people on the planet and yet Russel Brice sheds tears on the death of a Sherpa or when he has to tell a young woman in 2007 that she is not going to be allowed to make a summit bid because he doesn’t think she’s a strong enough climber. Consider if that woman had gone to the mountain like Sharp did, unprepared and without support. It’s likely her name would have been added to the grim roll call of deaths on Everest. Thank you Nick Heil for an overall balanced viewpoint of 2006 Everest season.

Review #3

Audiobook Dark Summit by David Drummond

I found this book well researched, informative & objective. I was seeking information when I read this book not, seeking entertainment. Like others, I found it hard to put down. Unlike others, I find no reason to compare it with Krakauer’s book nor, to declare Krakauer’s book better; that’s like saying, “If you’ve read one Everest book, you’ve read them all.” Kraukauer wrote about the 1996 season. Heil’s book is about the 2006 season. Soon there will be a 2016 story…
I agree Heil’s narrative is complex to follow at times, when earlier expedition references are included but, the history of climbing Everest & the intertwined histories of many of the principals is a complex subject. I appreciated the reportorial style. I’ve read Into Thin Air, Touching the Void & Alive (the Andes plan crash story.) I’ve seen the Everest Discovery series. I’m also reading Everest, the First Ascent by Harriett Tuckey. I’ve read several books by NPS rangers which describe the poor choices people make in challenging environments, horrific accidents & highly technical rescues. Thanks to Nick Heil’s detailed source notes, I now have an extensive Everest bibliography to explore.
I’m not a climber & never will be. I would be very interested in climbers’ views of the book. My personal mountain experience is limited to living in the Rockies at 10,000 ft, riding horseback/skiing from a bit higher & more recently, hiking in the Appalachians–yes, we know they’re foothills. I remember an acclimatization period when first taking up residence at 10,000 ft., despite being young & healthy. (Running up stairs does make you dizzy without those extra RBC’s.) I can only begin to imagine acclimatizing at 8000+ meters, much less the extreme physical & mental challenges of climbing at this height, while enduring brutal temperature & weather conditions.
As an armchair observer of these efforts, I am at a loss to understand people who place themselves at the foot of Everest without appropriate knowledge, ability, preparation, equipment or support structure for a summit attempt. I am at more of a loss to understand “organized” expeditions which seem to offer little more than the necessary permits & appear to accept little responsibility when things go wrong. I do NOT include Russell Brice’s Himex in this group. I have to agree Brice makes an easy target. I’m also at a loss to understand how the opinions of a couple who promised the first manned spaceflight to Mars in 2008 have any credibility in the climbing world whatsoever. Am I missing something from here in my chair? It seems to me that their website is the commercial exploitation engine. They appear to be neither rocket scientists nor, journalists.

Review #4

Audio Dark Summit narrated by Cris Dukehart

A very boring read. Too many characters, slow pace, really just a mishmash of Everest stuff. I didn’t bother reading the second half. The only thing that fired my interest was reading about bivouacing at the Second Pinnacle near Joe Tasker’s corpse. My God, they’ve found Tasker? Er, no. He meant to write Peter Boardman. Duh!

Review #5

Free audio Dark Summit – in the audio player below

Having read a lot about the 1996 Everest tragedy, I decided to try something new on a similar topic. Sadly I was disappointed. Heil seems to follow Jon Krakauer’s lead with a tedious history of Everest at the start of the book; added are monotonous details of every climber that ever climbed and probably even contemplated climbing Everest! It doesn’t even seem to get going until about page 120. I liked some of the descriptive language but overall it wasn’t the terrific read I expected it to be.

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