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Stay Home, There's More Wild In Your Backyard than on Everest Sep 09, 2010
Very depressing read. I cannot concur on the expeditions, but the amount of people heading into Everest, their total disregard for the environment and their supreme egos make even being around the area from Namche into Everest a very unpleasant experience.
If it were not for the views and the wonderous mountains I think one would do better to climb more isolated mountains with fewer groups, less garbage closer to home. I wouldn't even want to be around most of the unbounded egos described in this book. Seems to defy the very notion of why one mountaineers in the first place.
Having been the Himalayas a few times over the past 20 yrs I was immediately struck by the fact that the carrying capacity of environment is out of balance with the number of people there. It has reached the point where you are seriously hindered by large groups of tourists with their own agenda and their own egos to assuage. At times I have stood beside the trail into Everest base camp and had to wait 30 minutes for the crowd of German tourists to pass by me.
The attitudes are a problem as well. Mr. Kodas describes the cold egotistical distance that surrounds some camps, literally camped beside one another, yet who do not talk to each other. This state of affairs extends to the mountain where common courtesy is ground into the dust as the desire for profit for the expeditions and the desire for a fully placated ego for the new urban-corporate-sports-gym climber dominate the mountain. Greed. Money and sexual are never far beneath the service as Kodas relates.
I personally could relate to the attitudes of some of the people Kordas describes. I will never forget the lady we deemed the "Canadian Cow" from Montreal, who severely reproached me for washing a child's parasites wounds with soap and then bandaging her legs and tell her to wash regularly.... "ohhhh, you shouldn't do that with them, it just encourages them... besides, who knows... they might have HIV" (???!!). Needless to say, this spirit of outright meanness is not only profoudly depressing, but seems, according to Kordas, to be getting worse and worse.
Everest is still the highest, but there are greater challenges in the outback of Australia, or the nether reaches of so many unclimbed peaks of Canada, or Russia or South America or other places in the Himalayas... but no longer on Everest.
Very nice book, but depressing at places.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
This book gave me a rethink Aug 26, 2010
Like many on this page, I've always wanted to climb Everest, beginning as a boy when I saw pictures of the late seventies 'hard style' expeditions of Chris Bonnington and other necky Brits. Mountaineering in Britain was always exalted as exemplifying the highest form of valour and personal integrity, although the reality was usually more complex.
I think we all knew that the ethics of those days have long been destroyed by greed and egotism, but this book has taken the process of demythologising a big step forward. The mountain is revealed as partly occupied by a desperate camp of thieves and sociopaths. The top guides on the big commercial expeditions have understandably had enough, and their new 'every man for himself' mentality may increase the objective danger in future.
The book gave me a serious rethink about the sanity of trying to climb Everest, and how this could possibly be achieved, and the author is to be congratulated on that. He has very bad news, and manages to convince the reader to take his evidence seriously. Especially shocking is that the 'Everest disease' has spread to other, more dangerous peaks, including K2, of all things.
There are some problems. Too many characters suddenly appear with a long and irrelevant back story. I really don't care about the various finishing schools of some of the protagonists, and overall it gives a disorganised feel. The
story of Nils Antezana is probably too long and involved, and he gets off a bit lightly. He too had a responsibility, at 69 and moving badly he never really had a chance, but he pushed on into disaster.
The shocking and sad stories of Sherpas stealing and abusing clients are not addressed seriously enough. There is NO justification for it, and it's not clear how they have increasingly got away with it. Any European guides behaving in a similar manner would be run out of the mountains by their own and lucky to escape a serious beating.
But overall, he forced me to come to these conclusions, and for that thanks:
1. Avoid the North side at all costs. (Matt Dickinson's book also did this for me, making it clear that the route is very tough and hard to get down if strength is failing).
2. Climb without oxygen and go down when you can climb no further. If you have no 02, it can't be stolen, and you are less likely to kill yourself through summit fever.
3. Use one of the big, probably British, guide companies for logistics. It's clear that smaller groups are too vulnerable to crooks. Stolen stoves and sleeping bags can kill you. Their Sherpas are also much more likely to be looked after and honest.
4. NEVER step foot on Everest until very experienced at altitude, and as fit as one of the guides. If it can't be done, don't go.
 High Crimes:The fate of Everest in an Age of Greed Aug 15, 2010
Very well written and factual.I had no idea of the lengths some unscrupulous people will go to just to claim that they have summited Everest. To masquerade as a guide and then leave your client to die is tantamount to murder. Time for the governments of Nepal and China to ban permits to climb the mountain.
Fantastic looking book... Jul 30, 2010
Since I just received the book and haven't had a chance yet to read it yet, this is more of a recommendation of the seller then a review of the book itself. Book arrived promptly and well packaged. The book is in FANTASTIC shape. Thanks!!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Poorly written - I would *not* recommend Jun 18, 2010
This book is really poorly written and organized. I love books about Everest and mountaineering and honestly thought almost any book on the topic would entertain me, but this one is such a mess that all learning and entertainment value is out the door.
Kodas constantly switches between locations, time periods, and people. Instead of a focused story of his time on Everest he introduces random person after random person, name-dropping left and right. It makes it extremely difficult to follow anyone's story because there are so many names and so many little back stories that you can't remember which person he's talking about when he jumps back to them two chapters later. And his jumping between time periods from chapter to chapter adds even more confusion.
In the end I was almost done and just decided it wasn't even worth it for me to fully read the last 1/6 of the book, so I just skimmed. I'm honestly astounded that this man has written for the NYT and other highly respected publications. I was very unimpressed and surprised this book in its current form ever got published.
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