Anti-Social Climbing

Justine Burley

  • Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
    Macmillan, 293 pp, £16.99, August 1997, ISBN 0 333 69527 5
  • Dark Shadows Falling by Joe Simpson
    Cape, 207 pp, £16.99, August 1997, ISBN 0 224 04368 4

On the night of 10 May 1996, 19 climbers were stranded in a blinding storm on the upper flanks of Mount Everest. The temperature dropped to −100° Fahrenheit. Whipped up by fierce winds, spindrift blasted the mountainside on which envelopes of thick cloud had descended. Visibility was reduced to a few feet. The following day, eight climbers were dead. Of the survivors, one had his nose and hand amputated, another all his fingers and toes. The storm, typical of the region and time of year, requires no explanation, but why were so many people still so high on the mountain that late in the day?

You are not Logged In

  • If you have already registered login here
  • If you are a print subscriber using the site for the first time please register here
  • If you are not yet a subscriber you can subscribe here
  • If you are a member of a subscribing institution or University library please login here
  • If you have an Institutional print subscription and online access is not included, find out about our Institutional online subscriptions