Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate, by Reinhold Messner ...
Everest: Expedition to the Ultimate, by Reinhold Messner. Translated by A udrey Salkeld. New Y ork: Oxford U niversity Press, 1979. 254 pages. M any photographs in black-and-white and in color. Price $16.95. The Lonely Victory: M ount Everest ’78, by Peter H abeler. Translated by D avid Heald. New Y ork: Simon and Schuster, 1979. 224 pages. Photographs in color and in black-and-white. Price $10.95. Everest addicts have their choice of two descriptions of the first ascent w ithout supplem entary oxygen by each of the two m ountaineering stars involved— P eter H abeler and Reinhold Messner. Starting these volumes, I soon discovered that to find out w hat really happened one had to read both. E ach is extremely egocentric, and the two have a dichotom ous set of deleted incidents. M essner, for example, states th at the only reason H abeler stayed w ith him was that no one else w anted to climb w ith him and goes on to describe H abeler m otioning “L et’s go dow n” with every step to the sum m it on their final day. H abeler doesn’t dwell on these incidents, but describes a bizarre pact the two m ade: T he sum m it was so im portant that either would leave the other to die of his injuries rather than miss the final step. H abeler then describes w ith some relish the snow-blind M essner’s fears that H abeler m ay hold him to his w ord and abandon him during the descent. N either really describes the larger expedition they were a p art of. This is a shame since it was a marvellously heterogeneous group of men rang ing in age from 24 to 54 and abilities from the w orld’s best to the types one would expect to m eet on a G enet-guided M cKinley trip. Y et these m en had a good time together, put ten people on the summit spanning almost the entire range of their age and experience, and contributed to M essner’s and H abeler’s own success by putting in m uch of the route, the highest cam p and even m any of the footsteps Reinhold and Peter followed to the summit. Their leader, W olfgang N airz, clearly is a virtuoso to have so successfully balanced such disparate am bitions. A book by him would be required reading for any H im alayan aspirant. The m ost stunning advance on Everest recently, in my own opinion, has been N airz’s and H errligkoffer’s abilities to arrange m ultinational expeditions th at work— French, G erm ans, A ustrians, Italians and Poles reaching the summ it.
Those who w ant a m ore historical and balanced account will prefer M essner’s. H e gives full credit to the early British climbers and accepts their contention that in the right circum stances they m ight have gone all the way w ithout a mask. H e also treats his fellow expedition members w ith respect and apparent affection. H abeler, in contrast, never mentions the early British achievers or their convictions based on very solid expe rience. Instead he cites the m edical researchers who repetitively insisted th at it couldn’t be done. I found this irritating, since, in my own opinion, better stoves, m odern equipm ent and appreciation fo r the im portance of rem aining fully hydrated have lowered the effective altitude of Everest far m ore than the oxygen mask. If the British in their knickers and igno rance could repeatedly reach the height of K2, could anyone really believe th at a fully hydrated m odern m ountaineer could not climb 700 feet higher? Also H abeler is rather mean to some of his fellow climbers and describes some of their failures w ith almost as m uch pleasure as his own success. N onetheless, I found H abeler’s book the more interesting of the tw o because I had never read anything by him and his description of his relationship to M essner is very revealing. M essner is clearly the best clim ber on the m odern H im alayan scene, but his autobiographies have never had the insight that H abeler dispenses w ith a few crisp sentences. In sum m ary, both books describe a very notable clim b-the first oxygenless ascent of Everest. To fully appreciate their stories you have to read between the lines in each. If too busy, you may choose to wait fo r next year’s book-E verest climbed w ithout oxygen use by any expedi tion m em ber at any time. N ow th at climbers have so easily climbed K2 and K anchenjunga in this fine style— the real ascent of Everest w ithout m asks can not be far away. L o u is F . R
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Those who w ant a m ore historical and balanced account will prefer M essner’s. H e gives full credit to the early British climbers and accepts their contention that in the right circum stances they m ight have gone all the way w ithout a mask. H e also treats his fellow expedition members w ith respect and apparent affection. H abeler, in contrast, never mentions the early British achievers or their convictions based on very solid expe rience. Instead he cites the m edical researchers who repetitively insisted th at it couldn’t be done. I found this irritating, since, in my own opinion, better stoves, m odern equipm ent and appreciation fo r the im portance of rem aining fully hydrated have lowered the effective altitude of Everest far m ore than the oxygen mask. If the British in their knickers and igno rance could repeatedly reach the height of K2, could anyone really believe th at a fully hydrated m odern m ountaineer could not climb 700 feet higher? Also H abeler is rather mean to some of his fellow climbers and describes some of their failures w ith almost as m uch pleasure as his own success. N onetheless, I found H abeler’s book the more interesting of the tw o because I had never read anything by him and his description of his relationship to M essner is very revealing. M essner is clearly the best clim ber on the m odern H im alayan scene, but his autobiographies have never had the insight that H abeler dispenses w ith a few crisp sentences. In sum m ary, both books describe a very notable clim b-the first oxygenless ascent of Everest. To fully appreciate their stories you have to read between the lines in each. If too busy, you may choose to wait fo r next year’s book-E verest climbed w ithout oxygen use by any expedi tion m em ber at any time. N ow th at climbers have so easily climbed K2 and K anchenjunga in this fine style— the real ascent of Everest w ithout m asks can not be far away. L o u is F . R
e ic h a r d t
