Customer Reviews

The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are a lot of great things about this book: it's certainly well-written, it deals with loss and with death as well as with the motives that draw climbers to these mountains, and it intersperses the fascinating history of postwar British climbing with gripping descriptions of the actual climbs. It suffers from two flaws, tho', one small, one big. The small is that it has no maps; unless you're familiar with these mountains, you're left guessing ascent routes (these matter a great deal, since a large part of what Bonington's generation did was pioneer new routes up classic mountains). The larger problem, as the Publishers Weekly points out, is that it's written very internally; we get a lot of inside-the-climber's-head and especially what-they-are-thinking-as-they-die moments that are based on... what? The acknowledgments thank Bonington for giving the author two mornings; this book is not based much on firsthand interviews etc., so how could Willis have this information? Since all of the internal dialogue/deaththoughts sound exactly the same, it's a fair bet that they're Willis' projections-- but he's a journalist, and while a fair climber, certainly not even close to being a member of the group he so fervently chronicles. In the end, I was left with the uncomfortable feeling that I was reading Willis' own projections of his motives and thoughts of climbing onto a group of men very different from him, and in their most vulnerable moments-- as they climbed, and as they died. Like Krakauer's Into Thin Air, a book that tells a great mountain story, but in the end is far too much about the author, in a way that both seems intrusive and perhaps gets in the way of the story he wants to be telling.

As an armchair mountain climber (I read these books out of amazement that anyone would ever try these stunts), I have to say that author Willis is at the top of the heap. He not only seems to get what's going on in the heads of extreme mountain climbers, but he knows how to convey it--in gripping prose that is never clicheed. I have some of Willis' anthologies of adventure writing, so I know he is well-read in the genre (and a mountaineer himself). He has clearly absorbed the best of that writing, and turned it into something fresh in his own effort. Paradoxically, for a story that celebrates a bunch of social misfits, the book is full of wisdom about how to live life. This is no ordinary biography. As for the actual climbing passages--good luck putting this book down. I had to force myself not to flip ahead and see who dies next.

Back in the 1980s, when I was slaving away in grad school, escaping occasionally for a brief hiking trip, or a short cross-country ski outing, I liked to read stories of great expeditions and adventures, on sea and on land. And I think of all the books I read, Chris Bonnington's books of his expeditions were my greatest escape literature. Sitting in my downtown apartment I was transported to the slopes of Everest with Bonnington and his crew, making my way of a narrow rock gully on the face of Everest. When I was out on my skis in the woods, I'd imagine I was working my way through the ice fall, or carrying gear up to advance base camp.

Then in 2000 I read Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", his personal story of the tragic 1996 Everest expedition, and it stripped away all romance from Himalayan mountaineering; all I was left with was images of pointless death and selfish behavior. I stopped reading mountaineering books. Every trip seemed a pointless risk of human life. Then a few weeks ago I came across "The Boys of Everest" while looking for cross-country ski technique books, and my curiosity was piqued; I bought the book.

Like some of the reviewers, I'm a bit put off by the author's use of imagined interior monologue, especially when depicting the last hours of a climber who disappeared into the mists, never to be seen again. But at the same time, I think Willis does a better job than most writers- including the mountaineers themselves- in explaining exactly why they climb, and why they take such unimaginable risks in pursuit of such intangible rewards. While this doesn't justify the deaths of so many ambitious young men, at the same time it makes them a bit easier to understand.

Some have also faulted the author for his lack of experience in high altitude climbing, and lack of technical detail, or glossing over some important aspect of a given climb. I'm not a climber, and I suspect that most readers won't be, either, and to us, that's not really a fault. There are better books about the specifics of these expeditions written by the climbers themselves, and plenty of books about the techniques of mountaineering. What this book does deliver is a bit of a glimpse intothe lives and the minds of a very select group of men, who changed the face of climbing, and who for a very brief time in the history of the world stood on top of it.

An exceptional history of the mountaineers of England from roughly 1960 to 1980, the post Hilary period. Clint Willis follows the history from early climbing, partners and feuds, to eventual aggressive expedition climbing of Everest and many other peaks. The book centers on Chris Bonnington who gained the most fame in this period but tracks many other climbers in the process.

What this book did that I have not seen in any others is describe the thought process high on the mountain of the specific maneuvers where climbers knew they had exceeded safety limitations and would fall to death potentially killing partners also with a misstep. This may not sound earth shattering but as a novice climber you are taught not to do this and always have safety devices set in case of the accident. Clearly stating where they exceed this safety is an interesting concept particularly above 22,000 feet in extreme cold/wind while tired and oxygen deprived. Given the great retelling of the climber and family relationships, this book is better than any others as it involves you in the death of the climbers, the calls back to home and the long-term reactions of family and other climbers.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It's not a page turner which is the reason I did not rate it a five. It's a detailed chronological history that will appeal to anyone with an interest in climbing, particularly the large peaks of the world.

The Boys of Everest is all of these things. As a college student with very little experience with climbing or with climbing literature, I was surprised at how easily I followed the descriptions of climbing techniques and strategies that help drive this story. Climbing technicalities never got in the way of telling a great story, which was always Willis's first priority. I imagine any avid climber would devour this book, but the audience of "Boys" is by no means restricted to mountain climbers or even armchair adventurers. First and foremost, "Boys" is a story about a dynamic group of driven, complex, at times heroic, often troubled and truly singular men. Willis's ability to make the reader feel at different times compassion, anger, admiration and even love for these boys of Everest is astounding.

"Boys" is both an epic and a page turner, a scrupulously researched piece of journalism and artfully crafted story. It is a wonderful representative of its genre and of contemporary literature in general. Willis has achieved the rare and enviable. "Boys" is a one of a kind story.

I have read about 6 mountain climbing books in the last 12 months. This one was the hardest to get through. I gave this book 3 stars, but at points I wanted to give it 2 stars because the writing made me so angry.

You should read this book if:
* You are really in to the history of mountain climbing
* You don't mind slogging through some boring writing especially in the first 200 pages.

Learning about the people in the book was good and I liked how we got to understand what they were feeling at times on the mountain. The stories about climbing the bigger mountains like Everest and Annapurna held my attention better. Here are the issues I had with the book.

1. There are not enough pictures of the mountains climbed (even though the author states that photographers were hired for many of the expeditions).
2. There are no drawings of the mountains that indicate the routes taken and locations of the camps and locations of extraordinary events. This makes it difficult to visualize where the climbers are on the mountain.
3. The title "The Boys of Everest" did not make much sense to me as some of the men did not even climb Everest and they did not climb it that often. There were so many other mountains climbed in the book, I don't know why Everest was singled out.
4. The subtitle does not make sense either. "...the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation". Although there are many tragedies described in the book, it's not clear what the true Tragedy is especially considering that climbing high mountains is dangerous and people do sometimes die doing it. The "Greatest Generation" was also not supported. Although many of the climbers did seem great. I had no reference to other climbers or generations of climbers to compare to.
5. The author gets mixed reviews for describing the actual climbing. In the first 200 pages, I often found myself falling asleep when the climbers were climbing. It seemed like there was too much fine detail about how people were moving and what equipment they were using and not enough general detail like "the climbers are at 20,000 feet and have 4,000 feet to go, they will need 2 more days to get used to this altitude."
6. It seems like the author basically left out describing the affects of altitude on these expeditions. In the other books I've read it seems to be a big deal and often what determines if you make it to the top is if your body can adjust to the altitude, but the author did not talk about the affects of altitude on the climbers that much.
7. At times I would have liked to have know if the information was coming directly from a climber's journal or if the author was piecing things together in his own way. When the author described what the characters were thinking before they died you knew that there was no way the author or anyone could know that information, so it made me wonder what else he was making up.

I enjoyed getting the information from this book, but thought it was a really weird read compared to the other mountain climbing books I have read.

Willis' current book (he's edited a number of collected excerpts) was the most intriguing mountaineering book I've read in a long time -- and I've read quite a few, although I myself am an "armchair" climber. Perhaps true mountaineers will find the book wanting for lengthy descriptions of raising funds for the climb; of the travails of arriving at base camp; of the flora, fauna and cultures encountered on the way in, but personally when I read about the extremes of high-altitude climbing, I'm always most attracted to how the alpinists themselves -- as humans -- cope with such extreme conditions. What do they think? Feel? What does this other worldly existence -- for it's nothing like everyday life -- give them that drives them to return, again and again, despite the torments, the cold, the hunger, the closeness to death that almost inevitably accompanies every serious ascent? Willis allows himself some artistic freedom in placing himself in the climbers' boots as they wake to bitter cold; as they jumar up old ropes; as they place weak protection knowing that any failure can lead to their death and possibly the death of their comrades. But this is why I, for one, read about alpinists: they compell themselves to extremes, and Willis -- far better than anyone -- places you alongside these climbers as they unravel, or ignore, the reasons they are high on these mountains, and always destined to return to them.

This is the most plodding and annoying re-telling of a most interesting story. Willis did an excellent job as editor by compiling extracts of great original mountaineering accounts in his Adrenaline series of books (Climb, High, Epic). He tries to move from editorship to authorship in this book by but should have stuck with what he did well before. He ends up re-telling the original accounts of the covered climbs by Bonington, Haston, Boardman and Tasker, and the other protagonists of his story, in parts almost paragraph by paragraph. I've read most of the original accounts and they are great books, authentic and engaging reads. They also have pictures, and some maps. And the segments that you won't find in the originals, mostly is the material that should have been left out here, like the imagined final thoughts of the climbers, and some of the gossip. Get the books the climbers wrote themselves (some of them may be out of print but worthwhile the search to get second hand). If you are new to the topic, don't have the time or patience to go book by book, get Willis' compilations mentioned above.

I've read Clint Willis' work before, so I knew I could expect a great yarn and fresh look into the psyches of our planet's greatest adventurers and explorers. But I wasn't expecting anything like this: rivetting, exciting, sad, inspiring. This book is a must for anyone who thinks about challenging himself or herself in the harshest climes of nature. It's an adventure in reading, truly.

Let me first say that I am an avid reader of climbing literature. As a non-climber, I found the author's description of every piton and carabiner on every climb to be immensely tedious. Likewise the endless sequence of who was in which camp every day and who led every pitch. Climbers who attempt these or similar routes might be enlightened, but I found it rather mind-numbing. I found Willis' suppositions about climbers' thoughts just before death to be banal and presumptuous. After slogging through 315 pages I could no longer feign even the slightest interest and quit reading.

Clint Willis edited the excellent anthology "Epic: Stories of Survival from the World's Highest Peaks." He apparently gained no literary insights from any of the fifteen authors whose works he included. Readers wishing to get a feel for what it's like on the mountain should read "Epic" instead. It's a good way to sample the writing style of a variety of climbers, as well. Other excellent choices for climbers and non-climbers alike are "Minus 148 Degrees" by Art Davidson or "Touching the Void" by Joe Simpson, and anything by Greg Child.

I gave the book one star for its explanation of the changing politics and policies of climbing in Great Britain after 1953. There were also some good insights into Bonnington's character. But if you want a thrilling read, look elsewhere.