Customer Reviews

Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering's Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As one of the survivors of the climb described in Forever on the Mountain, I believe the book to be very well researched and well written-- of interest to almost all involved in climbing.

To me there is no great mystery. A vicious storm resulted in the deaths of seven climbers. Delays and bureaucratic bungling in declaring an emergency and in launching an all-out rescue may have frustrated all but changes would not have resulted in saving the seven lives.

One weakness in the book results from the author "imagining" what occurred and by doing so leading readers to think the summit team dug snow caves and survuved for severeal days in those caves. I don't believe that happened.

The book by Howard Snyder, The Hall of the Mountain King, about the same climb is a precise description of the climb although it highlights some biases against the Wilcox faction.

Overall- well done but readers must separate fact from authors guesses as to what happened.

The seven who died on Denali were likely doomed at the moment the five on top decided to go for the summit. They couldn't have known that, because they had no idea about the weather headed their way. Neither did anyone else, apparently. (Even if someone had hinted at a storm, the storm that hit was extraordinary.)

I had a hard time understanding why Wilcox was the target of blame for the tragedy. Even if all of the criticisms of the expedition are accepted, they seem to have little causal relation to the deaths on the mountain. His decisionmaking should be judged based on the situation as it unfolded, not as we now know it ultimately would unfold. Only his failure to call for a full rescue effort at the first opportunity may have made a difference, yet that gets little play. The failure of Park Service officials to appreciate the emergency and act promptly is troubling, yet there remains a serious question as to whether that would have ultimately made a difference.

I knew nothing about the 1967 disaster before I read this book, so all of my views are formed by its contents. My primary criticism is the effort to reconstruct conversations for which there is no living witness. Tabor would have been better to describe his conjectures without the level of false precision implicit in his faux dialogue or description of their actions during the storm. Even though a reasonably careful reader would not be misled, it puts the reader needlessly on guard, even during the eyewitness accounts.

As a person who had close ties to the expedition, both in the planning and the aftermath, I found this book to be an accurate account of the tragic events that occurred. The book brought back 40 years worth of memories, just like they had happened yesterday.

While browsing my local bookstore, I saw a book with a title that left no question in my mind about the subject: an event that happened 40 years ago and I could now read about the truth surrounding that tragedy on Mt. McKinley: Forever on the Mountain, by James Tabor. In the summer of 1967 I was full of dreams and anticipation as to what my second season at Mt. McKinley National Park might bring: new adventures, amazing sights, the trill of just the chance to view that magical mountain, Mt. McKinley. At the same time I was living my dreams, another group of young men were about to begin their own adventures and dreams, and attempt to summit the great mountain. As I read on, I realized sometimes in life no matter how well we plan and organize, things happen; attitudes and egos do not mix; politics and bureaucracy diminish the chance for success. In this book, these problems are brought forth and analyzed with a very straight forward approach, giving the public an unbiased solution of what happened and didn't happen in the most tragic disaster in North American climbing history. I thought it was a great read, especially having lived at McKinley during the event, and is important for anyone who has preconceived opinions about what actually took place on the mountain.



Gary Smith

I am one of those people that is always in the middle of eight books. I start a book, somewhere along the way I pick something else up, I get busy. this happens to me all the time. Some days I get hours to read other days just minutes - but I read everyday. truly one of my favorite things to do.

This book was something I stumbled on when I got my Kindle as a sample, it is something that is completely out of my normal realm. I am not an outdoor person, not a climber and have never read or really seen anything on the subject.

But from the first page I was completely sucked in and I couldn't put it down. extremely well written, fascinating story and extremely informative to a layman like me who had zero understanding of anything about mountaineering going in.

Tabor has put together a beautiful, extremely balanced account of a tragedy that includes the objective, the subjective, and quite tastefully, the emotions of the survivors. I read it once, and then had to read it again. The story deserved to be told again, and from a person far removed from the story. Tabor does an incredible job of piecing together an investigation some 40 years later. Tabor's descriptions made me want to, as Snyder described, put my parka on in my living room. Having climbed successfully to the top of Denali, I always counted myself lucky. This book shows just how truly lucky I was. A brilliant work!

Prefaces and introductions are usually hard for me to finish. In the case of Mr. Tabor's book, something grabbed me and I knew that I would not want to put it down until I finished it.
Tabor has done an amazing investigative endeavor to uncover a sad and tragic tale. This is a powerful story that still has a huge effect on the lives of the survivors as well as rescuers and others who became part of it.
It would be easy, as had been for years, to place blame and move on but Tabor saw a different path. He takes the reader through a multi-layered voyage of the climbing world, its personalities, egos, extreme challenges, glories, and sometimes defeats.
What he does well is to present the information, tell the story as he has researched through personal interviews, park service tapes, old weather maps, and more, while staying neutral, and letting the reader come to their own conclusion. That is a gift and, I think, a nod in honor of those that endured and those that did not.
I have read it twice and it will be a fixture on my bookshelf.

Although I am not a mountain climber, this book was incredibly compelling.
I couldn't put it down as the action and tragedy unfolded. It is powerfully written and penetrating in its reflection of human nature and
choices. And it is an extremely moving story of young lives lost.
Although the book is a tour de force of investigative journalism, it also
has universal depth and, at times, reads like a fine Greek tragedy.

Enjoyed it immensely, recommend it highly and have already bought many
gift copies.

I was hooked from the beginning, even though I know little more about mountain climbing than the differnce between a crampon and a carabiner. Tabor has done an incredible job of researching, documenting and piecing together the known facts of this terrible tragedy and then using his own climbing experience and that of others to knit together a well told tale with some suprising revelations and conclusions. Its also a frustrating story about how some unusually bad luck, marginal leadership, a clash of egos, poor communications and bad management by the National Park Service led to the deaths of the seven young men left forever on the mountain.

With the right producer and director, it will make a great movie !!

An elegantly written chronicle of a fateful expedition. I began reading one morning and finished the next.Mr. Tabor tells an obviously complicated story with such beautifully-structured writing that I could always keep myself in the middle of the action. On the one hand I felt hugely thankful not to have been on Denali with those men, but the vivid descriptions of the beauty of the mountain almost made me wish I had been.