Customer Reviews

Nanda Devi: The Tragic Expedition

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It may seem odd, but I often recommend this book to people who manage groups and projects. Nanda Devi is indeed the story of a Himalayan mountaineering expedition that resulted in death and injury, but it is more a story of how people lead and follow each other, in this case, in a life-and-death situation. Business management is not life-and-death, but the same frictions, malfunctions and mistakes apply to everyday life. So this book is not only fascinating for climbing and exploration history, it is valuable for a study of human nature. It's a valuable study for anyone interested in the art of leadership.

Willi Unsoeld, an experienced mountain climber who had successfully conquered Everest, started this expedition along with his daughter Nanda Devi. Unsoeld had named his infant daughter for the most beautiful mountain he'd ever seen. Naturally, as a young climber and daughter of a prominent mountaineer, she was determined to climb her namesake.

Right from the start, the co-leaders of the expedition disagreed fundamentally on everything from climbing style to food. Neither leader would take control, preferring instead to let members of the group make their own decisions and run a "mellow climb." The climb itself took place at a less-than-optimal time of year to accommodate one of the leaders, who had to wait for the end of the school year. The lack of strong, executive leadership split the entire expedition team into factions. Even simple decisions on evacuating members with altitude sickness became muddled and nearly ended in tragedy. This set the tone for the rest of the climb, and only the climbers who struck out for themselves or were extremely rugged ended up making it to the summit. Other members failed to summit or, in the case of Nanda Devi herself, lost her life on the mountain for which she was named.

The Roskelly version of the expedition in this book caused lasting rifts in the climbing world. John Roskelly, the author of this book, was one of the climbers who did successfully reach the summit. There was lingering bitterness long after the expedition and the publication of the book. Everyone involved had their own version of what went wrong and who was to blame.

Not only is this an exciting and well-told tale of an expedition, but the book highlights the behaviors that lead to the tragedy. While this book is one man's opinion of what happened, it is a good look into what can go deathly wrong when leadership is mishandled.

Other good books to read with a similar theme are Roland Huntford's Last Place on Earth, which contrasts the leadership styles of Scott and Amundsen in the race to the South Pole, and Krakauer's Into Thin Air, the story of another tragic Himalayan climb.

This is a gripping chronicle of the 1976 Indo-American Nanda Devi Expedition which saw the author, Lou Reichardt, and Jim States summit Nanda Devi, a 26,000 foot plus peak located in the northwest frontier of India. They succeeded in making one of the most technically demanding climbs in the Himalayas.

They also survived one of the most acrimonious and tragic of expeditions, as it ended with the needless death of Nanda Devi Unsoeld, daughter of mountaineering legend, Willi Unsoeld, who was co-leader of the expedition. Named after the mountain which her father so loved, Nanda Devi Unsoeld was consigned in death to her namesake. It was she who had been the driving force in the creation of the expedition, spurred on by her desire to climb the mountain for which she had been named, not knowing that death would await her on its slopes.

This expedition, which was replete with mountaineering greats, started off on the wrong foot, as it had two co-leaders, Willi Unsoeld and Ad Carter, neither of whom was willing to take a real leadership role and make decisive decisions. This saw the expedition fracture into two groups, with a great deal of acrimony between the two, as a philosophical divide developed. The author paints a picture of what life was like on this expedition. It is a no holds barred portrait, warts and all, unflattering to the author, as well as to others on this expedition.

While Roskelley was clearly a mountaineer of superior ability, as compared with others on the team, it is probable that his brusque manner helped to divide the expedition into what was perceived to be the "A" and "B" teams. It was the delivery, I surmise, and not the message, which rankled others and prompted them to behave badly which they, undoubtedly, did during the course of the expedition.

What is inexplicable to me, however, is Willi Unsoeld's handling of his daughter's illness on the expedition, and his behavior at her mysterious and unexpected death on the mountain. One would expect more from an expedition leader, never mind a father. It is almost as if he relished consigning her to the mountain in death, with all its mystical implications. A sad end for a being who in life was beautiful and joyous, yet certainly the stuff around which legends are created. In fact, some believed that the goddess Nanda Devi had been reborn as Wlli Unsoeld's daughter, living as a mortal and unaware of her divinity, until she returned to her home, the mountain for which she had been named.

The book is written in lean, spare prose, with enough mountaineering lore and tidbits to engage all climbing enthusiasts, as well as readers who simply love a good adventure story.

Wow. My first reaction on reading this book was amazement as to how dysfunctional this team was due to the fractured leadership style. The inability of the strongest climbers to agree on strategy and work loads contributed to the team's overall slowness on the climb. Yet they still managed to put people on top of the mountain. Other climbing expedition books often make allusions to similar types of disagreements on strategy and plan but this one really lays it all out in front of you.

My second reaction was that there are surely two or more sides to any story -- this version of the climb was surely colored by Roskelley's own self-acknowledged aggressive personality and his bias/perceptions of what his team members were thinking at each step of the way. The second afterword from Roskelley describes a bit more of other team members' own reactions.

The story was compelling but I left one star off the review because the writing style was somewhat wooden. Plus, I wanted to hear more about the climb from someone other than Roskelley to get a different perspective.

I read this several times during this past, hot Midwestern summer. Only "Into Thin Air" comes close to rivalling this book in suspense, calamity and pathos. An aspect of the 1976 Nanda Devi expedition that clearly speaks to the reader is the fact that, despite warnings and very dangerous signs that one or more members of the team are going to die, Unseold and company blunder on, into a frightening and God-forsaken Unknown impossible for the armchair adventurer to truly understand. This Unknown (in mountaineering terms read, "new route"), met with sickness and despair among most of the summit team, is perhaps the most appallingly dangerous and bleak terrestrial place I have encountered in literature not taken from the battlefield. You will be riveted, saddened, and ultimately perplexed by the wilfulness of humans to put themselves in such precarious spots. This is Roskelley's point, though. He is an adventurer, and the absurdity of what he does, if not blatantly obvious to himself, he makes an attempt to outline in the last chapter of the book. Mountaineering, it seems to me, is not so much foolishness and tempting of fate. It is within those utter human limits that Roskelley, Unseold, and company, for once, taste life.

This is an exceptional book detailing a famous and tragic climb up Nanda Devi. What makes this book exceptional is not the detail of the tragedy but rather the lack of teamwork in this expedition and the author's role in the conflict. The closing remarks also frame the danger in being a high altitude climber as eventually 4 of the 13 members of this team die on the mountains in later years.

This expedition had two leaders, uncommon for high altitude expeditions. Initial meetings detail disagreements in selection of climbers and goals for the climb. With no clear leader, these initial disagreements festered on the mountain and contributed to the partial failure of the expedition. But the unique perspective of this book is that the author appears to be the central antagonist in the disagreements. Now clearly, he writes from his perspective and supports his position in a no compromise, "perfection" oriented climbing method. But it's clear these conflicts are partially his fault as he has minimal compromising capabilities which exasperates the team leaders. I've never read a climbing adventure so centered on a conflict that ends in such tragic proportions.

The characters on this climb are expertly described by the author and the expedition is described in detail. I hesitate to provide details of the climb so you might enjoy the excitement in the read but suffice to say, the most compelling human being on the mountain ends up in the most precarious fate. Read this book if you enjoy climbing or tales of adventure. You will not be disappointed.

Destiny shaped this journey to India and the beautiful but treacherous Nanda Devi peak named for a Goddess in the remote Indian province of Garhwahl. It was as if each member of the expedition had a predestined role to play. Devi, the young namesake of the mountain; Roskelley, the savage achiever; Elliott, who left in fear; Evans, who arrived too late; Willi Unsoeld, leader, father divided in his role; Marty Hoey, who was saved for another day; and Andy Harvard, more romantic than mountaineer.

The portents were grave from the outset. Their goals were unsettled, organization was poor, and the players were disparate. Devi is phenomenal in her energy and drive with a mystical connection to the mountain. The upper climb was fraught with endless avalanches, monsoon inspired storms and vertical rock faces. Roskelley miraculously achieved his summit goal. Two days later at Camp IV, Devi suddenly sickened, became drastically ill, murmured, "I am going to die" and expired. Her father had her wrapped in her sleeping bag, and after a short prayer "consigned her to the mountain." She has never been found. There are more than a few local people who think their goddess came back to them in living form to dedicate herself anew to the mountain.

Roskelley tells this tale well, sometimes struggling to be fair and not always succeeding. The technical passages can be difficult for the average reader. (The book could have used a glossary of terms.) His writing style is passionate and driven, but wastes no words. It is his story and Devi's.

Although the 1976 Indo-American Nanda Devi expedition is a multi-faceted, intricate story to tell, the question of what will happen to Nanda Devi the person and when is without doubt the central preoccupation of this mournful, perplexed tale. For the reader knows at the outset that this vivacious, talented woman is doomed. It's just a question of how the end will come.

Roskelley is a climber by profession and certainly by personality. He is stoic, strong and perhaps most importantly, savagely goal-oriented. His narrative, while always competent, only truly comes alive once he is actually on the mountain. Thus the early chapters dutifully detail the planning stages of the expedition and the long trek to camp in The Sanctuary (an idyllic meadow at the base of the mountain). In these early pages the stress and tedium of getting a large expedition off the ground (so to speak) is vividly conveyed. And an inchoate if slightly ominous portrait of the individuals who will live and work so closely together begins to emerge as well. But although Roskelley is a keen observer and a bit of a psychologist by necessity, it is not difficult to see that his main interest lies in climbing mountains. And so the book picks up considerably as the team moves onto Nanda Devi the treacherous, if beguiling peak.

As the group of climbers makes the transition from the route in to the route up, Roskelley's writing quickly generates an indelible mental image of the menace and extreme peril the team confronted on the mountain as they laboured week after week in deteriorating weather at ever higher altitude. Beset with among other adversities intense avalanche activity as monsoon conditions dumped countless feet of snow upon the mountain, Roskelley's descriptions of painfully earned progress up the selected route and his successful summit bid are riveting. But all the while one is wondering, When will he fill us in? How does she die? Does she fall? Become suffocated in an avalanche of massive dimension? Or will she succumb to one of the numerous ailments she is suffering from as the physical cost of going higher becomes ever more severe?

Unnecessary death frequently engenders doubt, guilt and prolonged mourning in the survivors. And sometimes ghosts come to life as people die. Roskelley shares in the closing sections of his book his abiding sorrow over Nanda Devi Unsoeld's death and his sense of being haunted by the prematurity of her demise. He also wonders and worries about how it could possibly have been allowed to occur. This plangent accounting by a man of such emotional restraint brings the book to its rightful close. Because whatever else Roskelley attempted to accomplish in these pages, he clearly wanted to express his deep feeling about what happened to this terribly young woman way at the top of the world.

Between the fragmented leadership, conflicting agenda's of the climbers and general lack of cooperation between various members of the expedition it's a small wonder that more people weren't seriously injured or killed. That said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. The suspense that John Roskelly creates is fantastic. With so many possible things that could go wrong...

I have read a number of mountain climbing books over the past few months, and this was the least enjoyable of the bunch. The problem is both the subject matter and the writing style. The expedition itself seemed like a mess--two leaders, one of whom lost interest half-way through and left the country, the other of whom didn't seem to notice or care that his lovely college-age (I think) daughter was dangerously ill. A team that had widely different ideas about what the goals of the expedition were and who never overcame those differences in philosophy and skill-level. And a climb scheduled at the wrong time of the year to accomodate the teaching schedule of the leader who left half-way through. It's surprising that Roskelley and two other members got to the top of the mountain, but by the time they did, I couldn't even take any joy in their accomplishment.

The other problem, and perhaps the more serious as far as the worth of this as a book, is that it is Roskelley's first book and it shows. It is apparent much of the time that his narration is barely edited diary entries. The narrative doesn't have the flow and the perspective that fully-fleshed-out story-telling requires. Many of his sentences are short and wooden; for example: "The weather was bad." There is little attempt to make the technical aspects of the climb comprehensible to non-climbers.

All in all, the book left me feeling depressed. Many mountain-climbing books have a tragic tale to tell, of human error and over-powering difficulties, and yet something of the human spirit, of the struggle to overcome, shine through. But perhaps as a result of the personality of John Roskelley, this story just seemed pitiful and sad.

As an avid reader of mountain books, this is one of the better ones. The story of the ascent of Nanda Devi and the unfolding tragedy is a compelling one. That being said, I have read other accounts of this expedition, and of other expeditions that included John Roskelly, and it is obvious that the author has very much climbing skill and very little emotional intelligence. This version is self-serving, and it is doubtful that it represents anything other than his perspective. One thing that is glaringly obvious- Roskelly's complete lack of respect for the Unsoeld family and their values, his distain for women (except the kind he can control), and his lack of interest in anything other than the summit.Who knows what effect this had on the expedition's outcome? I sincerely hope he has grown up by now.