Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia [Hardcover]

Greg Child (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

“The climbers swept up in the events of August 2000 are people little different from the rest of us. Though their climbing skills taught them a thing or two about survival, it was their individual characters and their compassion for one another that kept them alive. Like anyone who has witnessed warfare and death, they feel pain over the memories that they recount in this story. It is their hope that others may learn from their experience.” —from the Introduction

Before dawn on August 12, 2000, four of America’s best young rock climbers, the oldest of them only twenty-five, were sleeping in their portaledges high on the Yellow Wall, in the Pamir-Alai mountain range of Kyrgyzstan, in central Asia. By daybreak, they would be taken at gunpoint by fanatical militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), which operates out of secret bases in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, and which is linked to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. The desperadoes—themselves barely out of their teens—intended to use their hostages as human shields and for ransom as they moved across Kyrgyzstan. They hid the climbers by day and marched them by night through freezing, treacherous mountains, with little food, no clean water, and the constant threat of execution. The four would see a fellow hostage, a Kyrgyz soldier, executed before their eyes. And in a remarkable life-and-death crucible over six terrifying days, they would be forced to choose between saving their own lives and committing an act none of them thought they ever could.

In Over the Edge, the four climbers—Jason “Singer” Smith, John Dickey, Tommy Caldwell, and Beth Rodden—finally tell the complete story of their nightmarish ordeal. In riveting detail, author Greg Child re-creates the entire hour-by-hour drama, from the first ricocheting bullets to the climactic and agonizing decision the climbers had to make in order to gain their freedom and survival. Set in a powder-keg region of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, this is a deeply compelling book about loyalty and the unshakeable human will to survive.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A year before America woke to the madness of Islamic terrorism, four young American rock climbers were pulled directly into its line of fire on a rock climbing expedition 80 miles from Afghanistan. Oblivious to the volatile mix of ethnic strife, drug smuggling, and militant Islam brewing there, the four had been seeking extreme adventure in the "Yosemite Valley" of Central Asia. Greg Child gives a riveting chronicle of their capture by militants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (linked to al Qaeda), who dragged them through six harrowing days of gun battles before the four made their dramatic escape. As a veteran climber of the area and a seasoned writer, Child was uniquely qualified to write "the story that refused to stop unfolding," scrupulously tracking the moments that led to the ultimate decision--whether to kill to live--and the firestorm of controversy and skepticism that surrounded the four on their return to a still-ignorant America. To learn the truth, Child even traveled to Kyrgyzstan with two of the climbers to face one of their captors. Over the Edge is a charged and unforgettable look into the many faces of international terrorism and human nature itself. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

Child has everything he needs for an Ian Fleming-type mountaineering drama: a great setting in the Pamir Alai region of Kyrgyzstan; a cast of quick-witted American mountaineers (three men and one woman); a backdrop of drug trafficking, political instability and economic free-for-all; Islamic mujahideen facing Uzbeki soldiers armed with naivete or Kalashnikovs, or both. Unfortunately, Child (Postcards from the Ledge) left his talent for dialogue, description and sense of timing back at the magazine writer's base camp at 4,000 words. The climbers were kidnapped and held for six days in August 2000, pawns of Muslim extremists on the border between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Despite full access to the climbers after their escape and rescue, and despite background knowledge from his own climbs in the region, Child's story is flat. The dialogue is wooden, and Child tends to overexplain his characters' motivations and psychic states. Though he details some thrilling scenes, the psychological drama fizzles, and the momentum is slowed by Child's narrative about his own connection to the story (which began as an assignment for Climbing magazine). Even the obvious current relevance of kidnapping, Islamic politics and narco-trafficking in these mountains doesn't quite compensate for storytelling problems and being just one more John Krakauer-style mountaineering adventure doesn't help, either.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375506098
• ISBN-13: 978-0375506093
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,197 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Over the Edge, April 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia (Hardcover)

This is an interesting work of journalism. Greg Child, a well-known climbing writer, is branching out and expanding his skills here. Overall, I'd say he does well. Climbers may want to be advised that this is *not* a climbing book; there's very little description of climbing and what there is has been written so as to fit a broader audience.

Child does three things here. First, he discusses the history and nature of Islamic terrorism in Central Asia. I'd think this element would have appeal to anyone interested in current events. Although some of the informational segments are dry, it's terrifying to realize the extent of, and the numbers of people involved in, violently fanatical beliefs. And it's tragic to think that some of the most beautiful wilderness landscapes on the planet are tainted by human brutality. The 9/11 tie-in here is obvious, since the group which kidnapped the climbers was tied to the Taliban.

Secondly, Child tells the story of the climbers, four young Americans who were taken as hostages. (We also get, briefly, the story of some European captives at the same period). And that's a slightly depressing view of human nature. While it's unclear how much warning the climbers had about the dangerous nature of the country they were visiting, it's obvious that they took a risk. There's something repugnant about these privileged Americans showing up in this extremely impoverished society with their CD walkmans, minidisc players, thousands of dollars of camera equipment (though the latter, granted, does professionally relate to their work for The North Face), and other electronic gadgets.

When they were captured, it appears that the undoubted courage it takes to climb hard routes didn't exactly translate. One can relate to their fear and helplessness.

Lastly, Child discusses the ugly attacks by other climbers and journalists, including Americans, on the hostages' story. Various details, even the story as a whole, were challenged by people who had never been to Kyrgyztan or interviewed any of the participants themselves. In my view, the physical and psychological condition of the four, upon their return, gives their story credence, as do the circumstances under which their gear was visibly abandoned. It also seems to me that Child is a trustworthy journalist. And perhaps most of all, if someone was going to make up a story about a heroic escape from terrorists, they'd make up something... heroic. Pushing a man off a cliff and running, though a sensible response to an extreme situation, isn't really a heroic act. Readers must choose for themselves, of course, whom they believe.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pre 9/11 insights, October 17, 2004

By 

Edward Lewis "tigerlewis" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia (Hardcover)

I'm on a "True Escape Stories" kick right now. In my opinion, the more realistic and the least fantastic the stories are, the better. And that's precisely what you get with "Over the Edge". It's a story about how four American climbers escaped from their Muslim terrorist kidnappers. The fact that this all happened prior to 9/11 gave this reader an entirely different insight into what's going on in Iraq today.

One strange thing about the book is that the author often refers to himself throughout the book. This made absolutely no sense to me until the later chapters where he actually became an active character in the story. At first I thought he was on some kind of ego trip, but I later realized that the last part of the book would have made no sense at all without his personal information.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable, August 8, 2002

By 

Mary G. Longorio "Texasbookgirl" (Eagle Mountain, UT) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Over the Edge: The True Story of Four American Climbers' Kidnap and Escape in the Mountains of Central Asia (Hardcover)

The tale of four young rock climbers escaping from shadowy rebel captors burst into national consciousness in August of 2000, I remember thinking "Why is this the first time we've heard anything about this?". Greg Child has crafted a hard to put down answer to that as well as the heartpounding tale of the four climbers...Jason Smith, John Dickey, Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden, and their almost unbelievable tale of survival. Traveling to a remote area of Kyrgyzstan to tackle a challenging climb, the four were not aware they were entering a zone rife with political turmoil. The remote area was favored as a training ground for various factions of militant..including the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. Taken captive, along with others, by the rebel group the four begin a desperate journey across the inhospitable terrain, at gunpoint. They saw a fellow hostage executed before their eyes,and began to realize the grim fate that was theirs. In furtive conversation, driven by fear, hunger and an will to survive the four begin to realize that their survival will depend solely on them and they formulate a desperate escape plan. But if they do manage to escape they are faced with a treck through difficult territory, not just inhospitable form the elements and terrain, but from the unknown warring factions who may inhabit it. Even more unbelievable are the naysayers who downplay the four's peril and even try to refute the whole tale once they have reached freedom. In a theme that has become famlair in other mountain climbing books, there seems to be as much drama in the few within the mountian climbing community's attempts to tear down the climbers, once their physical ordeal is over. This is a gripping tale of survival and the ability to overcome.