Customer Reviews

Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey

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4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I reviewed this book for The Denver Post book section. Love him or leave him, Kropp is a brutally honest climber and storyteller who admits his flaws up front and then asks you to judge him by what he does, not by what he says. Some fans of the outdoors seem angry that Kropp has written forthrightly about climbing scams, political backbiting in camp, poor treatment of Sherpas and altitude's terrible toll on bodily functions. What these critics miss is that by telling the truth, Kropp does not diminish climbing but lifts it back into glory by showing exactly how hard it is to responsibly climb the world's highest peaks. The writing may be wooden at times, but Kropp's amazing story shines through the flaws.

Goran Kropp's "Ultimate High" is one of the best Everest books to come along in quite some time. It's not all about mountains or just Everest, it's about people, places, hardships and humility. Kropps sets out on his bicycle from Sweden to the Himalayas to climb Everest unassisted and with without oxygen. Throughout this adventure Kropp fearlessly talks about the climbing elite and some of the "goings on" on Everest. He accomplishes this without being malicious. It's a tell it like it is scenario. This writer learned more about Everest in this short little book than from several others about the subject."Ultimate High" is the ultimate read.

At 50 years old I rode my bicycle 3600 miles across the United States. Perhaps because of that experience I had great empathy with Goran. When I arrived home I was met by my entire town, two newspapers ran front page stories about my adventures, for months everyone I met congratulated me but deep down I felt unfulfilled. Goran Kropp rode his bicycle twice as far, across hostile countries, in bad weather, with much more weight. Then he climbed Mount Everest. I applaud his attempts to "do it all" with no supplemental oxygen or sherpa support and empathize with his mood swings.

Thank you Goran for letting me share your adventure. My only criticism is that it is too short. I would love to read what Mr. Lagercrantz left on the editing room floor. Two questions I would love to know the answers to: How did you overcome the language barrier? and, did you marry Renata?

A Must read for anyone who has ever answered a question with, "because it's there".

This book is affected by a malady that seems to infect all mountaineering books in that it references countless other climbs and climbers (half of which have met a tragic end). I suppose this does set some context, but the endless name dropping gets tiresome.

Kropp's retelling of his bicycle journey from Sweden to Everest is forgettable. 7,000 miles is compressed into 1 chapter where the author has some rocks thrown at him, has his bike fixed a couple times, and is occasionally scared. That's about all the information we get about the bike trip. I've read more thrilling accounts of a chicken crossing the road.

When the author does get to Everest we're presented with the now familiar characters that we've all come to know and love. Hall is still the charmer, Fischer the thinker, and Pittman always the villain. Kropp is the 1st to make an attempt on the mountain in 1996, but is turned around at high altitude by a storm. While he is recuperating at base camp, the tragic events of May 10th unfold. This section seems lifted directly out of "Into Thin Air" (especially since the author had no direct role in the events).

After nearly everyone else leaves, Kropp makes another attempt at the summit (after all, he didn't ride his bike 7,000 miles for nothing) and this time is successful. After a predictable near-death experience on the descent, Kropp is reunited with his girlfriend for a return bicycle trip to Sweden where I assume they live happily ever after.

Throughout the book Kropp takes great pains to point out that his expedition is entirely self-supported and that he isn't 1 of the "65,000 tourists" just looking to get Everest for his trophy case. To this end we're treated with Kropp accounting for every bit of food (down to a cup of tea and candy bar) that he didn't carry to Everest. But at the end of the book we're shown a chart listing the tallest mountains in the world and the ones that Kropp has climbed are checked off. Trophy hunting indeed.

Kropp also informs us of his next adventure. He plans to sail from Sweden to Antarctica and then trek to the South Pole. All self-supported of course. The only hitch in his plan is that he doesn't know how to sail. He plans to do this by 2004, and I think I'll be skipping that book. "Ultimate High" deserves 2 stars. I'm giving it 3 stars only because cycling some 14,000 miles is pretty dang impressive.

What an incredible addition to an incredible series of stories. Just when you thought that each installment of the 1996 tragedy would begin to sound the same, along comes another fantastic version. Being a cyclist and an avid hiker I can appreciate the drama of Goran's adventure. I can only dream of coming anywhere close to his accomplishment, that's why this story I will read over and over again.

Goran Kropp's and David Lagercrantz's "Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey" is an excellent autobiography of a climber. Kropp wisely chose to tell his story with the help of a professional writer, Lagercrantz. Kropp's book is liberally peppered with fascinating stories that leave one astonished. As with any autobiography, it is only an enjoyable read if you like the author. I found his spirit delightful.

A bit more than half the book covers Kropp's own three attempts to summit Everest in the context of the much written about events of May 1996. Kropp adds interesting details to Jon Krakauer's classic account of the 1996 Everest tragedy, "Into Thin Air". Disturbingly, far too much of chapters ten and eleven of "Ultimate High" appear to be borrowed, in places with the almost same wording, from "Into Thin Air". Lagerkrantz acknowledged a debt to Krakauer at the back of the book. Perhaps this is customary in Sweden. Other than this problem of sometimes repeating or paraphrasing Krakauer, "Ultimate High" is a fun read.

It would be valuable, if a second edition of this book could be published that includes a biography of Kropp after Everest until the end of his far too short life in 2002.

As a mountaineer myself, what I appreciated most about this book was Kropp's honesty (often brutal) and his very real bond with mountains and their environment. Too many climbers (especially many of the amateurs/tourists on Everest) see mountains as somethinig to be conquered and ticked off, but Kropp shows some genuine understanding and love for the high places he frequents, as evidenced by a later clean-up operation amongst other things. Nevertheless, he is still a driven man, who wants to succeed, but for him, topping Everest is something to be done with the hill and not against it - you can stand on the summit, but you'll never have conquered it. I disagree strongly with other reviewers who claim that Kropp is arrogant and continually opines that all others who attempt Everest are cheats - it's clear at all times that Kropp chose what to do for personal reasons, though he does reserve some well-deserved contempt for the tourists on Everest who simply shouldn't be there. The dry humour that prevails many parts of the book is endearing as well.

I expected a much more exciting story given this remarkable adventure. There's a lot of rehash on the Everest tragedy which has already been much better covered by "Into Thin Air" and numerous other books. Goran surely has much more to tell about his owh adventure through Europe and Asia and then finally the Everest climb. There is also some spotty editing - maybe the whole book was hastily done.

I enjoyed reading Kropp's book. It was not a book that you had to consume in one sitting, but one you could put aside for a couple days and then return to. I enjoyed his chatty, straight-talking style, and his taking the time to explain the things he spoke about in a way non-mountaineering people could understand. I knew he had died, but waited to read about his passing until I finished his book. He was an unconventional person who made the most of his moments on this earth.

"Ultimate High" is a quick read, an absorbing tale, and a curious document. While I became totally engrossed in the story of Goran's bike ride and climb of Everest, I was a bit distracted by the way different voices and elements were pieced together. This really could have been 3 or 4 different books, the bike trip - 7000 miles through Europe and the Middle East, the climb of Goran, and the disaster of which much is already known. He even outlines his next adventure at the end- a trip to the Antarctic- while I was pining for more information about this story!

But my hats off to Mr. Kropp who has enormous heart and courage, and to his writer-helper for bringing this incredible tale to all of us.