June's Book: Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Seven Pillars of Wisdom is an unusual and rich work. It encompasses an account of the Arab Revolt against the Turks during the First World War alongside general Middle Eastern and military history, politics, adventure and drama. It is also a memoir of the soldier known as 'Lawrence of Arabia'.Lawrence is a fascinating and controversial figure and his talent as a vivid and imaginative writer shines through on every page of this, his masterpiece. Seven Pillars of Wisdom provides a unique portrait of this extraordinary man and an insight into the birth of the Arab nation. 

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Into Thin Air: Thoughts

1996 was the single deadliest year in the history of Mount Everest expeditions. Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air chronicles the events leading up to the May 10, 1996 summit attempt where 8 people lost their lives and many others were in danger of losing theirs as well.

I know this is a famous book, perhaps one of the most widely read from the whole National Geographic Adventure list, but I had a hard time getting into it. Something about me just automatically goes cold when I find out that one of these adventure books is written by a journalist, whose main purpose of going on their adventure was to write about it. It’s difficult for me to put these adventurers into the same category as an Earnest Shackleton or a John Muir. That being said, I do respect the theme of the story that Krakauer set out to write. He was commissioned to write a magazine article about the commercialization of Mount Everest and the associated risks and repercussions. Interestingly, this month’s Issue of National Geographic Magazine had an excellent article on this exact issue. The thrust of the argument is that commercialization of the mountain has led to overcrowding, which is making the mountain more dangerous. More climbers with less experience are crowding the slopes and as a result, many have to sit around at dangerously high altitudes just waiting for their turn up a rope. Krakauer spoke of this when he was trying to descend after his summit and he had to wait around in the “death zone” while waiting for the group below him to clear out. Sitting around for two hours in the death zone (above 26,000 feet) is dangerous for anyone, but more especially for an inexperienced climber.

“Above the South Col, up in the Death Zone, survival is to no small degree a race against the clock… Depending on each person’s acclimatization and physiological makeup, we would still be able to function above the South Col—but not well, and not for long. We would instantly become more vulnerable to HAPE, HACE, hypothermia, impaired judgment, and frostbite. The risk of dying would skyrocket.”

Another problem associated with the overcrowding of Everest is the mass amounts of waste produced by the hordes of climbers. This isn’t so much a problem at the lower camps, where garbage can easily be carried off the mountain, but in the higher camps there are piles of trash and human excrement that have been building up for years. A related problem is what to do with all of the human bodies scattered all over the mountain. The slopes of Everest are littered with the frozen remains of hundreds of unlucky climbers. Many of them have fallen down cliffs or crevasses and been lost, but some remain just off the beaten path. Krakauer encountered two such corpses, one which had been on the slopes for three years, and one higher up which had been there for 10-15 years.

“The first body had left me badly shaken for several hours; the shock of encountering the second wore off almost immediately. Few of the climbers trudging by had given either corpse more than a passing glance. It was as if there were an unspoken agreement on the mountain to pretend that these desiccated remains weren’t real—as if none of us dared to acknowledge what was at stake here.”

In his book, Krakauer presents a possible solution to the overcrowding of Mount Everest, and after reading his story, I am inclined to agree with his proposal. He believes that no one should be allowed to climb Everest with supplemental oxygen. For one thing, this would reduce the amount of litter on the mountain, but it would also cause people to prepare much more intensely for their summit attempts. Perhaps people would take the mountain more seriously if they had to face it head on without the crutch of an oxygen tank to support them. Or perhaps only serious climbers would make the attempt. All I know is that it is an idea worth considering.

All this being said, the National Geographic article was quick to point out that although more people flock to Everest each year, the overall mortality rate has not gone up significantly in the past decade. More experienced guides and better technology are making the mountain safer than it has ever been. For instance, on May 19, 2012, 234 people reached the summit and only 4 climbers died. Even so, I can’t help but think how bad it could be if something went wrong on a day like that. If a freak change in the weather occurred, the death toll could be catastrophic. Basically, my main takeaway from this book is that I’m never going to try and climb Mount Everest.

“In the midst of all the postmortem ratiocination, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that climbing mountains will never be a safe, predictable, rule-bound enterprise. This is an activity that idealizes risk taking; the sport’s most celebrated figures have always been those who stick their necks out the farthest and manage to get away with it. Climbers, as a species, are simply not distinguished by an excess of prudence. And that holds especially true for Everest climbers: when presented with a chance to reach the planet’s highest summit, history shows, people are surprisingly quick to abandon good judgment.”

My rating: 6 out of 10

May's Book: Into Thin Air

Reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion, Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996. He hadn’t slept in fifty-seven hours. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29,028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds…

This is the terrifying story of what really happened that fateful day at the top of the world, during what would be the deadliest season in the history of Everest. In this harrowing yet breathtaking narrative, Krakauer takes the reader along with his ill-fated expedition, step by precarious step, from Katmandu to the mountain’s pinnacle where, plagued by a combination of hubris, greed, poor judgment, and plain bad luck, they would fall prey to the mountain’s unpredictable fury.

(Summary from the back of the book) 

Kon-Tiki: Thoughts

Thor Heyerdahl had a crazy idea, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get anyone to take him seriously. He believed that the Polynesian islands were peopled by South Americans who journeyed across the ocean on large balsawood rafts. However, despite his extensive research and supporting arguments, he could not get the scientific community to believe that it was even possible to cross an entire ocean on few logs lashed together. So, in order to prove them wrong, Heyerdahl did just that.

Kon-Tiki is the thrilling account of a group of Norwegians who sailed from Peru across 4,000 miles of ocean on a balsa wood raft, arriving safely in the Polynesian islands after 101 days at sea. They lived almost entirely off of the bounty of the sea and never wanted for food or water. Because their raft was so low in the water, less than a foot off the surface, they would often dine on the fish that had been washed aboard during the night. It was the job of the first person up in the morning to gather the flying fish that had landed on deck during the night and fry them up for breakfast. Sometimes they would wake up with fish in their sleeping bags, and once even a baby octopus.

“The sea contains many surprises for him who has his floor on a level with the surface and drifts along slowly and noiselessly. A sportsman who breaks his way through the woods may come back and say that no wild life is to be seen. Another may sit down on a stump and wait, and often rustlings and cracklings will begin and curious eyes peer out. So it is on the sea, too. We usually plow across it with roaring engines and piston strokes, with the water foaming round our bow. Then we come back and say that there is nothing to see far out on the ocean.”

 If they wanted to eat something more substantial than flying fish, they could hook a dolphin in a matter of minutes. Occasionally they would dine on shark meat as well.

“We had not been long at sea before the fist shark visited us. And sharks soon became an almost daily occurrence… If there was a high sea, the shark might be lifted up by the waves high above our own level, and we had a direct side view of the shark as in a glass case as it swam toward us in a dignified manner with its fussy retinue of small pilot fish ahead of its jaws. For a few seconds it looks as if both the shark and its striped companions would swim right on board, but then the raft would lean over gracefully to leeward, rise over the ridge of the waves, and descend to the other side.”

Toward the end of their voyage they even became very adept at catching sharks… with their bare hands! At one point they had nine large sharks on board their deck and had to be very careful to remember which ones were fully dead and which ones were just waiting for the men to come a bit closer before taking their final revenge.

The most intense part of the story was during their second big storm when one of the crew was accidentally washed overboard by a wave. Because of the nature of their raft, they could not steer in any direction other than that in which the wind was blowing. Experience had taught them that anything caught in their wake was lost forever, and there they stood watching their companion float away, unable to do a thing about it. I don’t want to ruin the story, but through an act of unusual courage and sacrifice the man was saved and all members of the team safely continued their voyage west.

I really got into this book and enjoyed it immensely. Not only do I believe in the truth of Heyerdahl’s theory (see the Book of Mormon) but I found the unique nature of their voyage fascinating and felt myself longing to chop down some trees and give it a try. These words by the author sum up for me some of the true majesty of the experience.

“Coal-black seas towered up on all sides, and a glittering myriad of tropical stars drew a faint reflection from plankton on the water. The world was simple—stars in the darkness. Whether it was 1947 B.C. or A.D. suddenly became of no significance. We lived, and that we felt with alert intensity. We realized that life had been full for men before the technical age also—in fact, fuller and richer in many ways than the life of modern man. Time and evolution somehow ceased to exist; all that was real and that mattered were the same today as they had always been and would always be.”

My rating: 9 out of 10

April's Book: Kon-Tiki

“Am going to cross Pacific on a wooden raft to support a theory that the South Sea islands were peopled from Peru. Will you come? …Reply at once.” That is how six brave and inquisitive men came to seek a dangerous path to test a scientific theory. On a primitive raft made of forty-foot balsa logs and named “Kon-Tiki” in honor of a legendary sun king, Heyerdahl and five companions deliberately risked their lives to show that the ancient Peruvians could have made the 4,300-mile voyage to the Polynesian islands on a similar craft.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Running the Amazon: Thoughts

Joe Kane’s Running the Amazon was an incredible journey trapped inside a mediocre book. That probably sounds harsher than I mean it to be, but I think a journey by river across the entire South American continent deserves better than average travel memoirs writing. Though not nearly as bad as Eric Hansen’s Stranger in the Forest, I feel like the author spent too much time focusing on petty things, like arguments between expedition members, and (like Hansen) never failed to mention anything even remotely indecent that occurred during his seven month journey. He also spent a surprising amount of time sleeping in hotels. It’s a shame, because I feel like Kane had a lot more potential than that with this book. He started out just like Hansen, as a “non-adventurer” whose main purpose in traveling abroad was to try and write a bestseller. However, over time, I noticed a slight change in Kane. As the expedition team grew smaller and smaller, he stepped up to the plate and managed to grow beyond this narrow focus, and in the end, he truly achieved something remarkable.

The journey began high in the Peruvian Andes, not more than 200 miles from the Pacific Ocean. From the top of the continental divide, Kane and three of his companions traveled over 4,000 miles from frozen glaciers, through whitewater canyons, and down the entire length of the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean.

The most exciting part of the book was the section of the river they traveled called the Acobamba Abyss. This section of the river was high in the mountains and canyon walls were so tall and narrow that in places they appeared to connect at the top. The river was riddled with class VI whitewater rapids with little or no way around. (A class VI rapid is one that poses extreme threat to life with little chance of rescue.) The team would portage around the class VI rapids that they could, but many of them were unavoidable because of the steep canyon walls. It is remarkable that they didn’t have more accidents, especially since all but one of the team took a swim in the whitewater. This part of the book was exciting and easy to get lost in, unlike later in the book when they seemed to go from one river-town bar to another.

Though I didn’t love the book, I do want to give credit where credit is due. Joe Kane and his companion Piotr Chmielinski traveled the entire length of the world’s longest river entirely under their own power. They were the first, and as far as I know the only, ones to accomplish this incredible feat. They battled freezing temperatures, whitewater, and altitude sickness in the high Andes, and in the Amazon basin they faced scorching heat, wild animals, disease, narco-traffickers, and exhaustion. Nonetheless, they endured… and they didn’t stop paddling until the water beneath them became salty. And for that I have to tip my hat to them.

  

My rating: 5 out of 10

March's Book: Running the Amazon

The voyage began in the lunar terrain of the Peruvian Andes, where coca leaf is the only remedy against altitude sickness. It continued down rapids so fierce they could swallow a raft in a split second. It ended six months and 4,200 miles later, where the Amazon runs gently into the Atlantic. Joe Kane's personal account of the first expedition to travel the entirety of the world's longest river is a riveting adventure in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, filled with death-defying encounters: with narco-traffickers and Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and nature at its most unforgiving. Not least of all, Running the Amazon shows a polyglot group of urbanized travelers confronting their wilder selves -- their fear and egotism, selflessness and courage.

(Summary from the back of the book)

Minus 148°: Thoughts

Minus 148° is the thrilling account of the first winter ascent of Mount McKinley. The tale of tragedy, triumph, trial, and rescue is enough to satisfy any adventure seeker. For me though, I enjoyed this book because of the people I read about. Two men in particular inspired me and make me want to emulate their examples.

The first was a climber named Shiro Nishimae. I loved reading about Shiro and his willingness to give his all for those around him. On those cold, dark mornings, when everyone stayed in the warmth of their sleeping bags as long as possible, Shiro was always the first one out of bed and would begin making warm drinks for his companions. When there was a job to be done, Shiro did it, no questions asked. When the team found their camp was exposed to high winds, Shiro set out in search of a suitable site for a snow cave, and completely exhausted his strength digging it out before relief came. The author noted that, even though Shiro was the smallest of the group, he “always tried to do as much of the strenuous work as anyone.” He took the initiative in a “gentle but forceful manner” often considering the well being of his companions before his own.

The ultimate demonstration of Shiro’s sacrifice was when he gave up his chance at the summit to return to camp with another climber who had become discouraged. That decision saved at least one life when trouble arose later, and may have saved the lives of the whole team.

Another climber that inspired me was affectionately called “Pirate” by the rest of the team. Ray Genet was a large man with a thick black beard and an infectious smile. He received his nickname on the day the men were sorting out their climbing gear when, instead of writing his name on everything as his companions were doing, he drew a large skull and crossbones on each of his belongings. Pirate had next to no climbing experience before joining the team, but his endless enthusiasm and his refusal to be left out convinced the others to bring him along. Throughout the climb, Pirate inspired everyone with his constant war whoops and his cheerful nature. However, it wasn’t until starvation threatened him and his friends that Pirate showed just exactly what kind of man he really was.

Coming down the mountain, Art, Dave, and Pirate got stuck in a blizzard. They managed to dig a snow cave for shelter, but not until after Art had frozen his hands and Pirate had frozen his feet. It was in this setting that they experienced their lowest temperature of the climb. With winds over 130 mph, and -45° temperatures outside they calculated “an equivalent wind-chill temperature somewhere off the end of the chart; the last figure on the chart was minus 148°.” The men remained in this setting for several days, not being able to move for fear that the extreme winds would blow them off the side of the mountain. Soon they were low on gas, and knew that their only chance for survival was to find the extra bottle of gas that had been stashed somewhere outside in the storm. The men lay in their sleeping bags for hours, not wanting to be the one to volunteer to go out into the storm, possibly never to return. Art was the warmest of the three, and Dave had not frozen any of his limbs like the other had done, but still, neither of them wanted to leave the shelter of the cave. Without saying a word, Pirate got out of his sleeping bag, pulled on his boots and left the cave, returning with the can of gas that saved all of their lives. Though he was by far in the worst condition of the three, he made no excuses and did what had to be done. I admire this act, and this man who so unassumingly took one for the team.

Men like this remind me that these adventure books are about so much more than just exploration and discovery. They are about ordinary men facing whatever the world can throw at them. And some men, when they are brought down to their lowest, can rise up and teach all the rest of us how to truly live a life worth living.

My rating: 8 out of 10

February's Book: Minus 148°

1967, eight men attempted North America's highest summit: Mount McKinley (now known as Denali) had been climbed before but never in winter. Plagued by doubts and cold, group tension and a crevasse tragedy, the expedition tackled McKinley in minimal hours of daylight and fierce storms. They were trapped at three different camps above 14,000 feet during a six-day blizzard and faced the ultimate low temperature of 148° F.

Minus 148° is Art Davidson's stunning personal narrative, supplemented by diary excerpts from team members George Wichman, John Edwards, Dave Johnston, and Greg Blomberg. Davidson retells the team's fears and frictions and ultimate triumph with an honesty that has made this gripping survival story a mountaineering classic for over 40 years.

(Summary from Goodreads.com)

Cooper's Creek: Thoughts

Cooper’s Creek is the heart-wrenching account of the 1860s expedition to cross the interior of Australia from south to north. No one had ever survived this journey before, in fact, the colonies all around the coast of Australia didn’t even know what they would find in the interior of the continent. Many believed that there would be a large inland sea, while others believed there would be tremendous mountain ranges. Part of the purpose of the journey was exploration and discovery, as the author put it, “to go where no one else had ever been before.” Another reason for the expedition was the fact that the south of Australia was separated from Europe by 4 months journey, and if they were successfully able to cross the continent on foot, then it would be possible to connect the colonies with Europe by telegraph, reducing communication time to a matter of hours.

The leader of the expedition was a man named Robert O’Hara Burke, and his second in command was 26 year-old William John Wills. After months of preparation and traveling to get themselves into position to make a push across the interior, Burke and Wills set out on a mad dash to the Gulf of Carpentaria with two other companions, John King and Charley Gray. They left behind the bulk of their team and supplies at a depot on Cooper’s Creek, where they intended to return in three months time. Everything went well for a while, but then all good fortune failed them. I can’t think of another group of travelers that had worse luck.

Burke and company made it across the continent all right, but on their return journey to Cooper’s Creek, they ran out of food, and when they were just one day out from the depot, Charley Gray passed away. The team began the task of burying Gray, which in their exhausted state took them most of the day. That evening they arrived at the depot and Wills’ personal journal relates what they found.

“Sunday 21^st April 1861.—Arrived at the depot this evening, just in time to find it deserted. A note left in the plant by Brahe communicates the pleasing information that they had started today for the Darling [another river].”

The backup crew had been stationed at the depot with instructions to await the return of Burke’s team, but at the direction of their leader Brahe, they had abandoned the depot the very morning of the day when Burke returned. In their worn out condition, Burke, Wills and King could not even consider chasing after Brahe’s team. They left a note buried in the cache and slowly continued on down the Cooper, choosing to remain next to a source of water rather than follow after Brahe. The rest of their story is nothing short of tragic.

Burke’s team missed Brahe by about 9 hours. 15 days later Brahe returned to the depot to see if anyone had come, but failed to notice they had been there. About three weeks later, Burke’s team thinks they hear a gunshot, so Wills makes a mad dash back to the depot to see if anyone is there and he doesn’t realize that Brahe has been back. About three months later, Brahe returns with the rescue party and doesn’t detect that Burke’s team has been there since he last left. Brahe stayed only a few minutes and then continued on. The next day, the rescue party found King wandering through the desert like a mad man, Burke and Wills having died at the end of June.

I have to admit I struggled with this book. First of all, this is the first book that I’ve read from this list that was not written in the first person by someone who experienced the adventure, so it was harder for me to connect with the story. The constant back and forth of bad luck was also maddening at times. The author said it in this way,

“Even across a gap of a hundred years it is difficult not to feel indignant. This was too hard; surely they might have been allowed, if not success, at least a little respite: a shower of rain, a pigeon… making for a waterhole, just one faint whisper of hope instead of this endless implacable rejection. The narrow margin by which they had missed Brahe at the depot had been, in the main, bad luck, and Brahe’s failure on his return visit to realize that they had been there, though maddening, was a comprehensible twist of fate.”

In light of this terrible ending to their expedition, it is important to recognize that Burke, Wills and King were successful in achieving what they set out to achieve. The fact that they all died as a result of their journey (King died a year after being rescued, having never fully recovered) does not diminish the reality that they achieved something truly remarkable.

My rating: 6 out of 10

January's Book: Cooper's Creek

In 1860, an expedition set out from Melbourne, Australia, into the interior of the country, with the mission to find a route to the northern coast. Headed by Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, the party of adventurers, scientists, and camels set out into the outback hoping to find enough water and to keep adequate food stores for their trek into the bush. Almost one year later, Burke, Wills, and two others from their party, Gray and King, reached the northern shore but on their journey back, they were stranded at Cooper's Creek where all but King perished. Cooper's Creek is a gripping, intense historical narrative about the harshness of the Australian outback and the people who were brave enough to go into the very depths of that uncharted country.

(Summary from the back of the book)