Above the Clouds by Anatoli Boukreev
OK, the guy’s dead and the whole 1996 Everest thing got blown way out of proportion, so there’s no need to harp on the subject, but Above the Clouds isn’t doing Anatoli Boukreev any favors. In his own words, he comes across as exactly what others have accused him of being: aloof, anti-social, selfish, and self-righteous. He was apparently one of those guys who always knows better than everyone else, at least in retrospect. It seems each of his tales involves him telling the expedition leaders what they’re doing wrong. And then, if a tragedy ensues, he reviews with us, the readers, how everything would have been fine if only they’d done it his way. I hope he wasn’t pushing that into the faces of the people he was climbing with.
It’s clear that people don’t mean much to him. He seems able to shrug off a death or two per outing as long as he summits. He’s quite the braggart too. He fakes a certain modesty but he makes sure to get all his accomplishments in there.
I still don’t blame him for the 1996 tragedy – never have. But I can see now why people who were there did. I imagine they just plain didn’t like him.