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| The Entertainment Review |
| By: Clint Willis Publisher: Da Capo Press |
Though it may sound to be a little bit over-exaggerated, many readers will think the great accomplishment of Clint
Willis’ new book, “The Boys of Everest” is that he manages to write about the interiority of a climber’s feelings and
fears, much of the time from a real-time perspective which is obviously fictionalized to an extent without collapsing into
stale statements. Those who are planning on reading “The Boys Of Everest,” it’s not a small book, coming in at over
400 pages, will think that they will read a few chapters of the book and have enough. This is especially true for those
who know the story prior to reading the book. Men go up a mountain, nearly die, come back down again, return the
year later and do it all over again.
After reading about the first mountain assault, how much more could be gained by reading about the next one?
However, there is something about Willis’ narrative that traces the arc of the climbers’ lives that makes their continual
return to the mountains fascinating, and the loss of many of their lives truly tragic. Indeed, it seems that nearly all of
Bonington’s Boys’ climbing victories were marred by the death of one of their number, whether porters, support staff
or climbers themselves, and that Bonington’s own survival to become one of the oldest men to reach the peak of
Everest was as much to do with sheer luck as his undoubted great climbing talent.
It’s this nexus between human skill and the terrible indifference of nature that, to reader’s mind, is what really comes
out of “The Boys of Everest.” Just like Jon Krakauer’s gripping memoir-as-exorcism “Into Thin Air,” about the 1996
Everest disaster that saw eight people dead on the mountain in one day including two climb leaders, “The Boys of
Everest” makes it plain that no amount of skill, prayer, ingenuity and endurance can overcome Everest if conditions
turn against climbers. Where perhaps the two books differ fundamentally is that the climbers in Krakauer’s ill-fated
expedition were arguably not mentally or physically well equipped enough to attempt to summit Everest; while
Bonington’s crew were all fully aware that they were pitting themselves against a mountain that could take them
however well they climbed and had indeed witnessed the death of friends already on its slopes or other mountains in
the Kathmandu range.
The knowledge of death being a slip away and the dreadful hardships each climber routinely put himself through was
and is simultaneously self -destructive and yet life-affirming, being at the very limit of existence and still being alive.
While Willis does a masterful job of articulating the fears, elation and tragedy of Bonington’s boys over their decades
of climbing, it becomes apparent that no number of words can provide a definitive reason or formula for what drove
these men to risk what they did. There is still something that eludes words, and Willis’ writing, like Jon Krakauker’s,
Joe Simpson’s and Reinhold Messner’s books before his, can only point to it. “The Boys of Everest” is a great read
for anyone that has wondered what it takes to climb a mountain and the risks that go along with it.
Willis’ new book, “The Boys of Everest” is that he manages to write about the interiority of a climber’s feelings and
fears, much of the time from a real-time perspective which is obviously fictionalized to an extent without collapsing into
stale statements. Those who are planning on reading “The Boys Of Everest,” it’s not a small book, coming in at over
400 pages, will think that they will read a few chapters of the book and have enough. This is especially true for those
who know the story prior to reading the book. Men go up a mountain, nearly die, come back down again, return the
year later and do it all over again.
After reading about the first mountain assault, how much more could be gained by reading about the next one?
However, there is something about Willis’ narrative that traces the arc of the climbers’ lives that makes their continual
return to the mountains fascinating, and the loss of many of their lives truly tragic. Indeed, it seems that nearly all of
Bonington’s Boys’ climbing victories were marred by the death of one of their number, whether porters, support staff
or climbers themselves, and that Bonington’s own survival to become one of the oldest men to reach the peak of
Everest was as much to do with sheer luck as his undoubted great climbing talent.
It’s this nexus between human skill and the terrible indifference of nature that, to reader’s mind, is what really comes
out of “The Boys of Everest.” Just like Jon Krakauer’s gripping memoir-as-exorcism “Into Thin Air,” about the 1996
Everest disaster that saw eight people dead on the mountain in one day including two climb leaders, “The Boys of
Everest” makes it plain that no amount of skill, prayer, ingenuity and endurance can overcome Everest if conditions
turn against climbers. Where perhaps the two books differ fundamentally is that the climbers in Krakauer’s ill-fated
expedition were arguably not mentally or physically well equipped enough to attempt to summit Everest; while
Bonington’s crew were all fully aware that they were pitting themselves against a mountain that could take them
however well they climbed and had indeed witnessed the death of friends already on its slopes or other mountains in
the Kathmandu range.
The knowledge of death being a slip away and the dreadful hardships each climber routinely put himself through was
and is simultaneously self -destructive and yet life-affirming, being at the very limit of existence and still being alive.
While Willis does a masterful job of articulating the fears, elation and tragedy of Bonington’s boys over their decades
of climbing, it becomes apparent that no number of words can provide a definitive reason or formula for what drove
these men to risk what they did. There is still something that eludes words, and Willis’ writing, like Jon Krakauker’s,
Joe Simpson’s and Reinhold Messner’s books before his, can only point to it. “The Boys of Everest” is a great read
for anyone that has wondered what it takes to climb a mountain and the risks that go along with it.
