Between the Lines

What happened up there?
By Larry Burke

THE CALL CAME ABOUT THREE O'CLOCK ON THE MORNING OF FRIDAY, May 10. Linda Moore, in Seattle, wanted us to know that her husband, Jon Krakauer, had made it safely to the top of the world. A longtime contributing editor and friend, Krakauer was on assignment to write about the latest and most alarming trend in the adventure business: the growing ranks of client climbers who pay upward of $65,000 apiece to be led to the summit of Mount Everest. Our fear, and Krakauer's, was that as the number of customers and guiding firms has multiplied, the mountain has become a dangerous circus, overrun with too many people climbing under the illusion that success is virtually guaranteed and that if things do go wrong, well, there's always that great big safety net, the guides. Our original plan had been for Krakauer to report the story from Base Camp. But as he contemplated the notion of being that close to the mountain without actually getting onto it, Krakauer, an accomplished technical climber, decided he'd rather sign up with a commercial trip and tell the story from as close to Everest's high flanks as possible. He finished a promotional tour for his acclaimed book, Into the Wild, wrapped up his yearlong training, and caught a plane to Nepal.

And now he'd made it. We embraced the news with cheers, but also with apprehension, knowing that on Everest, calamity most often strikes climbers on their way back down the summit ridge.

The next morning, that apprehension was horribly realized. Outside Online, our Seattle-based service on the World Wide Web (http://outside.starwave.com), had been closely following the Everest season from the outset and was now reporting that a blizzard had suddenly enveloped the upper mountain, moving with the kind of furtive precision for which Himalayan weather is infamous. At least 30 climbers were trapped, left to huddle against gale-force winds, whiteout conditions, and triple-digit windchill. According toOutside Online, several people were already "feared dead." Krakauer was listed as "unaccounted for."

It was several hours before we were able to confirm that Krakauer was alive and, considering the circumstances, doing relatively well. He'd survived the deadliest day in Everest's history: eight fatalities, including several climbing mates and his own lead guide, the highly respected Rob Hall of New Zealand.

As Krakauer came off the mountain, the tragedy was making headline news. Something about the story struck a visceral chord with the public. Every major newspaper and network news show, it seemed, wanted a piece of Krakauer, first as he tried to disappear into a Kathmandu hotel for some needed rest, and then back home, where reporters literally parked themselves on his doorstep. "I felt as though I'd passed from one bad dream to another," says Krakauer. "The media wanted a neat script with heroes and villains-and they wanted it fast. But what happened up there was not reducible to sound bites."

With this month's cover story, Krakauer offers the first thorough account of the ill-starred climb in all its plangent complexity. He relates how the weather, the narcotic effects of altitude, and the fatal interplay of poor decisions and horrible luck conspired to turn the upper mountain into a death trap. Krakauer also considers the insidious ways in which the client-guide relationship can compound the dangers of a high-altitude climb. Throughout the narrative, we keep coming up against the austere realities that experienced alpinists know firsthand: that the difference between survival and death often inheres in the smallest details, and that every tick of the clock matters.

It may be too sanguine to believe that the deaths of this past May will greatly diminish the traffic or the recklessness that occasionally seems to prevail on Everest. But we hope that Krakauer's experience, and the ideas he sets forth in his story, will have more than an evanescent impact-that something, in the end, will be learned.

A final note: This month, ABC's Turning Point will air a one-hour, in-depth segment on the Everest climb, produced in collaboration with Outside. Check your local listings for broadcast date and time.