Why a Booktrail?
1966: In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route.
1966: In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route.
In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route. Each group contained world class climbers and relative novices, some of whom had paid tens of thousands of pounds for the climb. As they neared the summit twenty-three men and women, including the expedition leaders, were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disorientated, out of oxygen and depleted of supplied, the climbers struggled to find their way to safety.
Experienced high-altitude guide Anatoli Boukreev led an exhausted and terrified group of climbers back to safety before going back out into the blizzard to help others stranded on the mountain. Rescuing a number of people from certain death, he emerged a hero.
Mount Everest is Earth’s highest mountain above sea level. The international border between Nepal and China runs across its summit point.
The current official elevation is an astounding 8,848 m (29,029 ft).
Of the 33 climbers who ascended Mount Everest from its south side on May 10, 1996, only 28 climbers returned.
Anatoli made a decision which some would call suicidal. He attempted to go back in to the storm in order to attempt a rescue, on his own.”…into a pelting blow of snow, into a lacerated darkness, into the roar of what one climber described as a “hundred freight trains passing over your head.”
The rescue of Anatoli has been called one of the most amazing rescues in mountaineering history.
Destination : China, Mount Everest Author/Guide: Anatoli Boukreev Departure Time: 1996
Back to Results