5 stars for After the Wind: 1996 Everest Tragedy - One Survivor's Story by Lou Kasischke.
In the last five years or so, it has become a practice of mine to read horror stories from around end September to end October. Though this is a non fiction and not a horror story of the supernatural kind, it gives me a chill that I will never have come to expect out of reading an Everest story. This book is horror story in its own right, a living nightmare, one that has things going horribly wrong resulting in people dying in the cold wind and frigid sub-zero air. Some people awake to escape their nightmares. But this is where the author awakes into one.
This book is published in 2014, eighteen years after the event. I have read two other books, Into Thin Air (published 1997) and The Climb (published 2001), both in relation to the same tragedy and highly popular due to controversy over certain issues, and I never will have imagined myself reading a third one as I thought the wind will have died down after so many years. But apparently not so, and especially not for the climbers who survived on that fateful day. 10 May 1996. To date, it is still known as the worst tragedy in Mount Everest history.
The author, Lou Kasischke, is a seasoned climber with decades of experience and one of the survivors of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. For Lou, the memories do not fade away with time but continue to haunt him in his everyday life. His story of climbing Everest lives on, within him. But why did he choose to publish after close to two decades when in fact he wrote bulk of his story in the two years following the disaster? Because he is finally ready to let it go.
Lou Kasischke has two stories to tell in his book. The first is a story about his being there, bearing witness to the critical decisions made on that day which led to this historic event. The second is his personal story, a story that tells the reason as to how and why he survived the catastrophe.
After the Wind offers a different perspective and analysis to what I have read in the other two books. I do not know for sure which book presents the - whole - truth in the Everest story. I think it all depends on which book we read and who wrote the book. Here, author Lou worries about not having written well enough for readers to understand his story. I think he underestimates his writing ability. His worries are unfounded for his writing of the event and happenings are excellently worded with details and remarkably well organised and edited for a debut book. His thought processes, emotions and behaviour at that point in time, 400 vertical feet from the summit, are conveyed through heart wrenching language and vivid imagery. There is no finger pointing, no pushing of blame, no criticism or anything of that kind. There is only quiet inner thoughts of bad feelings, of intuitive fears, of troubling concerns, of safety, of risk taking, of decision making, of possible conflict of interest and of organisational weakness in his expedition leadership team. In short, the author simply lay down the facts as they are in his book, never exaggerating them.
Because of my earlier reading of two Everest books, I am already quite familiar with the different expedition teams, the team leaders as well as their climbing members. Reading this book feels like reliving the event all over again. I take such a long time - two weeks - to finish reading this book, not because it is not good, but because it is very good. It is so emotionally charged with ambition, sheer will, pressure to succeed, hardship, suffering, regrets, pain and human kindness that I simply have to read and reread each of the passages, sometimes more than twice. Also, the author makes good use of foreshadowing to manage expectations and build up his story. This is a book I enjoy reading through and through.
The author starts off by talking about his passion for climbing and the feeling of deep satisfaction derived from the accomplishment. He explains beautifully why in mountaineering, the destination - the summit - is not all that matters, but rather the journey getting to the top. To quote "Climbing is about the richness of living a story. A whole story. Standing on top of the mountain is only part of the story. And frequent not even the most important part. The climbing story I live is not one single moment. In the story of getting to the top, many moments are more meaningful and more worthy of memory." Slowly, the author proceeds to tell of his plan to climb Everest in 1996, the reason for joining Rob Hall's expedition team, the trip to Katmandu and Base Camp, and finally, the beginning of the nightmare that is to plague him for the rest of his life.
This book cannot be more different from the other two I have read earlier. Yes, all three books are basically about climbing Everest, about the dangers of deep snow, high winds, frostbite and life and death. But this book stands out among the three. Why? It stands out not because it is the latest in line that I have read and thus more memorable, but because the story goes deeper than what went wrong on that fateful day. The author talks about what went right, more specifically, the finer details of his promise to his wife that leads to this right, the life and death outcome, which is how I get to read his book today. This is not just a book about Everest and climbing, it is more. There is a whole lot of personal and interpersonal elements involved, all showcasing the power of relationships. And perhaps above all, is how the author comes to think differently about his passion for climbing after his close brush with death. He becomes a changed person, definitely a better family man. To quote "When you have so many people that need you and depend on you, you can't think only about what you want and your passions. Your goals and actions are not just about you. Life is not, and never will be, just about you."
After reading this book, I have a clearer and better understanding of the 1996 deadly event, whereas upon finishing the earlier two Everest books, I have many unanswered questions as to what exactly happened, what went wrong and why. I feel muddled by the many whys then; I only remember reading that there was overcrowding at the South Summit that led to delayed in turnaround time and climbers getting caught in the open after dark, and climbers died because of bad weather.
Author Lou manages to piece together the puzzle to give an excellent overview as to the cause of the delay - with experienced climbers waiting and doing nothing, burning daylight, losing two hours - that led to the disaster. He shows that he is an astute observer of human behaviour and has the unusual power to see through and understand what is puzzling or hidden as he breaks the parts down for examinination. From his perspective and analysis, we know that it is no single factor that leads to the 1996 Everest story but a whole slew of factors and events and decisions made collectively as a team, by the expedition leader and by the individual self. He summarises it nicely in one passage. To quote "When things go wrong, rarely is the cause a force of nature. Almost always the cause is climber error. Even what might appear to be the result of an act or force of nature can be traced back to a mistake in decision making that unnecessarily exposed the climber to nature's dangers. On Everest, this decision making risk was especially true on summit day."
There is an interesting quote the author shares in his book which I feel says everything about climbing and especially so for climbing the highest mountain in the world. To quote "Someone long ago coined a great saying about mountain climbers: There are old mountaineers and there are bold mountaineers; but there are no old, bold mountaineers. If you gave everything you have to get to the top, or if getting there was the only thing that mattered - you might stay there." He explains that at some point in climbing Everest, the challenge is about the need for inner strength, about drawing the line, about knowing one's limits. The inner strength is not just the sheer will to persevere to get to the top, but also to get back down alive. The summit is only half way. Descending is often the hardest part of the climb. To quote "On summit day especially, the dilemma you face was to be ambitious, but not greedy; to be bold, but not reckless; to be confident, but not arrogant." Author Lou describes how his challenge changes from climbing a six-mile high mountain to himself; to keep going or to turn around. To quote "Mere moments later, physical toughness and sheer will to climb a mountain of rock, snow and ice meant nothing. What meant everything was what it would take to overcome a mountain of ambition and pressure to succeed, and to make a hard choice." And then, after the wind, after the silence, he found his answer. To quote "What would I hear - after the wind - when I listened to the sound of sheer silence? I didn't know. But I was about to find out. What I heard saved my life."
In the book, there is death and the deadly cold, but there is also life and the heartwarming human touch. As the author looks back on the event, he recalls not just the bad but also the good which he is eternally grateful for. He says though there is lack of leadership, bad teamwork, bad judgement, bad decisions, there is also kindness, concern, compassion and thoughtfulness by others who come together to offer their help to prevent further injury and loss of life. He is amazed by the huge physical undertaking and sacrifice from climbers of other expedition teams because in rendering their help to rescue other climbers above 26,000 feet, they give up their summit attempt.
At the end of the day, this is a story about time and decision making. It is also one about running out of time, the whole point behind the 1996 Everest story. To quote "The late afternoon storm wasn't a cause of the outcome. The storm came after the casual mistakes and set the price to be paid for those mistakes." And here, we learn that he who remains faithful to the team turnaround time agreement and who maintains mountaineering good judgement for safety, lives to tell his story. His Everest story.
Now that all is said and done and reflected upon, I am thinking that it will be nice to read Into Thin Air and The Climb all over again. Well, maybe not right now. But some day again in the future.
