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    Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season
    Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season
    Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season
    Audiobook8 hours

    Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season

    Written by Nick Heil

    Narrated by David Drummond

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In early May 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall's death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.

    If David Sharp's death was shocking, it was not singular: despite unusually good weather, ten others died attempting to reach the summit that year. In this meticulous inquiry into what went wrong, Nick Heil tells the full story of the deadliest year on Everest since the infamous season of 1996. He introduces Russell Brice, the outfitter who has done more than anyone to provide access to the summit via the mountain's north side-and who some believe was partially responsible for Sharp's death. As more climbers attempt the summit each year, Heil shows how increasingly risky expeditions and unscrupulous outfitters threaten to turn Everest into a deadly circus.

    Written by an experienced climber and outdoor writer, Dark Summit is both a riveting account of a notorious climbing season and a troubling investigation into whether the pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize has spiralled out of control.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 18, 2008
    ISBN9781400177707
    Author

    Nick Heil

    Nick Heil is the author of Dark Summit, and also wrote about the 2006 climbing season for Men’s Journal. Now a freelance journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he was a senior editor at Outside from 1999 to 2006. He has also worked as a climbing and skiing instructor, and has traveled extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America.

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    Reviews for Dark Summit

    4/5

    153 ratings14 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Incredibly detailed book especially on the teams of Russell Bryce. Detailing the history of numerous Expeditions and the hardships of the climbers.
    • 5/5
      Incredible story that had at the edge of my seat.
    • 3/5
      This book seems to me to be pointless, unless the point is to be quite dull. 'Dark summit' is a misleading title, it is more of a mid grey or beige and in the large part a character study of one man who saw events through a spyglass and who believed that generosity justified his omnipotence.
      The author sums up his thoughts into the most sensible, tepid, inoffensive opinion that applies to everyone in any situation.
    • 3/5
      There are three kinds of books about climbing expeditions; those written by serious climbers - these are usually not particularly well-written, but are gripping because of their passion and the drama of their lived experience; Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer; and books written by non-climbers or amateur climbers who are hoping to write a successful book just like Into Thin Air. Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest's Most Controversial Season by Nick Heil falls firmly into that third category. In 2006, a decade after Into Thin Air was written, Everest was even more crowded with more climbers who required greater comfort and more help to reach the summit and return safely. On the north (Tibetan) side of Everest, the biggest and most luxurious outfitter is run by Russell Brice, who throws the best parties and is the one responsible for stringing the lines that allow all those climbers to reach the summit. Heil is fascinated by Brice and most of the book is told from the points of view of members of his team of guides and climbers. That season saw several deaths, but the controversy referred to in the subtitle is the death of one man and the survival of another. David Sharp was climbing alone, using a climbing outfit solely as a way of getting access to the mountain. He climbed without sherpas and without anyone knowing his plans. He ended up stranded above a tricky bit of climbing (the Second Step) and while he was noticed by several climbers and passed by at least forty, no one helped him in any substantial way, despite his obvious peril. Another climber, who had been left for dead, was found by climbers heading up to the summit early the next day. He was rescued, in an effort that involved several teams. Afterwards, questions were raised about why one man was rescued and the other abandoned. These are not unfamiliar issues and while the question of who gets rescued and who is not, and when is abandoning an attempt to reach the summit the right decision and when is the summit (given the time and money required to even make the attempt) more important than another adventurer's life. Ultimately, Heil's book is a disappointment. While his account of what happened over those few days is gripping, he fudges the serious questions he raises and is far too infatuated with Brice and his impressive business to pay serious attention to the issues of the ethical considerations of climbing a mountain that is a capitalist free-for-all, with the wealthiest climbers being able to purchase the certainty of a rescue being attempted if they run into problems, as well as the many unprepared climbers seeking to be the first of a category to summit (in this season, the first double amputee and the youngest teenager, for example) or simply gain the bragging rights, without the needed experience on other difficult peaks.
    • 4/5
      In 2006, Mount Everest saw it's deadliest season since 1996 (the year Jon Krakauer wrote about in Into Thin Air). But this time around, weather was not the cause. One man died after being passed by numerous climbers while he was still alive; another was left behind when they thought he was a lost cause (he was “left for dead”, similar to Beck Weathers in 1996); miraculously, he lived. Another really good mountaineering book. The beginning, while looking back at history and – at the same time – introducing us to the “players” in 2006, I had a bit of hard time following, with so many people, years, stories. But, once we got going and focused on 2006, the story was riveting. I don't remember crying while reading Into Thin Air (but I'd be surprised if I didn't; I likely just don't remember), but I cried at a couple of places reading this one.
    • 5/5
      Why do I like reading Mt. Everest books? I don't know, but I do, and this is a good one. I particularly enjoyed the extensive background on the history of attempts on the mountain, which gave great perspective to the disastrous 2006 season. Well done.
    • 3/5
      Not a bad book, but not a great one. The book felt choppy as the author jumped from one subject and one climber to another. It does do a service in balancing much of the reporting about the death of David Sharp.
    • 5/5
      Everest - the highest mountain in the world and the ultimate climbing challenge. In 2006, 11 people died attempting to reach the summit, the most fatalities since 1996. But unlike 1996, 2006 saw no surprise blizzard, only the constant dangers posed by unstable ice, merciless cold, thin air - and human nature.
      Nick Heil tells the shocking true stories of David Sharp, a young British solo climber, who was passed by 40 mountaineers as he lay dying on the slopes of the mountain, and Lincoln Hall who was left for dead yet miraculously survived, and asks: what does climbing the world's highest peak really mean for those who take on the challenge? And how far will they go in their single-minded pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize?
      This book opens the door into the darkest recesses of the human mind and shows the extraordinary determination, mental strength and overriding will to survive that we as humans are capable of.

      Every year climbers from all over the world are drawn to Mount Everest in an attempt to reach the summit. There have been many tragedies on Everest but none created as much controversy and soul searching amongst the climbing community as that of British climber David Sharp during the 2006 climbing season during which 11 people died making it the second deadliest season on record.

      Author Nick Heil draws a detailed account of the events of 2006 that took place during that fateful season, including David Sharp’s death, the astonishing story of Lincoln Hall and looks the at the ethical questions being asked as increasing numbers of people who shouldn’t be within a 1000 miles of Everest are allowed to climb…for a fee.

      Nick Heil doesn’t point the finger at anyone or any or organisation but allows the reader to come to their own conclusions regarding the “hobby climbers” who should never have been allowed on the mountain in the first place.

      Thought provoking,insightful and heartbreaking…


    • 5/5
      I do hike and climb, even do some mountaineering, with some 3500+ peaks in the Alps, so far far away from what Himalayas mean. Doing this kind of stuff myself, at a totally different level I understand what to summit fever can be and what drives people to the high mountains. I bought the book in an airport and a 4 hours flight passed unbelievably short. I was hooked. I still didn't finish the book, but reading it while watching Discovery Channel's "Everest - Beyond the Limit" series (S01 being about the same Himex expedition described in Nick Heil's book) really helps you understand what's there. I like not only the description of the 2006 events, but also the additional information (like the high altitude sickness, the info about Malory and Irvine expedition in 1924, the brief history of Everest climbing.
    • 4/5
      Dark Summit does for 2006 and the Tibetan side of Everest what Into Thin Air did for 1996 and the Nepalese side.  Both years were calamitous on the mountain and figure as the most deadly in Everest's history. Dark Summit deserves a much larger audience than it has found: it is readable, well researched, fair, and fascinating.
    • 5/5
      Having read many books on Everest, K2 and mountaineering in general, i found this a truly enjoyable read...Heil is a master storyteller and this book is a must read if you enjoyed Into Thin Air, which chronicled the 1996 disaster in the same mountain.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable read about the 2006 season on the north side of Mt. Everest -- when 40 climbers climbed past David Sharp, who was dying, on the way to the summit. A few weeks laster, a massive rescue effort helped Lincoln Hall escape a similar fate. I found the book to be pretty well balanced and interesting.... but without any real resolution on whether Sharp could have been revived and saved with a more concerted rescue effort. Well worth reading if you enjoy mountaineering tales.
    • 4/5
      Every year mountaineers from around the world are drawn to the base of Everest - whose peak reaches 29,035 feet into the sky - to attempt to reach the summit. Many have died climbing Everest, but perhaps no single death had created more controversy than the death of British climber David Sharp during the 2006 climbing season. In all, the 2006 season resulted in 11 deaths – the second deadliest season on record. In Dark Summit, author Nick Heil creates a detailed account of the events of 2006 that took place on the north side of Everest, including David Sharp’s death, the miraculous rescue of Lincoln Hall and the ethical questions being raised as more and more people with less and less experience attempt to climb the highest peak on earth. Nick Heil is an experienced climber, but he was not on Everest in 2006. Rather than handicapping him as an outsider, it actually enhances his credibility because, unlike Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, Nick doesn’t have any loyalties to the people involved nor is he trying to paint himself as a hero. Instead, the book creates a comprehensive review detailing exactly what happened on the mountain and allows the reader to make their own decisions about what to think about the industry that has formed on the side of Everest. Aside from being well researched, it is also a very compelling read, told with a story telling knack that any reader should appreciate. I highly recommend the book for anyone who has ever wondered what goes on at the top of the world.
    • 4/5
      Nick Heil has worked hard to try and write a balanced account of the events during Everest's 2006 season and to try and explain just why so many experienced and inexperienced climbers make the attempt to climb to the top of the world. This is not a romanticised account and, unlike so many, Heil does not point fingers or try and sensationalise events. Heil effectively conveys just how hard life it is to rescue anyone at altitude where everyone's brain is oxygen deprived and perception is at best foggy.