Product Description

More than 125 full-color photographs, including spectacular IMAX images, and firsthand accounts by survivors chronicle the fateful 1996 expedition to climb Everest, a tragic trek that ended up claiming eight lives, including two of the world's leading mountaineers. Reprint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23885 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Released on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Amazon.com
When David Breashears agreed to climb Mount Everest with an IMAX camera in order to film from the summit, he had no idea that his little expedition would become embroiled in a tragedy that would make headlines around the world. On May 10, 1996, two expeditions led by experienced Everest guides Rob Hall and Scott Fisher summited the mountain, only to suffer the loss of eight members--including the two leaders--on the way back down. At the time, Breashears and his filmmaking crew were at the base camp preparing for their own climb--originally planned for that same day but postponed after realizing there would already be several other groups on the summit. Instead of making a film, Breashears and company participated in the rescue and only later reached the summit of Everest to successfully complete their film.

Broughton Coburn, a long-time resident of Nepal and a friend of David Breashears, was commissioned to write a book about the filmmaking expedition, the tragedy on Everest, and the mountain itself. He has more than succeeded with Everest: Mountain Without Mercy, a taut recounting of disaster and triumph at 29,000 feet. But this book is about more than just mountain climbing; Coburn has also included fascinating information about Nepal, Buddhism, and the Sherpa culture, as well as the history of climbing Everest. He covers everything from the causes of altitude sickness to Nepal's increasing problems with deforestation, and through it all he weaves the story of that day in May when Everest again proved unpredictable--and deadly. For a white-knuckle climb to the top of the world's highest mountain, complete with stunning photographs, you can't do better than Everest: Mountain Without Mercy.

From Library Journal
Featuring spectacular color photos, many shots using a large-format IMAX camera modified for light weight and the harsh conditions encountered on the world's highest mountain, this work stems from a project to bring Everest to IMAX theaters in 1998. While preparing for the final assault on Everest's peak, members of the international expedition participated in the rescue of the climbers trapped by the fatal blizzard of May 1996, which killed eight. The story of survivor Beck Weather adds poignancy to the project, but it is the photos and broader scope that set this work apart from other recent works focusing on the tragedy (e.g., Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, LJ 4/1/97). Coburn, who worked in Nepal with the Peace Corps for 15 years and has written widely on the area, offers thorough descriptions of the entire Everest experience, including the geology of the region and Nepalese culture and religion. Also featured are an introduction by popular adventure-writer Tim Cahill and an afterword by David Brashears, the first American to scale Everest twice and a member of nine previous Himalayan filmmaking expeditions. Highly recommended for most public, natural history, and mountaineering collections. [BOMC selection.]?Tim J. Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
-?Tim J. Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This glossy album of photos and text has two high-interest attributes: it is the companion to an IMAX film slated for 1998 release about an expedition to Everest; and the IMAX filmmakers participated in the May_ 1996 disaster-and-rescue drama on the mountain, a chronicle of which (Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer ) rocketed to first place on best-seller lists. Perhaps the latter fact makes National Geo's marketeers hopeful and tips libraries to inevitably strong demand for the title. The text is descriptive of the film team's reactions to the crisis but is a less compelling read than Into Thin Air; its signal asset is the hundred-plus photos of the earth's most titanic vistas. Alone worth the price of admission, the images allow the armchair alpinist to wonder at the sights both cultural and natural from Katmandu to the summit. Scenes of marketplaces, yak trains, Sherpas, and temples are buttressed by author Coburn's information about propitiation rituals and prayers addressed to mountain deities--not a bad idea before taking on a mountain that kills 20 percent of those who reach the top. Sidebars are varied, summing up the active geology of the Himalaya, the story of survivor Beck Weathers, or that of Everest's first summiteer, Tenzing Norgay, whose son figures in this expedition and in a triumphant photo at the summit. The pictures are absolutely awesome and exhilarating, fully imparting the lure and deadliness of an Everest experience. Gilbert Taylor

Customer Reviews

Primer on Buddhist/Sherpa culture
After reading "Into Thin Air," I've been searching out any book or magazine article about the obsession of reaching the top of Everest. After hearing David Breashears on NPR, I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book. Maybe I expected too much. The photography is stunning, and I appreciated the technical info about the logistics of filming at high altitudes. What I did not like was the extreme detail Coburn went into every time anyone waved a juniper branch. Fully 1/3 of the way into the book I was still reading details of every Buddhist god of every rock on the trek. I realize this faith is extremely important to the Sherpas (and also the author) but my enthusiasm for the prayers and rituals did not match Coburn's need to illuminate me.

I like this book
I liked this book. Written around the same time as John Krakauer's Into Thin Air, David Breashears' book brings in a fresh perspective. What I especially liked about his novel though is that it wasn't totally focused on climbing Mount Everest and the eventual tragedy that Krakauer wrote about.

Breashers does a good job of explaining to the reader how climbing got in to his blood and how climbing pretty much took over his life. Even to the point of how he chose to climb over his wife. You can actually hear/feel the pain in his words as he describes his inability to stop climbing, even though he knew it would cost him the woman he loved.

The book is filled with pictures and descriptions of the filming process, including the challenges faced with filming using IMAX equipment in the grueling elements that Everest can throw your way.

If you're at all interest in Mount Everest, pick this book up. You won't regret it.

1996 IMAX Expedition
This is a beautiful, large coffee table sized book. The photography is sharp, clear and the colors are beautiful. What is most impressive is the range of the text. It takes up the culture of the Sherpas, Buddhism, some geological and physiological findings as well as the climbing and filming of the Everest IMAX movie.

Sponsored by the National Geographic, and led by David Breashears, a highly respected leader and photographer, this was a dream team in operation. Lead climber was Ed Viesturs, brilliant U.S. climber who has attained 12 of the 14 highest peaks in the world, all without supplemental oxygen. I am happy to report he is not just a myth; his favorite meal on the mountain is Spam, yes Spam. Also this grueling trip was his "honeymoon." His bride accompanied him to Base Camp (about 17,000 feet) and got to worry about him for a solid month. I enjoyed reading about sparkling Aracali Segarra, attempting to be the first Spanish woman to summit Everest (she made it!) She is living proof that female mountaineers can be pretty and vivacious as well as awesome athletes.

The IMAX team was of enormous assistance to the beleaguered Hall/Fisher teams. They supplied oxygen, helped rescue and support the injured climbers on the South Face. Some of the pictures are brutal of the rescue attempts. The pictures of the mountain are splendid. The viewer will get an excellent sense of Everest's brooding size. To me, Everest is a Godzilla of a mountain. It does not have the proportioned beauty of K-2; it is one enormous hulk. But this does not take away from its majesty and awe. To the Sherpas, climbing Mt. Everest is a spiritual experience, something that is done with many prayers and much reverence.

Everest: Mountain Without Mercy will give you hours of enjoyment. It covers so many aspects of the area, and is beautifully printed and bound. I recommend it for your own reading or an excellent gift.
-sweetmolly-Amazon Reviewer