Читать книгу Kingdoms Of Experience - Andrew Greig - Страница 7

The majority of Himalayan expeditions do not get to their chosen summits. In a good many unsuccessful attempts – through luck and skill – no one dies. This does not make such expeditions a failure or a non-event. No serious Himalayan expedition – and in 1985 the Northeast Ridge of Everest was about as serious as it could get – is a non-event.

This is a very human book. It is about a group of first-class climbers under pressure, where they are very much revealed as human beings, not heroes or super-stars. It brings out, as few books do, the sheer hard work and drudgery of siege-style Himalayan assaults. As in our own first attempt on the North-east Ridge in 1982, the team members did all the load carrying themselves, an exhausting process at 8000 metres. Under different conditions each of these would bring a Himalayan summit with it.

Another feature of the book is the skilful use of diary entries, which gradually makes clear that on any trip there are as many expeditions as there are members of it. Through it we glimpse the different expedition each was having, the sense of solitude each climber bears, with moments of great closeness and solidarity. All in all, Kingdom of Experience is a deeply moving and evocative account of a compact siege-style expedition on one of the last great unclimbed ridges in the Himalaya.

I found it a deeply engrossing read, a portrait from beginning to end of an ambitious, difficult and frustrating expedition. It also creates an all-round portrait of the spirit of the Himalayan climber, and as such stands as a celebration of my friends Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, who disappeared high on this very route in 1982, and of Mal Duff who died not long ago on the other side of Everest. All three had a deep love of the challenge of exploratory mountaineering, an understanding and acceptance of the risks involved, and they believed in living life to the full. At the same time they were prepared to risk that very life for the sake of the adventure that was so much part of their lives.

This book helps us understand some of these seeming contradictions and at the same time is a lively and fascinating read.

Chris Bonington

February 1999