Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer

by Anatoli Boukreev, Linda Wylie (Editor), Galen Rowell (Foreword by)

Overview

A breathtaking and lavishly illustrated autobiography in essays on Anatoli Boukreev, the late world-famous mountaineer and author of The Climb.

When Anatoli Boukreev died on the slopes of Annapurna on Christmas day, 1997, the world lost one of the greatest adventurers of our time.

In Above the Clouds, both the man and his incredible climbs on Mt. McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manaslu, and Everest-including his diary entries on the infamous 1996 disaster, written shortly after his return-are immortalized. There also are minute technical details about the skill of mountain climbing, as well as personal reflections on what life means to someone who risks it every day. Fully illustrated with gorgeous color photos, Above the Clouds is a unique and breathtaking look at the world from its most remote peaks.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312291372
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/20/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Anatoli Boukreev was (with G. Weston DeWalt) coauthor of The Climb and a world-renowned high-altitude mountaineer. Twenty-one times he reached the summit of the world's highest mountains. For his heroic actions on Mount Everest in May 1996, he was awarded the American Alpine Club's highest honor, the David A. Sowles Memorial Award.

Linda Wylie was Anatoli Boukreev's companion and is now executor of his estate.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
During his lifetime, Anatoli Boukreev climbed 11 of the world's 14 8,000-meter peaks. He set numerous speed records on solo ascents, and on group missions rescued countless climbers from the "death zone." Above the Clouds, a compilation of Boukreev's journal entries, unveils the rich interior life of the controversial Russian/Kazakh legend.

Followers of mountaineering literature are well acquainted with Boukreev. Jon Krakauer's 1997 bestseller, Into Thin Air, was critical of Boukreev's behavior during the 1996 Mt. Everest disaster. The Climb, Boukreev's own bestselling version of events, put a contrary spin on the ill-fated expedition.

Above the Clouds adds much-needed perspective on Boukreev's mountaineering life: The Everest disaster was not the first that he faced. So what possesses a climber to repeatedly put his life at risk? For Boukreev, it was simply a case of being more comfortable in the mountains than anywhere else. "I do not fear climbing high.... Down below, when I become immersed in the problems of ordinary life, there is fear sometimes."

Boukreev was nurtured by the school of Soviet mountaineering, a program that he believed "[compared] with the Soviet Union's great accomplishments in space exploration, science, and the discipline of Russian ballet." The school was disbanded with the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the loss of these cultural underpinnings left Boukreev ill at ease. He did not enjoy leading inexperienced climbers up Mt. Everest, but needed the commissions to fund his own projects.

In his journals, Boukreev shows great respect for Scott Fischer, the esteemed American mountaineer who perished high on Everest. Boukreev met his own maker on Christmas Day, 1997, when he was caught in an avalanche on the deadly slopes of Annapurna. He died in what was for him a holy place: "Mountains are not stadiums where I satisfy my ambitions to achieve. They are cathedrals, grand and pure, the houses of my religion.... In the mountains I celebrate creation, for on each journey I am reborn." (Brenn Jones)

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