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High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed | 
 enlarge | Author: Michael Kodas
Publisher: Hyperion
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 15793
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 1401302734
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522
EAN: 9781401302733
ASIN: 1401302734
Publication Date: February 5, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 26 more reviews...
 Honest assessment of problems on Everest but a little one sided at times. July 3, 2008
Over the past twenty years or so the culture surrounding the Everest climbing community has changed and it has not been for the better. The author tells his own tale of a failed summit bid in 2004 with a dysfunctional team from Connecticut. The book also tells the story of Nils Antezana, a doctor who perished on the mountain also during the 2004 climbing season. He bounces between these stories and other briefer tales that demonstrate the commercialization, greed and lawlessness that is now common on the mountain.
The book is certainly unique from prior books about Everest by concentrating on its' unsavory side. Dishonest outfitters, incompetent guides and rampant theft are not uncommon in the height of the climbing season when people and money are drawn to the mountain.
It turns out that Everest, although the world's tallest, is certainly not the most technically challenging climb. The path to the top is stocked with supplies from Sherpas, crevasses are bridged with aluminum ladders, and ropes are pre-installed for the climbers. Therefore, the mountain doesn't attract those climbers that simply want a challenging climb but those that mostly want recognition for reaching the top of the world. Rich clients hire guides to get them to the top rather than working their way up by training and gaining experience on lesser peaks. Others want to conquer Everest to hopefully launch their own motivational speaking careers.
The book is certainly interesting and the author does not pull any punches when describing the deeds of some of the unscrupulous guides and outfitters. However, I would have liked the author to address some of the other questions that persist, especially among the non-climber community. For example, the author never addresses the issue of the selfishness that it takes for someone to take such risks when they often have loved ones who depend on them back home. I'm not saying it is right or wrong, but an analysis of this moral dilemma would have greatly improved the book.
The other thing I didn't like about the book is that the main people in the story are presented in a very black and white manner. There are good guys and there are bad guys but the shades of gray, which invariably exist in real life, are poorly demonstrated. This is best represented in the story of Nils Antezana, a wealthy but foolish Bolivian-American doctor who has some mountaineering experience but is woefully unprepared for a mountain like Everest. He winds up hiring a guide who he knows from previous expeditions in South America named Gustavo Lisi. Lisi who has a very checkered past as a guide ultimately leaves his client on the mountain to perish. Antezana is presented as nothing other than a sympathetic character that has no blame in his own death. However, Antezana was so consumed by summit fever he continued to climb with Lisi even after having serious misgivings about the guide's behavior lower on the mountain. Questions should have also been raised about whether someone who is 69 years old and a relatively inexperienced climber should have been attempting Everest in the first place. Also, why didn't he hire a more reputable guiding service or at least do a background check on the man to whom he was entrusting his life? The author doesn't delve much into these and other issues, simply presenting Lisi as the bad guy, which he certainly is, and failing to assign any responsibility to Antezana who certainly should have shared in the blame for this tragedy.
This was an interesting read and I'm glad the author has brought the ugly underbelly of Everest more into the light. I would have liked a more critical analysis of the Antezana story and climbing culture in general.
 And I thought pro cycling was dirty! June 23, 2008
Kodas' book makes its very clear that high-altitude climbing on Mt. Everest is even dirtier and more lethal than the Tour ever could be. At least there, competitors don't steal the equipment you need to survive and there is vetting in place to insure only those capable of racing at that level are allowed in the race. On Mt. Everest, its anything and everthing goes and, as a result, people die some of the most horrific ways possible. At least in cycling, the drug user's only hurt themselves.
Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, opened the book on what Everest in the late 20th century was like. This book tears it wide open. Money, ego, bragging rights, and an all-obsessive need to get to the top play a major role and with no controls in place, any one can act as a guide and let people who have no business being there pretend they're the next Hillary. Michael Kodas reveals it all from both personal experience as well as research into other climbers.
High Crimes is a powerful indictment on the appalling state of mountaineering today. It certainly has changed my views of those who climb these mountains. In my eyes, they are no better than pro cyclists.
Fear and Loathing on Mt. Everest June 6, 2008
Perhaps the best and surely the most depressing of the recent Everest books. It is not only that people die during the season (2004); that happens almost every year. Rather it is the crime and deception that have disfigured the Everest experience. Your gear is more secure in the back seat of your car than on this peak. And be sure to check your guide's resume--it may be part invention. Kodas' account reads like a good novel with its share of villains and life-threatening abandonments. Don't expect a very happy ending.
If you are thinking of being a client on Mt. Everest, this book should give you plenty of pause.
A book you cannot put down... June 5, 2008
This book will keep you up at night because once you begin it you can't put it down. Like "Into Thin Air" it stuns it's readers from the get go and you feel as if you are there at base camp enduring the tragic episodes of the mountaineering people who attempt this climb. You do not have to be a climber to be held captive by this unbelievable story of humans being heroic and evil in the pursuit of a passion which with every step taken can be their last. Climbing may be an extreme sport but is also tinged with insanity for those climbers who loose themselves their minds and their humanity when attempting Mt. Everest every year. The author brings to light the life at Everest every year is like being in hell on earth.
The climbers are more dangerous than the mountain June 5, 2008
A very interesting book about all the problems associated with climbing Mt. Everest. I can honestly say that there are at least a dozen people portrayed in this book that should be prosecuted with attempted murder and half that many should be charged with murder.
I liked the parallel stories of the author's and the South American gentleman's attempt to climb Everest.
I learned a lot about Mt. Everest and climbing in general, but finished the book being very angry with all the people who had such little regard for the lives of other climbers.
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