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Years ago, a friend handed me a copy of Jon Krakauer’s well-known and bestselling Into Thin Air, an account of a famously deadly season of climbing on Mt. Everest. At the time, I thought there was no way I’d enjoy it. I’m not much of an adventure-seeker or even an outdoorsy person. I stay inside reading. Sometimes I go outside and … read.
But Krakauer’s account of his personal experience seeing what happened in May 1996 hooked me. And then I ended up reading at least four more books about Everest, one about the Sherpas and several by people who were present for that season. I read two just by Ed Viesturs: No Shortcuts to the Top and The Mountain, which I have here on the site. In short, thanks to Krakauer, I’ve become an Everest-book aficionado.
I haven’t read a book on this topic in a good while, so when I saw this new nonfiction book about the development over the years of the guiding industry on the tallest mountain on earth, yeah, I snatched it up. It didn’t disappoint.
Cockrell does his research here. He’s interviewed most of the major players in the guiding industry that sprang up in the ’80s and ’90s and has continued to this day, as well as a number of clients and other major figures in Everest climbing history. It focuses on how Everest went from being a mountain a few people attempted to climb, to being one just a few daring and skilled people famously summitted, to a challenging but attainable peak that almost anyone who had the dream of standing on the top could do with the right help.
The right help, of course, is the many companies that make up the guiding industry. It started off as a few small organizations run by Western men who could help people who were pretty skilled but could use the support provided by experts who knew their way around Everest. Those companies got larger and a few more got in on the action, and it became known that pretty much anyone who had a dream to stand atop Everest could do it thanks to these businesses. (Indeed, Krakauer’s complaint, as well as others’, was that there were simply too many people on Everest, and definitely too many people who didn’t belong because of limited experience and skills.)
Now, decades later, it’s mostly shifted to being about the same number of companies, but they are run by locals, as opposed to Westerners. They are still getting a lot of people, from all around the world, safely up the mountain.
Everest, Inc. starts, as one would expect it to, with the early attempts and successes of summiting Everest. Mallory, Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. It moves on with some stories of the men (and a few women) who really focused on Everest, and some who learned their way around other famous summits, whether the 14 8,000-meter peaks or the Seven Summits (the highest peak on each of the continents). Richard (Dick) Bass plays a big part of the story at the beginning, as he was a huge reason many people in the US and around the world got an inkling that “normal people” could think about climbing that distant high peak.
Cockrell does, of course, include in Everest, Inc. the story of the May 1996 season and the events that led to Krakauer’s book becoming such a hit. It’s interesting to read this part of Everest, Inc. because it’s been almost 30 years now and a lot has happened since then. And while many, many people have read Into Thin Air, they may not have kept up with what’s happened on the mountain or in the guiding industry since. Cockrell does so much research and interviewing of other climbers and guides that he is able to put that famous book into context now, both because there’s much more to compare it with in these decades and because Krakauer did have some particular opinions from his experience that all his readers assume are essentially facts. And that’s not the case.
Cockrell moves forward from that time up until today, guiding readers through other years that had some disasters (natural and not) and issues that could have potentially stopped the guiding industry on Everest, until now, when it seems clear that for the near future, at least, guiding many “regular people” to summit this tallest peak is a fairly safe endeavor. And it’s now moved from being a Westerners’ industry to one run by Sherpas and others native to the nearby area.
The writing in Everest, Inc. is measured and balanced and, again, clearly well-sourced. And it’s compelling. I was swept up in the fascination of this tallest of all earthly mountains even though the book isn’t as cinematic and thrilling as Into Thin Air. I suppose that is because I’m the reader who has already had that kind of groundwork laid for me. If I hadn’t, this book may not be nearly as interesting. But again, since so many have read Krakauer’s bestseller, Cockrell has a very large pool of prospective readers who will be interested in this account, just as I was.
Rated: Moderate. Profanity includes 5 uses of strong language, fewer than 10 instances of moderate profanity, a few uses of mild language, and 5 instances of the name of Deity in vain. There are a number of references to danger and peril, as well as a number of references of fatalities on Everest, but few with any details. One or two spots have some minor details about what happened to some victims.
Click here to purchase your copy of Everest, Inc. on Amazon.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
