Sandra reviewed A day to die for by Graham Ratcliffe
Review of 'A day to die for' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I liked this, as I tend to like any mountain climbing story. But the idea of the Moutain Madness expedition and the Adventure Consultants expedition joining forces and then ignoring this all important weather report as the main reason this tragedy occurred just does not seem reasonable... Especially from the author, himself a mountain climber, who knows that many variables play into success as well as failure of this kind of risky venture. Of course people had some access to weather reports. It seems silly to think they would not as 1996 was not exactly the dark ages. Truthfully, the sport of mountain climbing seems like, on the best of days, a calculated gamble. Even when the weather is perfect one might make a silly mistake such as a trip over a crampon, or be suddenly struck by illness or altitude problems. Yeah maybe the guides should have been more …
I liked this, as I tend to like any mountain climbing story. But the idea of the Moutain Madness expedition and the Adventure Consultants expedition joining forces and then ignoring this all important weather report as the main reason this tragedy occurred just does not seem reasonable... Especially from the author, himself a mountain climber, who knows that many variables play into success as well as failure of this kind of risky venture. Of course people had some access to weather reports. It seems silly to think they would not as 1996 was not exactly the dark ages. Truthfully, the sport of mountain climbing seems like, on the best of days, a calculated gamble. Even when the weather is perfect one might make a silly mistake such as a trip over a crampon, or be suddenly struck by illness or altitude problems. Yeah maybe the guides should have been more cautious with their clients lives on the line, especially as some of the clients weren't exactly world class mountain climbers. I think, more than anything, they fell prey to the idea of "safety in numbers"... The idea that there were enough experienced and qualified climbers on their teams that they could deal with whatever problems should happen to occurr. Scott Fischer and Rob Hall had survived some real epics on mountains in the past. So they decided to go for it regardless of marginal weather. The author himself continued up the mountain even though he could see the weather deteriorating and even though he felt it was the wrong choice, but he listened to his own expedition leader and let him have the final say. Sadly things didn't work out that May 10 for a variety of reasons, weather being just one issue. Fixed ropes not in place before hand as planned was a big problem. Turn around times being ignored one of the main mistakes made that fateful day. IMHO of course, cuz what do I know?!?
