After the Wind.

Lou Kasischke.

This one was quite different than the other books I have read about the 1996 season. The others were written by people who reached the summit on May 10. They wrote about their experiences and the disaster from that perspective. Lou Kasischke did not reach the summit. He was one of the climbers on Rob Hall's expedition who stuck to the 1 pm turn around time. He turned around before he reached the Hillary Step and made it down to Camp IV before the storm made it impossible to find. He wrote this book from a very different perspective. Instead of analyzing what we went wrong on the summit day and what led to the disaster (I mean, he does a bit of that) he explains and explores what led him to be able to give up the summit and turn around. It is fascinating. 

He credits his relationship with God and his relationship with his wife, Sandy, with giving him the strength he needed to overcome his ambition, turn around, and ultimately survive the disaster. A fax he sent to his wife upon returning to base camp said, "God's will and the strength of our love for each other turned me around a short distance from the summit and saved my life." 

The experience he went through up on the mountain where he actually decided to turn around is pretty crazy and cool. 

He also talked a lot about the help that his expedition received from other expeditions on the mountain. A lot of accounts spend most of their time talking about the events of May 10 and 11 and sort of skim over how those involved in the disaster made it the rest of the way down the mountain. It was interesting to hear his insight on the sacrifice other teams made to help them. Earlier in the book, he reflected on the idea of helping those you didn't know on the mountain after his tent aided a South African climber (Bruce Herrod) who had gotten lost in the wind. 

"I can't say that anything Bruce did was irresponsible. He got lost in a whiteout, which could happen to anyone, including me. One ethical question climbers ask frequently is what responsibility do you have as a climber to another climber who is reckless or irresponsible? Does it make a difference if that person is a stranger? These questions are in all of life, not just in climbing. And the answer is clear and simple: you help. That's the right thing to do. If you don't help, you will never feel good about yourself, no matter how hard you try to rationalize or justify it. And you will never have the respect of others, who know you could have helped but didn't."

Then when he and his team needed assistance, he was surprised at how many people reached out to help them. He seemed to expect things from himself above that which he expected of others. Or maybe it was that he knew how inconvenient it was to help others on Everest. When Bruce showed up at his tent, he did not want to help. He wanted to focus on his own recovery and rest. He helped because he knew it was the right thing to do, but he was very honest in saying that at the time he felt no emotional attachment or need to do so. He was to exhausted to care, but still managed to do the right thing. His honesty was refreshing. My favourite part of the book might be this bit that he wrote on the way down in Camp 2:

"It was not about what went wrong resulting in tragedy, but about what went right since then. We had lacked the teamwork needed to avoid the tragedy. Many bad personal and team decisions were made because people were too focused on themselves. But over the last two days, I witnessed sacrifice, selflessness, overwhelming concern for others, and compassion by people who were not even part of our expedition. People from every direction came together to prevent further injury and loss of life. As I looked at some of what happened, it made me stand in awe:

Stu Hutchison for all the high risks he took in the rescue attempts. Pete Athens and Todd Burleson for their decision to climb up from Camp 3 to High Camp in the storm to offer help and rescue aid. The Sherpa in their expedition refused to climb up to High Camp in those conditions. So Pete and Todd did it alone. Although I doubt they thought about it, the rescue meant giving up any summit attempt for themselves. In late morning of May 12, Pete and Todd were also the climbers who assisted Beck from High Camp and down the Lhotse Face, to where Ed Viesturs and Robert Schauer of the Imax expedition then assisted in the rescue down to Camp 2.

The Imax expedition also offered O2 and radio batteries from their supplies at High Camp. These supplies were critical for their attempt on the summit. Mal Duff and two other leaders from the British expedition climbed up to assist. Henrik Hansen climbed up from Base Camp to Camp 2 and offered his services as a doctor to treat those in need. Ken Kamler climbed down from Camp 3 to give medical care. Before doing so, he radioed Base Camp for someone to bring certain medicines he needed up to Camp 2. Ken was camped at Camp 3 and prepared for a summit attempt. He gave that up to help us.

Frank Fischbeck spent almost the entire evening of May 12 helping in the medical tent, while Henrik and Ken treated Beck and Makalu Gau. Jon Krakauer helped organize Beck's helicopter rescue and the descent to Camp 1.

All this selflessness, compassion, and concern for the benefit of others.

I only hope that one day I am strong enough to do what they did."

On reaching Base Camp, Lou gave all his climbing gear away to Sherpas and said he would never climb mountains again.