Maybe it is merely coincidence, but most of the key people he neglected to contact have been highly critical of Boukreev's actions on Everest.Īs Dwight Garner pointed out in "Coming Down," errors of fact abound in "The Climb," most of which can be attributed to DeWalt's haphazard research. either you nor your associates once called to fact-check a single detail with me."Īlthough DeWalt's failure to interview Groom, Beidleman and Lopsang Jangbu constitute his most puzzling oversights, he also failed to interview any of the other Sherpas involved, three of the eight clients on Boukreev's own team and several other climbers who played crucial roles in the tragedy and/or ensuing rescue. Perhaps it is related to the fact that DeWalt is not a climber and had no prior knowledge of mountaineering, had never visited the mountains of Nepal, and had very limited experience as a print journalist before writing "The Climb." In any case, Beidleman was sufficiently disenchanted when he read the book that in December 1997 he wrote a letter to DeWalt stating, "I think that 'The Climb' is a dishonest account of the May tragedy. The reason for such conspicuous reportorial lapses can only be guessed at. Yet DeWalt never made any attempt to contact Lopsang, even though the Sherpa spent much of the summer of 1996 in Seattle, and was easy to reach by phone. Lopsang was also the last person to see Rob Hall, Andy Harris or Doug Hansen before they died. He was with Fischer when the Mountain Madness leader collapsed during the descent Lopsang was the last person to talk to Fischer before he died. It was he who short-roped Sandy Hill Pittman. Lopsang had one of the most pivotal and controversial roles in the disaster. No less baffling was DeWalt's failure to interview Lopsang Jangbu, Scott Fischer's head climbing Sherpa. Inexplicably, DeWalt interviewed Boukreev but never interviewed either Groom or Beidleman.
A scrupulous journalist intent on describing the tragedy accurately, in its full complexity, would presumably have interviewed each of the surviving guides (as I did for "Into Thin Air"). Of the six professional climbing guides who were caught high on Everest when the storm hit on May 10, 1996, only three survived: Anatoli Boukreev, Michael Groom and Neal Beidleman. Here are a few things Weston DeWalt neglected to point out in the comments he sent to Salon:
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