Hall and Fischer stayed with their clients but the continuing storm made everyone vulnerable to death as oxygen supplies ran out. Boukreev countered Krakauer’s version of the story with his own in The Climb, published in 1997.) (In his book, Krakauer was highly critical of this move. Boukreev descended to the nearest camp without his clients, ostensibly to be in a better position to rescue them. Even strong and experienced climbers such as Hall and Fischer, both Everest veterans, could only struggle short distances down the peak. When a powerful storm came up suddenly, the climbers were trapped in a precarious position. Guide Anatoli Boukreev took his team to the top early in the day, with Rob Hall and Scott Fischer’s team close behind. One of these included Sandy Pittman, an only moderately experienced climber.ĭisaster struck on May 10 as four different expeditions all attempted to reach the summit. In 1996, an unprecedented 17 expeditions–hundreds of climbers–attempted to scale the Himalayan peak. Though incredibly difficult and dangerous to climb, by the mid-1990s technology had advanced to the point that even intermediate-level climbers could make the attempt with the assistance of expert guides. Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, in 1953. Between 19, 91 climbers died during the attempt. A total of 15 people perished during the spring 1996 climbing season at Everest. Author Jon Krakauer, who himself attempted to climb the peak that year, wrote a best-selling book about the incident, Into Thin Air, which was published in 1997. It was the worst loss of life ever on the mountain on a single day. Eight climbers die on Mount Everest during a storm on May 10, 1996.

Everest disaster book