Fatal Mountaineer [Hardcover]

It is hard to categorize this book. It is not a biography (see Laurence Leamer's "Ascent"). It is not a memoir; I don't believe the author knew Willi Unsoeld in life. "Fatal Mountaineer" concentrates mainly on three defining moments in Willi's life: his brilliant traverse of Everest via the West Ridge in 1963 when Unsoeld was at the peak of his ability, the tragic death of his daughter Devi on her namesake mountain, and Willi's death in an avalanche on Mt. Rainier at age 54. There are explanations and definitions of Bergson and John Muir's philosophies throughout. These two philosophers supposedly had a significant influence on Willi's spiritual outlook.

Sometimes it was hard to tell who was the main subject of this book, Willi or John Roskelly. The author seems to have a love/hate relationship toward Roskelly referring to him as the "Buffalo Demon" and a wily self-promoter while praising his mountaineering abilities to the skies. Mr. Roper's extensive quoting from Roskelly's book is unacknowledged by the author except for an asterisk on page 265.

The Nanda Devi climb that culminated in the mysterious death of Unsoeld's daughter, aged 22, is given the most attention. As the expedition leader and as a father, Unsoeld's behavior was strange to say the least; his exploitation of this tragedy afterward via lectures, slideshows, and presentations was inexcusable. His death in an avalanche while a leading a student expedition in the dead of winter was his last tragedy in that he took another 22 year-old girl with him. His judgment was fatally flawed to even think of taking such an inexperienced group on such a venture. It speaks well for the other 20 students that they managed to survive.

When closing the book, I had gained no additional insights about this compelling, charismatic man who had great leadership abilities, was larger than life and had a continual adoring coterie of fans around him right up to and including the time of his death. Mr. Roper obviously had no endorsement from Unsoeld's family, he cites no printed sources, has no endnotes, and no bibliography. The book seemed nothing more than an exercise in self-indulgence.

Myself being a writer, a collector of mountaineering lit, a climber, and knowing about Willi's life and his expeditions, I was highly disappointed in this book. Overall, the book and subject were very poorly researched; bad preparation and bad writing go hand-in-hand. Knowing that many of Roper's statements are nothing more than second-hand, inaccurate speculations, it was painfully difficult to read. Besides painting John Roskelley as an "enfant terrible" and "buffalo demon" (both of which he is not) throughout the entire novel, Robert Roper (no relation to honorable climber-writer Steve Roper) couldn't even spell Roskelley's name correctly. Never are there citings or resources given--nor is there defined reasoning--for Roper's speculation and suppositions, of which this is one: "Roskelly (sic) is a special sort of bully, someone who tromps all over others in their most uncertain places, who gets his way by his willingness to say hateful things."

If you're thinking of reading Roper's "Fatal Mountaineer," don't. Read instead Roskelley's first-hand account of the expedition that fills most pages of Roper's novel, "Nanda Devi: The Tragic Expedition." And even though it has it's own shortcomings, a much better biography of Unsoeld is Lawrence Leamer's "Ascent: The Spiritual and Physical Quest of the Legendary Mountaineer Willi Unsoeld."

It's obvious the reviewers here who gave more than a couple stars to "Fatal Mountaineer" have not read Roskelley's book, nor were they previously knowledgable about Unsoeld's life and his tragic Nanda Devi expedition. I'm sure they would have thought differently had this piece of fiction not been their introduction to Willi Unsoeld. While Unsoeld was not perfect, he was a great man and mountaineer, and his memory deserves better than this false attempt of a treatise. And the same is true for John Roskelley, who Roper especially--and wrongly--excoriated.