The Other Side of Everest: Climbing the North Face Through the Killer Storm: Amazon.co.uk: Matt Dickinson: Books

Product Description

May 1996 began like most other climbing seasons on Mount Everest. The arrival of spring brought the usual pre-monsoon period, with teams of hopeful mountaineers ready to reach for the roof of the world. Among the dozens of climbers were Jon Krakauer and Anatoli Boukreev (who would both later write their own accounts of what followed) and Matt Dickinson. But on May 10, with ten different expeditions strung out along the mountain, the usual turned deadly. Suddenly, the temperature dropped from merely frigid to 40 degrees below zero. A killer storm with howling winds swept in and climbers were soon blinded in white-out conditions. Before it was over, the blizzard would claim a dozen lives, the worst loss of life in the modern history of climbing on Everest.

Dickinson, an adventure filmmaker, was part of an expedition challenging the treacherous North Face of Everest, on the Tibetan side. Of the nearly 700 people who have scaled Everest since the first ascent in 1953, barely 230 have managed to ascend via the colder and technically more difficult route up the North Face. In addition to climbing through the storm, which would test him beyond his imagining, Dickinson also filmed the ascent. He and his team watched in awe as violent clouds gathered over the mountain and swept them all up in a frightening white force. Dickinson was a relative novice who had never climbed at this crushing altitude, and the storm preyed on his mind, throwing into question his entire mission. Despite this uncertainty and the treacherous conditions, Dickinson and his partner Alan Hinkes continued their climb, compelled to reach the summit.

Dickinson's first-person narrative--the only account of the killer storm written by a climber who was on the North Face--places the reader amid the swirl of the catastrophe, while providing rare insight into the very essence of mountaineering. The Other Side of Everest is a portrait of personal triumph set against the most disastrous storm to ever befall the world mountaineering community. Anyone who has ever pushed beyond familiar limits of physical and psychological endurance will cherish this book.

From the Publisher

GREAT REVIEWS FOR MATT DICKINSON's EVEREST
"Although Dickinson's work follows in the tracks of Jon Krakauer's INTO THIN AIR and Anatoli Boukreev's THE CLIMB, it is anything but a 'me too' book about climbing Mt. Everest during the spring of 1996 ... Dickinson has his own story to tell, and he tells it very well.... [H]is descriptions of climbing are careful and informative, taking nothing for granted. His forceful narrative makes a worthy addition to the growing Everest library." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review!)

"Dickinson's book reads like a thriller, pacy and exciting, giving a good flavour of the sublime misery of climbing at extreme altitude. It is a real page-turner ... fresh and vivid." --Guardian

"Gripping." --The Sunday Times (London)

"[His] excitement at being there is infectious." --Times Literary Supplement

"This is a gripping account of filming--and surviving--in the death zone." --Mail on Sunday

Customer Reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Dickinson makes you feel like you're on the mountain! 4 May 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

Matt Dickinson's book took me by surprise--he reallly makes you feel like you're on Mount Everest. The piercing cold, the loss of oxygen, rusty equipment and frayed ropes: it's amazing climbing. He doesn't try to figure out why the deaths happened or place blame on anyone for the tragedy of the 1996 storm. He just tells a really great story about how his team survived it and how he, though he was not that experienced, made it all the way to the top. And the North Side is even more challenging than the South! That's where Mallory & Irvine may have first reached the summit and now they found Mallory's body. Dicksinson's takes you there -- you can't imagine how Mallory could have done it. This book is one that adventure lovers shouldn't miss.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

A spellbinding book by a man with great heart & courage. 3 Aug 1999

This book, more than any I have read about climbing Everest, conveys the sense of being there--it gives the reader a feeling of climbing along side. Since the author is not a renowned climber, (more like one of us) one feels as though his emotions are more moving, more real. The descriptions are vivid and terrible. I am looking forward to reading more books by Mr. Dickinson. My personal favorite would be a book about his sea voyage to Antarctica.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

Where Do You Go From the Top Of the World? 29 Jun 1999

Since my wife won't let me mortgage my house, and deprive my kids of their college education, I have to live vicareously through these high mountain adventures. My quest for the top of Mt. Rainier 25 years ago seemed like a walk in the park, compared to the peak of Everest.

The rendition by Matt Dickinson was very well put to word. I see that his quest for the top came at a sacrifice to his marriage (as did Krakhauer in "Into Thin Air"). Of the three Everest books I've read in the past month (Krakhauer, Breshears, and this), Matt's book seemed more "down to earth". Sharing his passion for photography, I could relate to him more than the other two. Althoug I like Breshears technical dissertations of his IMAX filming.

The only fault about his book was that is was too short. I would imagine after having reached Everest, everything else would be anti-climactic.