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High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed |  | Author: Michael Kodas
Publisher: Hyperion
Category: Book
List Price: $15.99
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Seller: hippo_books
Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 592038
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 1401309844
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.522
EAN: 9781401309848
ASIN: 1401309844
Publication Date: May 5, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9781401309848 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"The perfect follow-up to Krakauer's riveting account of a perfect storm."
--Miami Herald "Kodas's absorbing description of the narrow moral compass governing human interaction at the top of the world is bound to shock both armchair adventurers and seasoned mountaineers."
--Chicago Tribune "(Kodas) discovered more deceit, thievery, and double-crossing among his climbers than you find in a Martin Scorsese gangster film. High Crimes is both an adventure story and an exposé of a sport riddled with danger and corruption."
--Washington Post Book World "Kodas's descriptions of the struggles confronting even the best-prepared climbers leave the reader breathless."
--Dallas Morning News "[High Crimes] is hair-raising and lays bare the excitement and fear that face great explorers at the top of the world. . . . Well written, and as deftly plotted as the finest mystery novel, Kodas brings to life a disturbing picture of society at high altitude."
--Austin Chronicle "Kodas does an excellent job exposing the ways in which money and ego have corrupted the traditional cultures of both mountaineers and their Sherpa guides. . . . His narrative is as hard to turn away from as a slow-motion train wreck."
--Publishers Weekly High Crimes is journalist Michael Kodas's gripping account of life on top of the world--where man is every bit as deadly as Mother Nature.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
Good read March 17, 2010
Brendon Floyd
I thought this was a well written book from an interesting point of view. I have heard other points of view about some of the events in this book but I think it is well worth the read.
I would have called it "Survivor: Everest" February 24, 2010
D. Porter (UT USA)
Having read most any book I can find on mountaineering and Everest in particular, this one stands out. Like many, I read Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", which is a must read and starting place for anyone interested in Everest. Most other books on Everest are either not as well written or not as interesting. Kodas and Krakauer are both journalists first and mountaineers second, which in the end (I believe) produces an superior book.
Aside from being very well written, Kodas tells a climbing story that I had never heard. Kodas tells the dark stories of climbing, the ones other authors are certainly aware of but have chosen not to reveal.
Kodas tells of his own experience on the mountain, of how some on his team turned homicidal in their quest for the summit. He tells of theft high on the mountain, where the consequences can be deadly. He tells the story of a doctor who died while being led by a deadbeat liar who claimed to be an experienced guide, but was only interested in using his client's money to satisfy his own ambition.
In the end, I left the book with a greater appreciation of the lengths some are willing to go to in order to satisfy their own ambitions (not completely dissimilar to business in the US). Other authors will teach you to respect the mountain. Kodas will teach you to watch your back whenever you are not alone on the mountain.
 I Read the Book and the Audio September 29, 2009
Cypress Green (Cleveland Ohio)
Book: 5 stars, Audio: 3 stars
This is only the second audio book I have "read" so it didn't occur to me to look closely at the case until I was 3/4 of the way thru. I FAIL! It was abridged. I HATE abridged books! I finished it, then went to the library and signed out the book.
The book is much better. A lot of smaller side stories about minor players that contribute to Mr Kodas' point are left out of the audio version. And I did notice that 'something' seemed to be missing.
I disagree with some commenters that the story is hard to follow. I had no problems with the back and forth between the two main story lines.
The photographs and map of Everest camps in the book were also appreciated.
Insightful: Rounds out Krakauer and Viesturs September 21, 2009
Sacca7 (New Mexico)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kodas' book is excellent. With intelligence, insight, and sophistication, he exposes the narcissistic and sociopathic behavior of some guides, and brings to the surface the porn, prostitution, drugs, rock & roll, deceit, thievery, and wife beating (Lhakpa Sherpa) that happens on Everest.
I've read many of the books out there on climbing Everest and many on climbing in the Himalayas: everything from the classic "Annapurna" by Maurice Herzog to "No Shortcuts to the Top" by Viesturs.
This is a keeper, right next to Krakauer!
Ugliness in the Himalaya August 6, 2009
Casey B. Rucker (Dryfork, WV, United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm a reasonably experienced mountaineer, and it wasn't too much of a stretch for the last decade or so for me to dream about an 8,000 meter peak (my fantasy: Shishipangma's middle peak -- above 8,000 meters but separated from the summit by a scary corniced ridge).
No more.
Michael Kodas has done a great service by showing us that high-altitude mountaineering in the Himalaya is now pure exploitation and violation, with every form of human ugliness rampant on all sides. Sherpas steal from clients. A climber stumbles down to camp 3 on the Chinese side of Everest to find his tent and all his belongings have been stolen. A guide brags about summitting Everest on his website the day after he left his client dead on the mountain. A climber descending Broad Peak finds all his fixed ropes stolen, a sort of attempted murder. A climber solicits money for charity and uses it all to pay for an Everest summit attempt. Climbers see the Chinese government open fire on fleeing refugees and keep mum so nothing will interfere with their climbing plans. Maybe most repugnantly, climbers make hypocritical nods to local religion as they go about desecrating the sacred mountains.
It's all about summitting. Selfishness appears to be the only mode for a Himalayan mountaineer. Kodas even portrays himself in a far from flattering light. As he clucks about cut-rate expeditions that exploit the fixed ropes and ladders set up at great expense by the full-service expensive guides, he blithely uses them himself on his own cut-rate expedition with no apparent guilt. Kodas describes in great detail the degredation of nearly everywhere he goes, but then he goes back to try for the summit again with minimal excuses, once again happily exploiting the better guide services' equipment and adding to the overuse.
None of this had to be (think Bhutan -- hooray for their no-mountaineering policy!).
Himalayan mountaineering did begin ignobly as an offshoot of colonial imperialism. But during the last decades of the 20th century, there was an all-too-brief golden age in which heroes like Reinhold Messner showed that the use of oxygen to reach those summits was cheating, and made the greatest achievements in the history of mountaineering. Now, it's a catastrophe, with no end in sight. Maybe it was inevitable, but I blame Dick Bass for this whole horrible mess: his Seven Summits gave all the rich guys the idea they could climb Everest, and it's trickled down from there. Without rich people on the mountain, only a few mountaineers would be there.
Mountaineering is different here in North America. I read this book at the beginning of a recent climbing trip to the Sierra Nevada in the Inyo National Forest. My experience was the utter opposite of what is portrayed in this book. The NF limits use of popular trails and camping areas (cost: $5 for the permit reservation), and I had two 14,000' peaks to myself. The mountains are pristine and beautiful. Theft is almost unheard of: no one is going to steal your pack or touch your rope. And on Denali, the biggest mountain I've climbed, climbers have to carry all of their expeditions' gear, and have to carry out everything with them, including human waste. No porters. No circus at basecamp. On that mountain, the stories every year are about climbers who heroically jettison their own summit bids to rescue fellow climbers.
I think I'll stick to North American summits, that may not have the elevation but do preserve the sacredness of high places. My mountaineering is about friendship, reverence, a light tread and self-reliance. There's no place for that in today's Himalaya. My feet won't trample those sacred places. Thanks, Mr. Kodas!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 61
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