New Release: Glimpses of Everest by David Durkan

New Release: Glimpses of Everest by David Durkan

Seasons Best Buy in the bookshops of Thamel, Kathmandu.
Or, print-on-demand books – ebooks, from Amazon.

The six lines on the cover say it all – well nearly…

‘Why did Mallory choose Irvine over Odell?’
The Long Road to the Summit.
‘Did Messner & Habeler climb Everest without oxygen?’
The Thirty 8,000m peaks.
Talks with Hillary, Tenzing, Messner, Bonington & Scott.
The Circus comes to Everest.

“Durkan, author of the hard-hitting Penguins on Everest (available in Thamel, and on Amazon), earlier Contributing Editor to Mountain Magazine, does it again – questioning accepted beliefs and questioning his own answers. With over forty visits to Nepal since 1977 (3 months overland, as a pretend happy), then as a solo trekker/climber, concluding with being a tour and climbing guide, he has seen Nepal and the ‘mountaineering tourist industry’ from every angle – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

In both books, he challenges The Everest Industry:

“It’s run by ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, egos, and greed. When 16 Nepali workers die in one incident it is NOT an accident, it is premeditated manslaughter. No western Government nor national Mountaineering controlling body would allow such work conditions to continue.”
Yes, 35 children lost their father that day – and the package-holiday clients bitched that they had paid their money and were not allowed to climb Everest.
The agents screamed ‘Give them free Everest permits next year…’
A good business ploy, as the climbers had to pay a second time for the trip itself to the agents.
No one mentioned the 35 children, nor the grieving widows.

In Glimpses of Everest, Durkan kicks open a few Pandora boxes:

Why did Mallory choose Irvine over Odell, and could history have been different?
Did Messner and Habeler really climb Everest oxygen free? He says no.
A compressed historical look at the mountain is a booster for most of us.
Then a look at today’s sick ‘record conquering’ wave of claims and counterclaims.
WOW – are there really more than 14, 8000m peaks – who will be the first to climb them all?
Backed by personal meetings with Hillary, Tenzing, Messner, Bonington, and Scott –
And a quick summary of the death toll of Nepali on Everest.

Andy-psychovertical-Kirkpatrick notes,
‘You laugh, you think and you question Dave’s sanity!
Yet he sets out to redress the balance back in favor of the high mountains.’

From Leo Dickinson,
“Dave raises a number of serious points as he sticks pins into sacred cows.”

”Dave may not be a big-name mountaineer, but his heart and mind are as big as the mountain he writes about.”
Reviewed by Pete Sandall