Goran Kropp is arguably one of the greatest high alititude climbers in the world. He is up there along with Reinhold Messner, the person whom he immensly admired.
In this book, Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey, Goran along with writer David Lagercrantz chronicles his most gruelling of all adventures. He hauls about 240lb of food and equipment on the back of custom built bicycle from Sweden to Mt. Everest in Nepal, a whopping 7000+ miles all alone, then scale Mt. Everest without using supplemental oxygen or sherpa support and then bike his way back to Sweden. Everything done in his own power, which means, he is not going to take assistance from anyone else. The adventure is most certainly insane and he acheives this feat.
The book is a very fast read. I think, given the wealth of Goran's experience, the book could have been written much better. The narration style is extremely unusual. It appears that pieces of passages have been cut and pasted from the journal maintained during his trip. The book lacks proper editing. However, it gives the reader a glimpse into Goran's rigorous prepartions, his passion for climbing, his adventures during various ascents. To me, this wealth of experience offsets the poor quality of writing. Goran's style of writing is very raw. There is no sophistication to his writing. There are lots of tangential, parallel and random story lines to the main flow. However, this unsophistication bring a deep intensity to events that are narrated in the later part of the book.
The book opens with Goran's childhood, his relationship with his parents and his fast life in high school. At a very young age, he was destined for great climbing life. After a brief interlude, he collaborates with another climbing partner which resulted in numerous significant high altitude ascents. He ascends some 8000 meter moutains [K2, Cho Oyu etc] before deciding to embark on his unique adventure.
He shares his adventures crossing Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal and exeprience with their cultures on his way to Mt. Everest. At various places, he was thrown stones at, offered women, been shot at and many such things. Once at Mt. Everest, by twist of fate, he was present at the same time the mountain faced the most disastrous season in its climbing history. In two days, about 12 people were perished in one of the deadliest storms the mountain faced. It consumed lives of such legendary climbers as Rob Hall and Scott Fischer. Gorans' unrefined writing style, somehow, assisted in playing out the disaster in my mind. It was very very sad to 'see' how these climbers lost their lives on the mountains. To me, this description made reading of this book worth it. Not because of the sadistic pleasure in witnessing catastrophes, but to know that even the greatest of men are nothing before the Nature's fury - a humbling experience and a sacred knowledge.
Goran describes his ascent to Mt. Everest following the incident and then his bike back to Sweden. He finishes the book with another wild dream/adventure in the making which, I think did not materialize.
Overall, the book gives us a glimpse of Goran's vast climbing experience and all that goes in to high altitude climbing. No doubt, the writing is very poor. However, I strongly recommend the book to appreciate Goran's great feat. Obviously, there is lot of debate about the folly/futility of such an endeavor. Ignoring such discussions, the guy did something few people challenge themselves in doing. Rest of them can get courage absorbing his experience.
Labels: Adventures, Goran Kropp, Mt. Everest