The Third Pole

"The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest": https://amzn.to/3COcMte

I read "Annapurna."

I don't know what caused me to read books in high school. Outside of school, that is. It appears that the world is split into two kinds of education. One in which you pay your dues in class, another in which you pay your dues outside of class. Now, too often, school is just a matter of steps, where what you learn is irrelevant. Unless, of course, it's anti-Jesus or pro-minority, then people who tend to send their kids to religious schools anyway are up in arms. But it's not only on the Christian side, where the story this week is about schools that don't teach slavery, but in the Jewish yeshivas too, where the students only study the Bible, and not only are unaware of social studies, but have little education in math and other traditional subjects.

But when I went to high school in the dark ages, when the administration was still feared, there was still money for supplies and sports teams and extracurricular activities and there was a track system, based on schoolwork, and in my suburban town there was a huge emphasis on doing well, to get into a good college.

Then again, that was back when you could not go to college and still earn a decent wage. Now college is a glorified finishing school. I love that they're allowing the athletes to get paid, if I ran the college education system I'd abolish all team sports, i.e. competing with other institutions. Club sports? All cool with me. But the truth is too many of the players you see on TV never graduate, and if they do they get a joke of an education anyway. As for all the b.s. about team sports teaching you how to get along in society, how does that square with all the individuals who've revolutionized the world in the past few decades? Used to be bros from Ivy League schools who employed their networks to run herd over not only the business world, but America itself. But being locked out of white shoe law firms, the Jews broke the unwritten laws of the bluebloods and opened up Wall Street and then techies who grew up with sixties values, like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, were individuals who couldn't be told what to do, who needed to do it their way, and the fascinating thing is by ruling by fiat they succeeded. Jobs famously did no research, he trusted his gut. Can you imagine that at Procter & Gamble?

So the only two books I remember reading in high school were "Cat's Cradle" and "Annapurna." Scratch that, I read "Slaughterhouse-Five," but despite the hoopla and sales, "Cat's Cradle" was better, an insider thing with irreverence, hell, the Dead even named their publishing company Ice Nine. As for "Annapurna"...

I'm not sure why I picked it up. It was originally published in 1951, before Mt. Everest was conquered, but that was already in the rearview mirror by the late sixties. But I've never forgotten the experience of reading it, being alone with the climbers at the roof of the earth.

The next mountaineering book I remember reading was Jon Krakauer's "Eiger Dreams - Ventures Among Men and Mountains," which I got as a favor at a fortieth birthday party. And I wasn't gonna read it, but in a dull moment I picked it up and...

This was before Krakauer was heralded, before almost anybody knew him, before "Into the Wild" and "Into Thin Air." I had no idea who he was. But the stories... About this guy who was climbing the Eiger and fell off and lived. And Krakauer needing to conquer a new climbing route and going to Alaska alone and feeling so detached.

The mountains.

It's insanely hot this summer, but I prefer the cold. The cold is scarier on an every minute basis, but it's also invigorating. You walk outside the door and you breathe smoke and one thing is for sure, you're wide awake to the experience.

And I prefer the mountains to the ocean. Even though I did a lot of sunbathing earlier in my life, I just don't see the point anymore. You toast your skin and risk cancer why? Oh, I still like going in the water itself, then again so many beachgoers never get their feet wet. But just looking at mountains changes my mood. It's not a group feeling, it's just me and the landscape bonding, as if the mountains knew I was aligned with them, even though Mother Nature cares not a whit about me, or anybody else. You learn this if you spend enough time in the mountains, you have bad experiences.

Especially prior to cellphones. Now you can call your loved ones from the top of Mt. Everest. You're never alone anywhere. And this troubles me. Because I like the feeling of being alone, letting my mind drift, being connected to a source no one else is. Which is how I felt reading "The Third Pole."

I'd never heard of its author Mark Synott, and I didn't really think I needed to read another Everest book, but the reviews were good and...

For a while there, people were really into Everest, they were paying attention. Now, not so much. But prior to the 1996 disaster, chronicled by Krakauer in "Into Thin Air," there was a much smaller coterie who followed climbing, and I was one of them, even though I've only technically climbed twice. Then again, they say that Everest requires no technical climbing, that it's easy, but Synott contradicts this experiencing the First Step.

Yes, there is lingo, there are landmarks. And there was an early 2000s TV series about climbing the mountain called "Everest: Beyond the Limit," focused on Russell Brice's expedition company which I highly recommend, but that was still when most people did not summit. Now they do, even teenagers! Yes, that's a big thing, plucking Indian teens from poverty and having them conquer the mountain. It's all delineated by Synott, an Indian teen was the instigator of the logjam which you saw splashed all over the news back in 2019. Synott's book is about 2019.

But Synott is climbing the north side of Everest, the Chinese side, while most people climb the south side. The south side is more dangerous, because of the constantly shifting Khumbu Icefall at the bottom, but ultimately the paths connect and it's a dash, or maybe a slog, up to the top.

So, Synott is convinced to go to Everest to look for Sandy Irvine's body. They found his partner George Mallory in 1999, but they didn't find his camera, and the thought was he gave it to Irvine and if they could find Irvine's body they could probably find the camera and a hundred year old question could finally be settled...did they make it to the top before they died?

There's a lot of history about Irvine and Mallory's attempt in 1924, and also some info I did not know, that Mallory might have been married to Ruth but he was communicating with a fan and...was he faithful?

And of course you read about the insane outfits they climbed in back then, as opposed to the down suits of today. But, we still don't know if they summitted.

So Synott talks about how his adventures broke up his first marriage...when you're away that long it's hard to sustain a relationship, just ask the rock stars. And he believes Everest is beneath him, but he's convinced to go to look for Irvine, and then he gets summit fever.

Bad judgment and death. They go together on Everest. And the mountain might kill you when you least expect it, like the avalanche that wiped out tents in this case.

But...

Synott takes us from New Hampshire to Connecticut and London to do research, and then he's over there. And it turns out you can essentially drive to Mt. Everest today. The Chinese have forced the Tibetans off the land and into housing and traditional jobs and Chinese have moved there too and if you think a trip to Everest is still exotic, you're going to be disabused of this notion as you read this book.

So, they go with smartphones and wi-fi and drones. And you learn about the Sherpas and... That's another thing that has changed, the Sherpas have decided to make all this money for themselves, they own the adventure companies today, and they way underprice the traditional ones that charge 60 to 85k. But you get what you pay for. Still, they give everybody a Sherpa, but if you get in trouble...don't expect to be carried off the mountain.

So, Synott has acclimatized back home, in a tent that mimics high altitude air pressure. There's a company that has you acclimatize this way and gets you from home to the top of the world and back in a matter of days. Yup, now you can climb Everest and be back at work in two weeks instead of two months. And all this takes away from the exoticism of the adventure, then again, Synott and his team are there looking for Irvine.

So they don't go up during the one window.

It's all about the weather. And there are experts who divine it. Tell you when it's clear and you can summit. And on the appointed day in May, everybody was up there climbing, the professionals and the barely experienced. And Synott sits in ABC, Advanced Base Camp, and watches through the glasses and is stunned at what is happening.

He tells the story of people dying. And the truth is you're reading at home in comfort but somehow you feel that you're there, you can feel the risk, you're wondering about the outcome. And this ain't no TV show, not everybody lives.

And then it becomes about politics and money. Synott's team has delayed, but waiting for another window will they be allowed to climb, never mind look for Irvine?

There's a slew of books about Everest, but most of them are not worth your time, because the people can't write, never mind their story. "Into Thin Air" is still the best, because Krakauer is first and foremost a writer. He went to Everest in 1996 to write a story for "Outside" magazine, he had no idea there'd be trouble and so many people would die.

And Synott's a writer too. He won't like it when I say he's not as good as Krakauer, but he's head and shoulders above the rest. And he's more of a climber than Krakauer, more experienced, which aids his viewpoint.

So it all comes down to do you want to read this book?

I think from the foregoing you know if you're in or out. If you've got no interest in this kind of thing, forget it. But if you liked "Into Thin Air"...

I was tracking the 1996 disaster when it happened. But this was when there was only one website devoted to the climb and we were all on dialup. There was not that much information and it was still somewhat sketchy. Today Everest is a tourist site with full coverage. And truthfully, although I still follow climbing season, it doesn't hold quite the fascination it once did. I was stunned when they actually found Mallory's body, people had looked for it for seventy five years. But that was over two decades ago and what is there left to learn?

Well it turns out quite a lot, if you've got someone who can detail it in a palatable way.

What's it like climbing Everest in the modern era? What's it like compared to the old era? What are the business issues involved? Synott addresses all of these.

But ultimately it's just man against mountain. These climbers are all individuals and there may be teams, but ultimately they make their own decisions and they're all about testing the limits.

And once you've started, you cannot stop. Everest haunts you. There are other 8000 meter peaks. And ultimately it comes down to you, there's no lift, no ride, not even much help, even if you can pay for it, even Sherpas are limited in the death zone. So it's still primal, albeit with much better equipment.

If you're under forty, you'll think about going.

Or you'll tell yourself you'd never go.

But Synott and his buddies did. And Mark tells us all about it.

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