Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #159936 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Why just climb Everest when you can climb it without supplemental oxygen? Why just climb it without oxygen when you can climb it alone? And why fly to Nepal to climb Everest when you can bicycle all the way there? Apparently questions such as these occurred to Göran Kropp, a Swede with a taste for adventure and a desire for the Ultimate High. In October 1995 Kropp set out from Sweden with a bicycle, trailer and more than 200 pounds of equipment. Over the next four months he cycled some 7,000 miles across Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. By the time he arrived in Kathmandu, Kropp had been shot at, pelted with rocks and offered the madam's daughter--free of charge--in a Hungarian brothel.

After carrying his own equipment up to Everest Base Camp, Kropp found himself surrounded by other climbers, all waiting for a break in the weather so they could attempt the summit. Many books have been written about that disastrous season on Everest, notably Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Anatoli Boukreev's The Climb. Kroop adds little of substance to the story, engaging mainly in camp gossip about who was sleeping with whom and "outing" climbers who lied about reaching summits. Even Kropp's account of his own climb is somewhat suspenseless--though some readers will be relieved that he doesn't go into too much detail about his physical breakdown. More tiresome is Kropp's clear disdain for climbers who use supplemental oxygen ("Mount Everest is not 29,028 feet tall if the mountain is scaled by a climber wearing an oxygen mask"). Climbers who "see Everest and other high peaks reduced to trophies kept in a china cabinet" are also despised--though his "Ultimate Mountain List" (he's already climbed 16 of the 22) seems a bit like a trophy room itself.

After he finally reached the summit--on his third attempt in less than a month--Kropp spent a few weeks recouperating in Kathmandu and then hopped on his bike for the long and rugged ride home. Not satisfied, Kropp is already planning and training for his next adventure, to take place in 2004: sailing from Sweden to Antarctica, then skiing to the South Pole and returning--all solo. That he is only just learning to sail doesn't dissuade him--"I like to jump headfirst into new projects." Ultimate High is proof that he's determined-- and crazy--enough to complete them. --Sunny Delaney

Synopsis
A personal account of one man's determination to climb Mount Everest alone describes how the Swedish climber accomplished his goal, within days of the 1995 tragedy that took the lives of a number of fellow climbers.

Customer Reviews

A riveting read, a great detailed account of Goran's Journey
From the first page, the book was hardly put down. From one page to the next, it was very interesting to read about the adventure of one man who was attempting the almost impossible. He related his jouney to the context around him and the people he met. Plenty of exciting and moving moments throughout the whole book. I would recomend this book to anyone, whether they are interested in Mount Everest or not, after they have read it, they will be.