Everest '96: A Compelling Expose of Death and Deceit

by Ken Vernon

The highest mountain on the planet brings out the best in people – and the worst. We usually only read about the best - about the bravery, the courage and the sacrifice of mountaineers who risk life and limb to achieve excellence for themselves and others.
But there are other mountaineers – the charlatans, the conmen, the bullies, the petty-minded and narcissistic - who prefer to sacrifice others to their obsession to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

This book is about one of the worst!

In 1996, the deadliest year in the history of climbing Mt. Everest, both types were on the mountain. But in a cruel twist of fate the good guys died while the bad guy not only reached the top, but lived to prosper from it.

In a piece of top class investigative journalism Ken Vernon delves into the guts of one dysfunctional expedition that, despite being supported by the iconic Nelson Mandela, became an international laughing stock.

Everest ‘96 also peels back the layers of deception surrounding the fantastic past of the man who became the most reviled in mountaineering lore.

Ken Vernon is an Australian journalist with decades of experience covering stories ranging from the African wars of Independence to the climbing of Mt Everest.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

463 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2015

Reviews

[Alden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this book is a textbook example of why journalists create content and their trusty editors edit the text. I could not put my mental red pen down as I plowed through the typos and redundancies cluttering this tale. I plowed through, though!

Had I been Mr. Vernon's editor, I would also have suggested that he bring some of his obvious frankness and honesty to an assessment of one of his key roles in the story, when it appears that he told a racist joke (ironically, I'm sure) and deeply hurt one of his teammates. Given the forthrightness with which Mr. Vernon appears to approach life, I would have appreciated that extra honesty.

But this is a book about lack of honesty, and Vernon tells that tale so well that typos and a bit of personal fudging don't ruin the experience. I just wish Mr. Vernon had been able to add any depth or context to this very thorough pantsing of Ian Woodall. The world is onboard with a realization that Ian Woodall is a con man and a liar. But why? And how? While the interactions between Woodall and Vernon were almost universally unpleasant, Woodall must have some charisma and charm to perpetrate his cons. Woodall and O'Dowd are almost ciphers: evil, undisputedly, but one-dimensional and outrageous. This book could have transformed from forgettable gossip to a psychological classic with that dimension added.

The fact is that Ken Vernon was intricately involved in this scandal and that as a trained journalist he is very capable of marching through the timeline and making his argument. He does that. But this book comes off feeling like the tightly controlled but very rage-filled email one member sends a group when things have gone too far -- you know, the email that is way, way too long, cluttered with details that vindicate the author and don't really matter nearly as much as the author thinks they do. And reading this book is like reading that email: it's a tremendous, salacious ride that ends with no personal growth and a bitter taste in your mouth.

Also, typos.

[Kristi Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, this author REALLY needed an editor! Horrible grammatical errors and spelling errors, but I do attribute (maybe) some of that problem to the author being South African, trying to write for a US audience. Still, really no excuse. If you can get past that (and I did, eventually, by just accepting the fact that I'd have to re-read many sentences), the story itself was very interesting. What I got from this book is that Ian Woodall and his now wife, Cathy O'Dowd are a couple of really rotten human beings. A perfect example of a delusional man, who did nothing but lie to get where he wanted to go. Cathy O'Dowd; same thing. These two left people on the mountain to die...not only because they were too comfortable in their tent to lift a finger to help, but simply because they refused to loan a radio to another team. Absolutely deplorable. Ian Woodall is described as insane and a narcissist and, wow, I believe it. This is mostly due to the fact that ALL other accounts of the 1996 Mount Everest storm and resulting deaths, by many other authors who were there, are the same in the basics of the stories.....while Ian Woodall and his wife have plied their own story to benefit themselves and attempted (unsuccessfully) to paint themselves in a better light. They are just a couple of crummy folks. Funnier still.....Cathy O'Dowd is now a "motivational speaker".....wow. I would recommend that book - I enjoyed the story but was also repulsed by the behavior of these two. There was a third team member profiled as well, Bruce Herrod, who also died (he was a member of this team as well). He behaved almost as badly as Woodall and O'Dowd but, in the end, his own team members left him in a compromised state on the summit where he died. They failed to help their own people. Interesting read.

[Richard Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written excuse of a story

I can’t believe this author, Ken Vernon, is a respected journalist. This book is sloppily written and edited (although I suspect, not edited). The pronoun usage is atrocious. Constant use of I instead of me; myself instead of I. No journalist or editor would permit this.

Plus the non-pace of the story is frustrating. All this is is a complaint against the world and an unwillingness to face facts and instead putting people’s lives in danger. This was not an out of control project that could cost money and reputation, but rather an attempt to climb Everest without adequate preparation or management, where the outcome of failure and death were inevitable.

This book should be a mea culpa, not a defense of his actions, or rather, inaction.

On every page, I got nothing but justification and rationalization.

Gave up after 15% read. Wish I could get my money back.

[Karen A Finnemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't Even Imagine This Nightmare

1996 was a very difficult year for Everest. I've poured over all of the accounts on Hall and Fischer. We know where they went wrong. Somehow lost in the aftermath of the storms, I had never heard the entire story of the nightmare that was Ian Woodall. I read bits and bobs in the biographies of survivors. I'd say Vernon and the victims of Woodall experienced just as harrowing an ordeal as Krakauer, Boukreev, even Beck Winters. While most of Woodall's victims never set foot on Everest, the storm that they endured...I can't imagine. Actually, as someone who has worked with some severely mentally ill criminals, yes, I think I can imagine. Ian Woodall remains nothing more than a criminal desperately in need of serious medication. Kudos for bringing forth this wholistic view. Its a shame we are paying Woodall any time by remembering his name; he should be lost in the annals of failure.

[michael scullion · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read

Author does not hide his feelings towards any of the other people he is ascending the mountain with. I was unaware of this story before and will read more on it now

[Cynfusion]

Painful

If you know me, you know I love wilderness and outdoors nonfiction, and in particular climbing books. As an avid outdoor person and former climber, I eat them up.

So it pains me to have to say this, because I feel for the author - writing is hard to do, it can be rewarding but the moments of pain are many, and when you're done, whether it gets read or not is a crap shoot.

But. This book NEEDS an editor. So badly. Run on sentences, grammatical errors and poorly formed sentences abound. Not to mention some truly cringe-worthy imagery. I'm not sure I can finish it.

I'll try because I am interested to read about the 1996 Everest disaster from this perspective, but we'll see.

[Kay Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a major problem with this book because of Ian Woodall and Cathy O'dowd. The mere mention of their names turn my stomach. With people dying all around them they did nothing.I would not have granted either of them a word on any page much less an entire book.Three stars for someone trying to tell the truth.Trying only.Herrod summits Mount Everest.Good for him and all it cost him was his life.Woodall and O'dowd earned the scorn of mountain climbers the world over. Men and women of great reputation and skill refuse to acknowledge them but South Africa did and shame on that country for doing it.

[Lois Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This account from a journalist member of the South African “team” is fascinating. The writing needs heavy proofreading and editing. The early chapters read as an angry rant and the flow of the information is very disjointed. There are many, many errors in spelling and grammar. The author tends to repeat certain things over and over. This reads like many journal entries and articles cobbled into one book. I wish Jon Krakauer had written this book. The story is interesting if you can wade through the writing.

[Tina Otten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enlightening insight to the South African 96 expedition

Almost too stressful to read. I can't imagine having to tolerate the fantasies of grandeur of Ian Woodall. I commend the author for having restrained himself from choking the little general to his death! I am also very sorry that after all the authors efforts, he was unable to spend any quality time at base camp or climbing.

[Kim Stringfellow Long · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tragic story

I'm fascinated with Everest and all the stories about it and the climbers who try, to summit, successful or not. I'm very familiar with the 1996 season and the tragedies that took peace. This is another great book but has a lot of misspellings and grammatical errors that detract some from the story. I wouldn't start with this book, but if you're fascinated with the people that risk all to reach the highest place on earth, definitely read it at some point!

[Karen Wagner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointing

I am an Everest enthusiast but very saddened by this book. The book is redundant with many typographical and grammatical errors. Did anyone even review it (edit) before it was published?

However, the saddest part of this book is the author taking an already horrible and tragic situation and pointing his own apparent anger and hatred directly at another repeatedly. Was it really necessary to go on and on and on over and over again? We get the point.

[richard a brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW

Intrigue galore!
I've read pretty extensively about Everest 96, but not the woodall, O'dowd version, so I'll withhold my final judgement.
But one thing for certain, I won't pay a penny to read their side but have appreciated Krakours and Visteurs versions and Vernons too as credible to fault.

[Amanda Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping rendition of the story surrounding the South African quest to climb Mt Everest in 1996. Story takes you through the frustrations, adrenalin and drama of the events surrounding the climb. Great read... can thoroughly recommend.

[Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Editor left many spelling and grammatical errors in the digital book.

Interesting, but errors reduced enjoyment of the book. Too bad
The villain did not suffer some punishment for all the wrong he did.

[Frances Dingle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read

I can’t remember the last time a book took my breath away. I couldn’t put this book down! So well written, one really does feel like they are on the side of that mighty mountain. What a great book and the story is such a wonderful read.

[Tiffany Hutchinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

South African Expedition

The book was okay. It took a lot to get to the point of Woodall being a jerk and sometimes felt repetitive. A great recap of 96 Everest from the South African perspective though.

[Brenda Haley miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fascinating account of the 1996 Everest tragedy

This book answered a lot of questions I had about the South African team when I watched the movie Everest.

[Nigel Pinkus · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was absurd, mind boggling and absolutely incredible that an incompetent charlatan could hoodwink leaders of a country into believing that a fellow by the name of Ian Woodall could lead and organise an expedition to Everest. When, in actual fact, he had NO mountaineering experience at all. Without giving away too much more of the story, readers will find that Chapter Five in the book explains an incredible amount about Ian Woodall.

Whilst, it has been about twenty five years since the Everest tragedy where it will be remembered as the single worst loss of life ever on the mountain, this reader has found himself reading yet another perspective of that terrible day. This time it was from a journalist by the name of Ken Vernon. There were several journalists there on that day who were also following various expeditions (Mountain Madness, Imax, the Johannesburg Sunday Times Expedition et. al.) up the mountain. On this occasion, Vernon was suppose to, suppose to, have been following the South African expedition (the Johannesburg Sunday Times Expedition) up to the summit of the biggest mountain in the world. But, (and this is a huge, but) the reader will find out that the trip was run by literally a mad man. Three of the most experienced climbers in the group had already quit the team even before getting to base camp and Vernon actually quit not soon after.

Indeed, many climbers at base camp called the South African group the 'psych. ward' because they had built a low lying wall around their camp to be by themselves. Many of the remaining members of the group didn't even have any 'experience in snow and ice'. Indeed, another fell on some ice and rendered themselves unconscious and another didn't even know how to fix an ice axe onto their backpack. You have to remember that this was not a training exercise on Mount Hood, but a real expedition up about 8000m where you’ll need to climb ice walls, wear oxygen above 8000 meters and be above 5300m (base camp elevation) on the biggest mountain in the world for several weeks!

Rob Hall, Ed Viesturs, Bokreev, Goran Kropp and Andy Harris et. al. all had some bad things to say about how incompetent the group was. Bokreev, wrote that,"there were some real 'punters' on the mountain in 1996 and then there was the Johannesburg Sunday Times Expedition"! Lastly, and quite importantly, Vernon uses a number of sources to verify his finding. Some of these sources include, but weren’t limited to: 'The Climb', Bokreev & G Weston DeWalt. 2015; ‘Dark Shadows Falling’, Joe Simpson. 1997 and ’Into Thin Air’, Jon Krakauer. 1997. After all that has happened and just when you think you have had enough, you read chapter thirteen and then the epilogue. By all means read this story, but read it and weep! 4 stars.

[Marsha Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Cathy O'Dowd's "Just for the Love of It," which tells the story of Ian Woodall's 1996 Everest expedition, which was a very odd story. O'Dowd is very forgiving of Woodall, whom she also happened to fall in love with on the trip and later marry, but notes that everyone seemed to hate him, and she gave her opinion that the trip was messed up by the demands of the journalists sent to cover it.

This book is by one of the journalists sent to cover it, Ken Vernon, who tells a very different (and obviously heavily researched) version of the story, explaining why everyone but Cathy, Ian, and a professional climber named Bruce (who died on the mountain) dropped out, and it turns out for very good reasons. Even in the crazy year of 1996, the South African team was having its own controversy and its own possibly unnecessary deaths. There's lots of stuff about Ian lying about his military background, his climbing background, his supplies, his intent to let the black female team member climb (he never even registered her for the permit), his citizenship (he wasn't South African), and just about everything else. He scammed the newspaper that paid for the expedition and the government of South Africa. He scammed Nelson Mandela, which is pretty damn ballsy.

Vernon is a better researcher than a writer, and repeats himself many times, sometimes just a couple pages later. But it's worth reading if you want to fall down this particular rabbit hole.

[Fiona Wu · Rating 3 out of 5]

probably could have been a shorter book

It really took me a while to finish the book. It is very detailed in counting almost all the arguments within the South Africa expedition in 1996…but just a bit too much. On top of that, the spelling errors made the book even harder to read. Mind you, English is my second language, so at times I self doubt whether it is me who didn’t understand the sentence.

But on the bright side, it did provide another perspective of the 1996 disaster. I’ve already read almost every book (except Woodall and o’dowd’s, but I don’t plan to read them) mentioned in this one, so I’m very familiar with the tragic 1996 disaster. So I’d say…if you like drama and you have time..this book has enough of that for you.

[CHRISTOPHER D NOE · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gripping Story that Accompanies the Better-Known Everest Accounts

This story is intriguing. Everything I’ve seen about Everest in 1996 has focused on the gripping and tragic story of Hall and Fischer. This parallel story is interesting not just for the parts about actually ascending Everest, but the human and team drama that took place with the South African team. Moreover, it gives a glimpse into the Nepal trekking scene, which takes place in the Himalayas below Everest Base Camp every year.

[Sandra Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked the story. Grammatically yes not perfect but the story was good. Always intrigues me the obsession with this bloody mountain. I don’t get it with the risk. But also interesting were the personalities involved. How someone can get away with lying, bullying, fabricating, selfishness, etc. and no one stopped him!

[Grace Breitenbeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a has interesting insights and nuggets of great story telling interspersed in a repetitive, poorly edited narrative. The story at the core of this book is fascinating and infuriating and worth learning about if you are at all interested in mountaineering.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gripping read of what happens when a small man meets a big mountain.