The Alpinist’s web site is running an excerpt from High Crimes: the Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed by Michael Kodas.

High Crimes documents the shocking but very real emergence of theft as yet another deadly threat climbers must face on 8000 meter peaks. You’ve probably heard about the ‘borrowing’ of oxygen bottles on Everest and similar tales, but the depth of the crime on Everest and other big peaks (including K2!) is truly astonishing.

Kodas notes numerous incidents in which climbers left high camps (ie, the last camp before summit) for marathon summit pushes only to return and find their tents ransacked, with critical supplies, such as fuel, clothing, and even sleeping bags gone. Obviously, such theft is life-threatening for exhausted, exposed climbers at extreme altitude with the sun going down.

The author makes the point that in many of these cases, it would be patently evident to the thieves that their actions could directly lead to the deaths of other climbers. If you watch someone take off for the summit, and then raid his tent, what you are doing is tantamount to murder.

If that sounds like an overstatement, consider the situation Don Bowie found himself in while trying for a solo summit of the Karakorum’s Broad Peak (more…)

It’s that happy time of the month when I get to do my new content dance. Up for your inspection is a review of R.J. Secor’s authoritative guidebook, The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails.

The depth of coverage in Secor’s book is truly astonishing. According to the cover, The High Sierra describes “every known route” on over 570 Sierra Peaks. This has become the climber’s bible for Sierra afficianados. If you love to hike or climb in the Sierra, you really owe it to yourself to pick up a copy—your bookshelf is naked without it.