London, 1997, 1st edition. 211 pp, color photos, maps. Dickinson and Alan Hinkes summited Everest in May 1996, at the same time the tragedies chronicled in Into Thin Air were happening. They witnessed climbers leaving desperate parties to die in the snow, and this book adds more fuel to the ethical questions now raging through climbing. DJ, New.
From the dustwrapper:
'It seemed like any other season on Everest. After six weeks of acclimatisation, ten expeditions were high on the mountain preparing for their summit push. They set out in perfect conditions on 10 May 1996. But twenty-four hours later,eight climbers were dead and a further three were to die later, victims of one of the most devastating storms ever to hit Everest. It was the worst twenty-four hours in the history of the peak.
On the North Face of the mountain, a British expedition found itself in the thick of the drama. Against all the odds, film-maker Matt Dickinson and professional climber Alan Hinkes managed to battle through hurricane-force winds to reach the summit. Based on the first-hand experience of having lived through the killer storm, this book tackles issues at the very heart of mountaineering. How could three Japanese climbers leave Indians also attempting the peak to die? What made an Austrian climber give up his life in the quest to climb Everest without oxygen?
Finally, there is the summit success of the two British climbers, in which Matt Dickinson became the first Briton to film on the summit of Everest and return alive.The Death Zone is an extraordinary story of human triumph, folly and disaster.
