Works Cited
Schaffer, Grayson. "Lost on Everest." Outside
May 2013: 64-76. Print.
The article by Grayson Schaffer titled “Lost on Everest” highlights the
upcoming 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of Mt.
Everest by Jim Whittaker and Sherpa Nawang Gombu. It serves to give a timeline
of events as well as the main participants, but also highlights a lesser well
know accomplishment. Whittaker and Gombu reached the summit on May 1st,
1963 via the already established South Col route, but two other American
climbers would summit by a different route that hadn’t been climbed successfully
prior to their ascent. On May 22nd, 1963, Tom Hornbein and Willi
Unsoeld became the first climbers to summit Mt. Everest via the West Ridge
route (67). Compared to other routes on
Everest, the West Ridge has proven to be one of the most difficult. As Shaffer
wrote, “In 50 years, only 17 climbers have repeated variations on Hornbein and
Unsoeld’s ascent, and 13 have died in pursuit” (76). The article looks to
highlight the achievements of Hornbein and Unsoeld, since their accomplishment
seems to have become forgotten by historians, but is well recognized in the
alpine climbing community.
As a magazine article, the text is presented in a way that is both
factual and engaging to a wide audience. It presents both factual data such as
dates and other pertinent statistics, but it also addresses the attitudes and mindset
of the climbers (74-76). It also serves as a historical document that compiles
information for multiple sources to summarize the events of the 1963 expedition
(76). Most of the expedition members wrote books about their experiences, but
not all of them. Willi Unsoeld was the most notable to not write a memoir, “Unsoeld,
the team’s most articulate member, never wrote a book, but his career was celebrated
as well” (76).
This article can be read and enjoyed or understood by a wide variety of
readers. The audience could consist of hobby outdoor enthusiasts, to alpine
climbers, to historians. There are elements of all three aspects included since
this is both a historical article as well as an outdoor article, which gives
the piece a broad target audience. The article struck a chord with me as I’m
both an avid outdoor enthusiast as well as interested in history. The article
summary does an excellent job of catching the reader’s attention by stating “Fifty
years ago this month, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit
Everest. Three weeks later, a second party from the same team made an even more
stunning assault on the mountain’s unclimbed West Ridge” (64).
Without knowing the authors background, you can get a sense that he has a
strong background in various outdoor pursuits, as well as an interest in
history. He is also an articulate writer, the work has a smooth flow to it, so
it is very possible he has a degree or extensive education in writing.
According to a sentence at the end of the article referring to a previous piece
Schaffer wrote about Everest, it lists him as a senior editor for the magazine
(76).
A point I feel the author made a significant attempt to stress was that
even reaching Everest in 1963 was no small feat, let alone making it to the
summit. This was an era well before established guiding companies and
established routes, and the funding to even make it to base camp usually
entailed either government sponsorship or research grants (68). The expedition
leader, Norman Dyhrenfurth had to raise $400,000 through several sources to
make the expedition possible, so to be the first American team to successfully summit
Everest would have been an amazing feat unto itself. This also would serve to
overshadow the other accomplishment of the West Ridge summit, to the point that
Dyhrenfurth tried to prevent this from occurring by initially not releasing the
names of the first summit team. According to Schaffer “Dyhrenfurth had at least
two more assault teams, as they were called, still trying to make the summit - one
of them via the fearsome new route up the West Ridge, a steep and technical
line - and the group didn’t want its potential to accomplishments overshadowed”
(66).
Historically speaking, the achievements of Hornbein and Unsoeld have gone
relatively unnoticed outside of the climbing community. With the 50th
anniversary of the first American ascent approaching, I feel Schaffer was
compelled to revisit the expedition’s story and expose a newer generation to
the events of 1963. History is written in hindsight; as new information or new
revelations come about, history is revisited and revised. Since Schaffer had
access to transcripts that hadn’t been published, he could put more pieces of
the story together to paint a bigger picture of the expedition, as well as
Hornbein and Unsoeld’s achievement. Schaffer ends the piece with a quote from Tom
Hornbein that I feel accurately sums up the dedication it took to achieve the
West Ridge and why it has been such a difficult route to be followed, saying “the
total feeling of detachment with anything else in the world that seemed to
matter - family, child - only Mount Everest was there at the time, and only the
summit above us seemed to be beckoning me” (76).
