Boukreev was born on January 16, 1958 in the Urals of Russia. After completing high school in 1975, he attended Chelabinsk University for Pedagogy in Russia where he majored in physics, and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1979. At the same time, he also completed a coaching program for cross-country skiing.
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2 Annapurna 1997 3 Climbing accomplishments 4 Reference 5 External links |
Boukreev was the lead climbing guide for the Mountain Madness expedition headed by Scott Fischer. The expedition had eight clients whom each had paid somewhere in the vicinity of $65,000 USD for a fully guided summit attempt of Mt. Everest:
Starting around midnight on May 10, Boukreev, Neil Beidleman (guide), Scott Fischer and Sherpas began guiding the eight clients to the summit, starting from Camp IV on the South Col (7,900m/25,900'). Boukreev, Beidleman and all eight clients eventually reached the summit, but much later than what is considered a safe maximum turnaround time (typically 2pm). Boukreev descended to Camp IV, after consulting with Fischer, ahead of the climbers to prepare tea and food upon their return. The storm that rolled in caused many difficulties on the descent, including several climbers getting lost and well off the normal descent route. Fox, Madsen and Pittman managed to reach the South Col but were hopelessly lost in the storm and unable to determine the location of Camp IV. Boukreev heard about these lost climbers and managed to locate them huddled in a circle around 2am on May 11.
Fischer did not reach the summit until 3:45pm. Fischer was feeling ill (possibly suffering from HACE) and had totally exhausted himself on the ascent. He was unable to descend below the South Summit (8,350m/27,395') due to his condition and the storm that had rolled in. On May 11, Boukreev made a solo rescue attempt but found Fischer's nearly frozen body at around 7pm. A memorial cairn for Fischer is located on the crest of a hill near Lobuche.
In January 1997, Boukreev gave his expedition logs, personal journals, letters and memories to Gary Weston DeWalt who then collected all the information into a book called The Climb. Some of the facts provided in this book differ with the accounts offered in Jon Krakauer's book Into Thin Air. The Climb was also a response to some of the accusations made by Krakauer in his book concerning the decisions and actions by Boukreev -- e.g. to descend to Camp IV before the clients.
On December 6, 1997, Boukrev was awarded the David A. Sowles Memorial Award by the American Alpine Club for his heroism and devotion in rescuing the three lost climbers.
In the winter of 1997, Boukreev was attempting to climb the south face of Annapurna I (8,078m) along with Simone Moro, an accomplished Italian mountaineer. They were accompanied by Dimitri Sobolev, a cinematographer from Kazakhstan, who was documenting the attempt. On December 25 around noon, Boukreev and Moro were fixing ropes in a couloir at around the 5,700m (18,700') level. Suddenly, a cornice broke loose from a ridge not visible from the climbing route. The resulting avalanche knocked Moro down the mountain where he landed just above their tent at Camp I (5,200m/17,060'). Fortuitously, Moro had somehow stayed near the top of the avalanche debris and managed to dig himself out after a few minutes. Unable to see or hear any signs of Boukreev or Sobolev, Moro descended to Annapurna base camp where he was flown by helicopter back to Kathmandu for surgery on his hands, which had been ripped down to the tendons during the fall.
News of the accident reached New Mexico on December 26. Linda Wylie, Boukreev's girlfriend, left for Nepal on December 28. Several attempts were made to reach the avalanche site by helicopter but inclement weather in late December prevented search teams from reaching Camp I. There was some hope that perhaps Boukreev and Sobolev had managed to reach Camp I. However, on January 3, 1998, searchers were finally able to reach Camp I and an empty tent. Linda Wylie subsequently issued a somber statement from Kathmandu:
The major highlights of Boukreev's climbing career are as follows:
Everest 1996
¹All ages given relative to 1996.
Annapurna 1997
"This is the end... there are no hopes of finding him alive."
Climbing accomplishments
See also: Eight-thousander, List of climbers