Boukreev himself, of course, was very worried that his friend and boss Fisher died on the mountain and that he could not save Hall's dying clients (one of them miraculously survived and later returned to the camp himself, although he was severely frostbitten). But in the eyes of the people whom he led to the tents, and in the eyes of many of his colleagues, who knew firsthand about the blinding storms on Everest, during which sometimes it was necessary to move by touch, Boukreev was a real and unconditional hero.
This, however, was not at all the story about Boukreev that America learned when the press began to write about this tragedy. One of the participants in Hall's expedition was the well-known journalist John Krakauer in mountaineering circles, the author of many exciting publications and an excellently trained climber (albeit without the experience of climbing the highest mountains of the earth).

Hall took him on an expedition to advertise for himself, and Fischer was quite annoyed that Krakauer had gone over to Hall, although he originally intended to climb Everest with Fischer's expedition. However, instead of advertising extreme commercial mountaineering, Krakauer wrote a harsh criticism for Outside magazine after the May 10 tragedy. And the main villain of this article was Bukreev.

No, Krakauer did not deny that the Russian guide saved the poor fellows who, without him, probably would not have survived the night in the snow. But, according to the journalist, Boukreev extinguished the fire, which he himself kindled. Krakauer insisted that after a successful assault on the summit, Bukreev was one of the first to return to the camp, leaving his clients on the mountain. Like, if a Russian accompanied clients, as a professional guide should do, then they would either have managed to descend Everest before the storm began, or they would not have gotten lost in a blizzard. And then at least some of those who did not survive the attack of the elements survived.
Krakauer also lamented that Boukreev did not communicate much with clients and did not explain to them everything there was to know on Everest, that he was not dressed warmly enough and that he did not use an oxygen mask when climbing - unlike most other participants in both expeditions. According to the journalist, if Boukreev did everything right, he would have enough strength to save not only those whom he saved, but also those whom he did not get to.
Krakauer's journalistic arguments were eloquent and convincing. When he repeated them in his hot pursuit and immediately best-selling book In Thin Air, America recognized Boukreev as a villain - in the sense that the word is used in a situation where people died due to raging nature. "A gloomy Russian from Kazakhstan" (Boukreev was born in the RSFSR, but moved to Kazakhstan to be closer to the mountains, and after the collapse of the USSR, he received Kazakh citizenship) was the ideal lightning rod for those who wanted a villain in this sad story.

For Boukreev, all this came as a real shock. Especially because Krakauer interviewed him for an article and a book, and Anatoly felt that he provided comprehensive and justifying answers. The "hitting" on his clothes was sucked from a finger - during the expedition, Boukreev was dressed in the same way as his companions, in the best available high-altitude suits. He did not use oxygen because he knew, like many experienced climbers, that a person who runs out of oxygen at a height becomes almost helpless. His body simply does not have time to acclimatize to thin air.

Yasuko Namba, Japanese, 47 years old, member of Rob Hall's team. She was
at that time the oldest among women who reached the summit of Everest.

And since the physiology of Boukreev made it possible to climb Everest without an oxygen mask, he did just that. True, he had an oxygen cylinder with him, but during the ascent he handed it over to his fellow guide, and this turned out to be the right decision - the spare oxygen really came in handy.

As for communicating with clients, Fischer knew perfectly well that Boukreev had been seriously studying English for only a few years, and he did not expect his subordinate to be filled with a nightingale. It was the work of Fischer himself, his team in the intermediate camps and the third guide - the one to whom Boukreev gave the oxygen cylinder.

The Russian climber was hired as the most experienced "high-altitude climber" that Fischer could afford, and his main task was paving the way to the summit of Everest and making the climb easier for clients. After a successful assault on the Bukreev summit, according to Fischer's plan, agreed in advance and confirmed during the expedition, he was supposed to quickly descend to the intermediate camp, take a break and go out to meet clients who by that moment would probably have been exhausted and poorly aware.
So the climber did, and he did not "abandon" anyone - Fischer and the third guide were with the clients who lagged behind him. As we now know, this plan worked. Rested Boukreev managed to save people who would have died without him.

Why didn't Boukreev lead clients from start to finish? Because the usual everyday logic does not work on Everest. We are accustomed to the fact that a person who moves slowly spends less energy. Therefore, it is easier to walk a kilometer calmly than to run a hundred meters. But at the top of Everest, as doctors say, the human body begins to slowly die, and every second spent in such a thin air takes away strength, even if the climber is sitting or lying down. If Boukreev accompanied his clients, and not "ran" first from the mountain, and then back to it, he would not have saved his energy, but got out of them just like his clients.

Doug Hansen, American, 46 years old, member of the Rob Hall team. This postal worker
worked two jobs at once to pay for his dream and climb Mount Everest.

Krakauer's claims were all the more strange because Boukreev was a guide from the "neighboring" expedition and that all the clients in his team survived. If the journalist was worried about the death of his companions, then the claims had to be made to the guides from Hall's expedition - those who remained on the mountain, and the only one who survived. Boukreev was not responsible for Krakauer's companions, and he worried about them only because he was brought up in the spirit of mutual assistance.

When Boukreev realized which barrel Krakauer had rolled over him, he tried to defend himself. First, he explained his behavior in a letter to the editorial office of Outside, and then, together with the journalist G. Weston de Walt, prepared the book "Ascent", where he outlined his view of the tragedy of May 10.
For most professionals, both in the West and in our country, his correctness was obvious, and the American Alpine Club, which carefully studied those events, expressed its attitude towards Boukreev when, as already mentioned, it awarded him for heroism. But since "Thin Air" came out earlier and it was much more popular than "Ascent", many people who did not consider the tragedy on Everest from all points of view still adhere to Krakauer's position.

Obviously, this is why the creators of Everest did not make Boukreev the main character. Instead of getting into an argument between two positions and choosing one of them or finding a compromise solution, Kormakur and his team filmed Everest not as a movie about villainy or heroism, but as a story about human weakness before the power of nature and the inextinguishable desire of people to conquer the highest the mountains. At the same time, they did not have to suffer with the Russian as the main character, and they were able to focus on characters more understandable to the Western public.

End of April 1996, Everest base camp. Group portrait of the team
Rob Hall in front of a Buddhist altar on the eve of a tragic ascent.

Everything seems to be clear, but the question remains: why Krakauer "appointed" Bukreev a villain and why he still insists on this, taking advantage of the fact that the Russian climber who died in 1997 can no longer object to him (Bukreev was covered with an avalanche during the ascent to the Nepalese Mount Annapurna)? The simplest explanation is that this is a manifestation of Russophobia. Bukreev did not like Krakauer simply because he was not like him, and when the journalist was looking for a "scapegoat", Boukreev seemed the best candidate.

However, other, even darker explanations are possible. First, Krakauer, who returned to the intermediate camp on time, was one of those who could go with Boukreev in search of lost climbers. But he stayed in the tent while Boukreev single-handedly searched for his and his comrades. The betrayal does not pass without a trace - perhaps Krakauer tried to belittle Boukreev in order to drown out the voice of his conscience, which shouted at him that he showed weakness, while the other showed himself to be a hero.

Secondly, Kracauer could be driven by financial considerations. When a person displays heroism worthy of praise in the press, Americans expect a book from him about his feat. Of course, such a book is usually written by a "ghost writer" based on conversations with its hero. Yet this is a first-person narrative, and the formal author of the book receives a significant chunk of the royalties. So if Krakauer had declared Boukreev a hero, they would have expected a book written in collaboration with Boukreev. And the journalist did not want to share fame and money. After all, he himself took part in the expedition, and did not describe it from hearsay! Why miss the chance to become famous on your own?
Be that as it may, Boukreev's reputation was irreparably damaged. You can insist on his correctness as much as you like, but Krakauer's accusations surface every time Bukreev is discussed, and the very fact of their existence casts a shadow on his otherwise impeccable reputation. Even worse, they, as in this case, interfere with the recognition of Boukreev as a hero. Although he would be a great Hollywood character - if his name was John Smith and he was born in Oregon, not in the Chelyabinsk region.

Anatoly Bukreev is one of the giants of the outgoing era of Soviet mountaineering, with his team spirit, display of incredible will and professionalism in any situation.

Viktor Kozlov first published an interview with Anatoly Bukreev, which he filmed at Everest Base Camp in 1997.

Anatoly talks about the tragic events of 1996, which were the reason for the films "Death on Everest" (1997) and Everest (2015), in which he was a participant.

From the Editor:

The tragedy on Chomolungma in May 1996 is called the events that occurred on May 11, 1996 and led to the mass death of climbers on the southern slope of Chomolungma.

For the entire 1996 season, 15 people died while climbing the mountain, which forever inscribed this year as one of the most tragic in the history of the conquest of Chomolungma. The May tragedy received wide publicity in the press and the mountaineering community, questioning the feasibility and moral aspects of the commercialization of Chomolungma.

The surviving participants in the events offered their versions of what happened, each.
.

The opposite point of view was stated by a Kazakh climber of Russian origin

Anatoly Bukreev did his job, for which he was hired by the head of the expedition, Scott Fisher, to lay the route to the top and fix the ropes, did not use oxygen and then went down to the assault camp at the direction of Fisher, leaving the group, as expected, with their high-altitude guides.

Later, Krakauer decided that Boukreev had done this in vain and tried to expose cowardice here. No one then could have imagined that this successful ascent to the summit of Everest would be brutally "torn apart" by the strongest cyclone that suddenly collapsed on the mountain and pulled out the last strength and life of the climbers in the "death zone" above 8000 meters.

Anatoly, who was waiting for the group in the assault camp, had no idea about this either. When he saw barely alive, frostbitten and almost lifeless rare participants in the ascent, without hesitation he went upstairs, into the night, into a stormy hurricane, into pitch hell, into that very "death zone" in order to pull out who else was possible.

You can learn more about those events with a detailed analysis of the mistakes made in organizing the expedition from the National Geographic documentary "Seconds Before the Disaster: In the Dead Zone". We add that dozens, hundreds of people from all over the world expressed their sincere gratitude to Anatoly Bukreev for saving the climbers.

Boukreev was awarded the David Souls American Alpine Club Award, presented to climbers who rescued people in the mountains at risk for their own lives, by a public commendation from the House of Representatives of the US Congress in 1997. The facts speak for themselves - Boukreev's crucial role in saving lives on Everest was immeasurable.

However, the Soviet climber also received other significant awards - the Order "For Personal Courage" of the USSR and the Kazakh medal "Erligi Ushin" ("For Courage"). He was known and respected immensely everywhere. He was born in the Chelyabinsk region, lived and studied in Chelyabinsk, where he reached the first grade in mountaineering, continued his growth as a professional in Alma-Ata, and America became his “third” home, where his common-law wife, doctor Linda Wylie, lived. and friends, famous climbers and rock climbers of the USA.

Anatoly Boukreev literally pushed the horizons human capabilities and reached "space", 21 times (!!) ascending the highest eight-thousanders of the planet.

He passed the world's first traverse of all four peaks of the third eight-thousander as part of the USSR's Second Himalayan Expedition to Kanchenjunga (8586 meters), set world records for the first high-speed races to Elbrus (5642 meters) and seven-thousanders Lenin Peak (7134 meters) - prohibitive achievements that are not no one in the world could repeat it for decades.

Top-class professional. The world's most famous high-altitude guide.
A real climber. Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. Winner of the title "Snow Leopard" for climbing all seven-thousanders of the USSR in the Pamirs and Tien Shan.

The list of his achievements is limitless and inexhaustible. How much he could tell in total! But we cannot talk to him - Anatoly died while climbing his twelfth eight-thousander in 1997 in winter. Mount Annapurna "kept" him at home. Anatoly walked in conjunction with the Italian Simone Moro, but suddenly a huge snow cornice, near which Boukreev was located, collapsed, provoking a giant avalanche and leveling everything around into a white, endless snow field.

To tell what happened to Boukreev, we will have to actively "spoil" and retell a significant part of the ending of the film. This is a minor crime, as the events of May 10, 1996 were covered in the press many times and several books have been written about them. Even before the release of "Everest" anyone could find out from Wikipedia which of the heroes would not return from the highest mountain in the world (of course, provided that director Balthazar Cormakur followed historical facts). But if you haven't watched Everest yet and don't want us to spoil your surprise, please don't read on. We will wait for you ...

May 10, 1996 went down in the history of the conquest of Everest as one of the most tragic days. A total of eight people died then - three Indian climbers who are not mentioned in Everest and who will not interest us in the future, and five participants in Western commercial expeditions led by Rob Hall and Scott Fisher (these two experienced climbers were led by partly competing, partly collaborating company). Hall and Fischer themselves, as well as one of Hall's guides and two of his clients, remained on the mountain forever. Boukreev was a guide from Fischer's team, and thanks to him, none of his company's clients died.

Boukreev that day and that night proved himself not only as a professional, but also as a remarkable daredevil. In a blizzard, when no other inhabitants of the intermediate camp dared to stick their nose out of the tent, Boukreev went out to meet the lost and exhausted climbers and brought them to the camp slightly frostbitten, but alive. He personally saved three people - those who could move and whom he managed to get to. By the standards of Everest, it was a feat. After all, people storming a transcendental height often believe that on Everest everyone is for himself and that desperate attempts to save others is the fastest way to their own death.

Boukreev himself, of course, was very worried that his friend and boss Fisher died on the mountain and that he could not save Hall's dying clients (one of them miraculously survived and later returned to the camp himself, although he was severely frostbitten). But in the eyes of the people whom he led to the tents, and in the eyes of many of his colleagues, who knew firsthand about the blinding storms on Everest, during which sometimes it was necessary to move by touch, Boukreev was a real and unconditional hero.

This, however, was not at all the story about Boukreev that America learned when the press began to write about this tragedy. One of the participants in Hall's expedition was the well-known journalist John Krakauer in mountaineering circles, the author of many exciting publications and an excellently trained climber (albeit without the experience of climbing the highest mountains of the earth). Hall took him on an expedition to advertise for himself, and Fischer was quite annoyed that Krakauer had gone over to Hall, although he originally intended to climb Everest with Fischer's expedition. However, instead of advertising extreme commercial mountaineering, Krakauer wrote a harsh criticism for Outside magazine after the May 10 tragedy. And the main villain of this article was Bukreev.

Shot from the movie "Everest"

No, Krakauer did not deny that the Russian guide saved the poor fellows who, without him, probably would not have survived the night in the snow. But, according to the journalist, Boukreev extinguished the fire, which he himself kindled. Krakauer insisted that after a successful assault on the summit, Bukreev was one of the first to return to the camp, leaving his clients on the mountain. Like, if a Russian accompanied clients, as a professional guide should do, then they would either have managed to descend Everest before the storm began, or they would not have gotten lost in a blizzard. And then at least some of those who did not survive the attack of the elements survived. Krakauer also lamented that Boukreev did not communicate much with clients and did not explain to them everything there was to know on Everest, that he was not dressed warmly enough and that he did not use an oxygen mask when climbing - unlike most other participants in both expeditions. According to the journalist, if Boukreev did everything right, he would have enough strength to save not only those whom he saved, but also those whom he did not get to.

Krakauer's journalistic arguments were eloquent and convincing. When he repeated them in his hot pursuit and immediately best-selling book In Thin Air, America recognized Boukreev as a villain - in the sense that the word is used in a situation where people died due to raging nature. “A gloomy Russian from Kazakhstan” (Bukreev was born in the RSFSR, but moved to Kazakhstan to be closer to the mountains, and after the collapse of the USSR he received Kazakh citizenship) was the ideal lightning rod for those who wanted a villain in this sad story.

For Boukreev, all this came as a real shock. Especially because Krakauer interviewed him for an article and a book, and Anatoly felt that he provided comprehensive and justifying answers. The "hitting" on his clothes was sucked from a finger - during the expedition, Boukreev was dressed in the same way as his companions, in the best available high-altitude suits. He did not use oxygen because he knew, like many experienced climbers, that a person who runs out of oxygen at a height becomes almost helpless. His body simply does not have time to acclimatize to thin air. And since the physiology of Boukreev made it possible to climb Everest without an oxygen mask, he did just that. True, he had an oxygen cylinder with him, but during the ascent he handed it over to his fellow guide, and it turned out to be the right decision - the spare oxygen really came in handy.

Shot from the movie "Everest"

As for communicating with clients, Fisher knew very well that Boukreev had been seriously studying English for only a few years, and he did not expect his subordinate to be filled with a nightingale. It was the work of Fischer himself, his team in the intermediate camps and the third guide - the one to whom Boukreev gave the oxygen cylinder. The Russian climber was hired as the most experienced "high-altitude climber" Fischer could afford, and his main task was to pave the way to the summit of Mount Everest and make the climb easier for clients. After a successful assault on the Bukreev summit, according to Fischer's plan, agreed in advance and confirmed during the expedition, he had to quickly descend to the intermediate camp, take a break and go out to meet clients who by that moment would probably have been exhausted and poorly thinking. So the climber did, and he did not "abandon" anyone - Fischer and the third guide were with the clients lagging behind him. As we now know, this plan worked. Rested Boukreev managed to save people who would have died without him.

Why didn't Boukreev lead clients from start to finish? Because the usual everyday logic does not work on Everest. We are accustomed to the fact that a person who moves slowly spends less energy. Therefore, it is easier to walk a kilometer calmly than to run a hundred meters. But at the top of Everest, as doctors say, the human body begins to slowly die, and every second spent in such a thin air takes away strength, even if the climber is sitting or lying down. If Boukreev accompanied his clients, and not "ran" first from the mountain, and then back to it, he would not have saved his energy, but got out of them just like his clients.

Krakauer's claims were all the more strange because Boukreev was a guide from the "neighboring" expedition and that all the clients in his team survived. If the journalist was worried about the death of his companions, then the claims had to be made to the guides from Hall's expedition - those who remained on the mountain, and the only one who survived. Boukreev was not responsible for Krakauer's companions, and he worried about them only because he was brought up in the spirit of mutual assistance.

When Boukreev realized which barrel Krakauer had rolled over him, he tried to defend himself. First, he explained his behavior in a letter to the editorial office of Outside, and then, together with the journalist G. Weston de Walt, prepared the book "Ascent", where he outlined his view of the tragedy of May 10. For most professionals, both in the West and in our country, his correctness was obvious, and the American Alpine Club, which carefully studied those events, expressed its attitude towards Boukreev when, as already mentioned, it awarded him for heroism. But since "Thin Air" came out earlier and it was much more popular than "Ascent", many people who did not consider the tragedy on Everest from all points of view still adhere to Krakauer's position.

Shot from the movie "Everest"

Obviously, this is why the creators of Everest did not make Boukreev the main character. Instead of getting into an argument between two positions and choosing one of them or finding a compromise solution, Kormakur and his team filmed Everest not as a movie about villainy or heroism, but as a story about human weakness before the power of nature and the inextinguishable desire of people to conquer the highest the mountains. At the same time, they did not have to suffer with the Russian as the main character, and they were able to focus on characters more understandable to the Western public.

Everything seems to be clear, but the question remains: why Krakauer "appointed" Bukreev a villain and why he still insists on this, taking advantage of the fact that the Russian climber who died in 1997 can no longer object to him (Bukreev was covered with an avalanche during the ascent to the Nepalese Mount Annapurna)? The simplest explanation is that this is a manifestation of Russophobia. Bukreev did not like Krakauer simply because he was not like him, and when the journalist was looking for a "scapegoat", Boukreev seemed the best candidate.

However, other, even darker explanations are possible. First, Krakauer, who returned to the intermediate camp on time, was one of those who could go with Boukreev in search of lost climbers. But he stayed in the tent while Boukreev single-handedly searched for his and his comrades. The betrayal does not pass without a trace - perhaps Krakauer tried to belittle Boukreev in order to drown out the voice of his conscience, which shouted at him that he showed weakness, while the other showed himself to be a hero.

Shot from the movie "Everest"

Secondly, Kracauer could be driven by financial considerations. When a person displays heroism worthy of praise in the press, Americans expect a book from him about his feat. Of course, such a book is usually written by a "ghost writer" based on conversations with its hero. Yet this is a first-person narrative, and the formal author of the book receives a significant chunk of the royalties. So if Krakauer had declared Boukreev a hero, they would have expected a book written in collaboration with Boukreev. And the journalist did not want to share fame and money. After all, he himself took part in the expedition, and did not describe it from hearsay! Why miss the chance to become famous on your own?

Be that as it may, Boukreev's reputation was irreparably damaged. You can insist on his correctness as much as you like, but Krakauer's accusations surface every time Bukreev is discussed, and the very fact of their existence casts a shadow on his otherwise impeccable reputation. Even worse, they, as in this case, interfere with the recognition of Boukreev as a hero. Although he would be a great Hollywood character - if his name was John Smith and he was born in Oregon, not in the Chelyabinsk region.

the site learned the secrets of the biography of Anatoly Bukreev, whose feat became the basis for the blockbuster "Everest".

"It was a feat"

Commercial expeditions to Everest in the spring of 1996 turned into what went down in history as the "tragedy on Chomolungma." Then several groups rushed to storm the "roof of the world" at once, the members of which paid up to $ 65 thousand for this pleasure. Almost everyone was able to reach the summit under the guidance of experienced guides. Few were lucky to get down in time: a hurricane wind of such strength rose, as if, according to the words of the survivors, "a freight train is sweeping over you, car after car."

“Until,” wrote the Wall Street Journal after those events, “none of the guides, clients or Sherpas found the courage to leave the camp, Boukreev went upstairs several times alone. At night, at an altitude of eight kilometers, he walked through a raging snow storm and rescued three climbers who were already on the brink of death ... What he did has no analogues in the history of world mountaineering. The man, whom many call the "tiger of the Himalayas", immediately after ascending without oxygen to the highest point of the planet, without any help, saved the freezing ones for several hours in a row ... It was a real feat. "

The feat itself is described in the film, where, in addition to the Russian guide, there are many other characters. And "Interlocutor" tried to find out what kind of person Anatoly Bukreev himself was, who conquered almost all eight-thousanders of the planet.

"I wouldn't go on reconnaissance with him"

“The fact that he saved people, the way he did it, is, of course, beyond praise,” Vladimir Shataev, a climber who knew Boukreev, shared with the “Interlocutor”. - But there was a negative point in all this. He worked as a guide and received $ 25,000 for it. For this money, he had to tie the shoelaces of the clients. And he had his own goal: by participating in commercial expeditions, he got the opportunity to go mountaineering himself (in the 90s it was differently difficult). So it was that time: he first went to the top, and then immediately descended. Later, of course, he made excuses that he had gone down to come, if necessary, to help, to bring tea or oxygen. But seeing that the clients are late and do not have time to go down in time, he should have turned them down even earlier. He did not do this, and heroism came later.

Shataev met Bukreev a year before the tragedy in the same place, on Everest:

- He was then with another group and came to my tent to ask permission to use the railing that we hung up. I remember even offering money, which was new for us. We, of course, allowed, but instead of money we asked them for a rope, which we had little: in the mountains it is more needed. Our second meeting took place a few days later: when we came to the height of 7500 and opened our tent, we suddenly saw Bukreev in it. It was a shock. After all, he could ask permission at least over the radio! You see, on Everest they constantly steal, especially when descending: glasses, some other things. Oxygen cylinders are especially popular, so they are usually tagged. And it is not accepted to enter other people's tents without asking. And he either did not have his own tent, or he was reluctant to put it up, so he decided to quietly spend the night in ours. It was more convenient for him. In general, he was a defiant individualist - I would not go into reconnaissance with such a person.

"The best skier among climbers"

- And I would go, - Yervand Ilyinsky disagrees with his old acquaintance, Main coach the national mountaineering team of Kazakhstan. - It's just that Shataev didn't know Tolya well. Boukreev was a cool guy, responsible. He came to us in Kazakhstan from Chelyabinsk in 79, when he was 21 years old. At first he was engaged in rock-climbers, but specific training is needed there, from the age of 5-7, and Tolya was a skier before that, where, as in mountaineering, endurance is important. So the climbing coach recommended him to me, said: strong guy. And I already called him into the army - into the sports company. After the service, he remained at CSKA, trained in my expeditions and constantly helped his teammates in them: if it is hard for someone, he will definitely unload his backpack and carry it himself.

According to Ilyinsky, Bukreev, speaking of his endurance, called himself "the best skier among mountaineers and the best mountaineer among skiers":

- A physicist by training, he played the guitar, wrote poetry. But I didn’t forget skiing either. At one time he was even a trainer for cross-country skiing at schoolchildren. It worked well. And then he went into commercial mountaineering - there really was no other way to go to the mountains.

- Anatoly had a difficult situation, - explained the vice-president of the Russian Mountaineering Federation Ivan Dusharin, who met Bukreev shortly before his death, on the way to Pakistan. “Sometimes he even had to work as a simple porter on other people's expeditions in order to earn a living. Already being a famous, iconic (expensive) guide, he most often spent money on his sports, interesting from his point of view, ascents. The mountains were his life.

"It was morally difficult for him"

At the end of 97, the mountains became his death - Anatoly Bukreev fell under an avalanche.

- Strong climbers often die on commercial ascents. After all, there is a queue of wealthy tourists who have no training on Everest. And all responsibility falls on professional guides. This is wrong, - says Vladimir Bogdanov, a friend of Bukreev, who sews clothes for climbers. - We met Anatoly when he started taking equipment from us. We helped him fly away, met him. Often he even lived with us - he could seem withdrawn, but this is not from arrogance, but from internal vulnerability. When we talked with him after the tragedy on Everest, for example, he was depressed. Anatoly believed that he had done a good deed, saved people, and in America a book was published in which they wrote that he abandoned everyone and quickly went downstairs before the hurricane, although he was simply following the order of the group leader. It was morally difficult for him from this criticism.

The role of Bukreev was played by the actor Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson / Still from the film "Everest"

Boukreev even became a co-author of the book "Ascent", dedicated to the events of 1996 (it was published with the help of Bogdanov). The second edition is now ready. Surely it will go wrong: when a Russian saves the Americans, it's always nice.

/Behind the scenes

On fig Bukreevu button accordion

The climbers are generally satisfied with the film "Everest".

- It can be seen that good consultants worked on the picture - there are no jambs, - explained the director of the Higher Mining School Alexei Ovchinnikov. - Both the equipment is authentic and the relief. I have been to Nepal several times and immediately noticed that they were filming on the spot. Even the overalls on Bukreev - as in life, blue and yellow, in the colors of the flag of Kazakhstan, whose citizenship he had. And his traditional cockerel hat. So the details were treated with awe. When the American rough version of the painting was shown to the Russian climbers a few weeks ago, in the final credits all the heroes had real photographs, except for Boukreev. We pointed this out, and in the final version, already in Russian, the photo appeared ... There is, however, such a moment, but not offensive, but rather funny: in one of the scenes Boukreev plays the button accordion, although in fact he played the guitar. As representatives of the film company told us, the idea of ​​replacing the guitar with an accordion came to the head of the performer of the role of Boukreev. For some reason, he decided that it would better convey his Russian soul.

The role of Boukreev in Everest was played by Ingvar Eggert Sigurdsson, an actor from Iceland, who confessed: “I was shocked by the character itself. The more I learned about him, the more he fascinated me. Much in him explains the fact that he is Russian. More precisely, he considered himself a Soviet man. It seems to me that he was just sure that his mission was precisely this (the same, probably, felt like Gagarin, going into space): proof of the strength of the human spirit, which became the meaning of life. "

Anatoly Nikolaevich Bukreev(January 16, Korkino, Chelyabinsk region, RSFSR, USSR - December 25, Annapurna, Himalayas, Nepal) - Soviet and Kazakh high-altitude climber. "Snow Leopard " (). Honored Master of Sports of the USSR (). He conquered 11 eight-thousanders of the planet out of 14, in total he made 21 ascents (a record for the CIS). He died during the storming of his 12th eight-thousander - Annapurna. Guide and consultant for climbing to great heights of 7-8 km, photographer, author of publications about ascents.

He was awarded the Soviet order "For personal courage" (), the Kazakh medal "Erligi Ushin" (For courage) () and the Russian order "For services to the Fatherland" II degree ().

Biography

From the age of 12, he conquered the low hills of the Ural ridge around his native Korkino. As a student, he traveled to the south in the summer and climbed his first three-four-thousanders in the mountains of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

He spent less than 10 months on his last 6 8000ers.

The best ascents in the USSR and the USA

McKinley Peak in Alaska, USA

• 1987 - the first in Soviet mountaineering high-speed ascent to Lenin Peak along the northern slope from the base camp (4200 m) to the summit (7134 m) in 8 hours.
• Peak Communism from a height of 6600 m almost to the summit (7400 m) in 1 hour 27 minutes - took first place in the selection of candidates for the Second Soviet Himalayan Expedition.
• 1987 - high-speed ascent to Elbrus from an altitude of 4200 m to 5200 m in 1 hour 07 minutes. - again the first place among the candidates for the Himalayan national team.
• 1988 - for the first time traverse of three peaks of Pobeda Peak (Western (6918) - Glavnaya (7439) - Eastern (7060)) and Military Topographers (6873) peak in the Central Tien Shan as part of the USSR national team during the preparation of the Himalayan expedition to Kanchenjunga.
• 1988/1989 - twice winner in the high-speed ascent to Elbrus from the Shelter of Eleven (4200) to the Eastern Summit (5621), his best time 1 hour 40 minutes
• 1990 - in April and May twice ascended the northernmost six-thousander in the world McKinley (Denali, 6193 m) in Alaska along the Kassina ridge and alone along the North ridge (a record time of ascent from the beginning of the route to the top of 10 hours 30 minutes), in 1993 year - for the third time with a seventy-year-old client.
• 1990 - in August he made the first high-speed single ascent to Pobeda Peak (7439 m) from the glacier to the summit in 36 hours (in winter, in bad weather, he reached only 7400 m), then the first high-speed single ascent to Khan Tengri peak (7010 m).

Twenty-one ascents of eight-thousanders

• 04/15/1989 - Kanchenjunga Srednaya (8478 m, along the central couloir from the south without oxygen in the group of Valery Khrishchaty as part of the Second Soviet Himalayan expedition, leader Eduard Myslovsky).
• 30.04 - 01.05.1989 - Kanchenjunga (for the first time traverse of all four peaks of Kanchenjunga: Yalung-Kang (8505) - Main (8586) - Middle (8478) - South (8491) with oxygen in the Bershov group).
• 05/10/1991 - Dhaulagiri (first ascent along the Western face) as part of the First Kazakhstan Himalayan expedition, hands. Kazbek Valiev.
• 10/07/1991 - Everest (classic from the south, as part of the Russian-American expedition, leader Vladimir Balyberdin).

Eight-thousander Cho Oyu in the Himalayas

In total, he made 21 ascents of eight-thousanders, including the traverse of the four peaks of Kanchenjunga, which is still a record for the CIS. Evgeny Vinogradsky (Yekaterinburg), who then passed this traverse, had 20 ascents (as of April 2010), as did Denis Urubko (as of February 2011).

Conflict on Everest

Everest is the highest mountain in the world, Boukreev conquered it 4 times in the 1990s. On the right side of the mountain - the snow-covered South Col

The name Boukreev was heavily inflected in the Western press in connection with the disaster on Everest in May 1996. Then Boukreev was one of the guides of the American commercial expedition to Mount Everest "Mountain Madness" (eng. Mountain madness, hands. Scott Fisher), which climbed alongside the New Zealand, also commercial expedition "Adventure Consultants" (eng. Adventure Consultants, hands. Rob Hall). Slowly climbing the mountain, 40-50-year-old amateur climbers, clients of both groups, who paid $ 65,000 for the ascent to Everest, did not have time to return to Camp IV on the South Col at an altitude of 7900 m before dark and got into bad weather. In the book published soon "Into thin air (Into nothingness)" (eng. Into Thin Air, 1996) of the surviving member of the New Zealand team, correspondent of the magazine "Outside" John Krakauer, Boukreev was indirectly blamed for the tragedy because he started the descent from the mountain earlier than anyone else, did not use oxygen and was lightly dressed. Krakauer confirms that later, Anatoly alone came out with an oxygen cylinder from Camp IV to meet the descendants and personally rescued three freezing clients of his expedition - Sandra Pittman, Charlotte Fox and Timothy Madsen - finding them in a snowstorm and night crown and taking them to the tents in turn. This is despite the fact that there were three instructors and six Sherpas in a team for six clients. In the response book of Boukreev and Weston DeWalt “Ascent. Tragic ambitions on Everest "(eng. The climb, 1997) Anatoly said about the complete unpreparedness of both expeditions and the recklessness of their dead leaders. In this, Krakauer and Boukreev found themselves in solgas. In his book, Krakauer writes:

Due to the unsatisfactory preparation of the route by the warring Sherpas, poor physical form their sirdar Lopsang Yangbu and Fischer himself, mainly due to the endless delays caused by disabilities such participants as Sandy Pittman, Yasuko Namba and Doug Hansen, we moved forward slowly, and even the optimal weather conditions for Everest could not help us ...

At 2 pm there is still no word from Fischer, Beidleman's boss. Right now - and not later! - everyone should have already started descending, but this does not happen. Beidleman is unable to contact other team members. Porters dragged up a computer and a satellite communications apparatus (by Fischer's orders for Sandra Pittman, who with fanfare was completing the Seven Summits program and pressuring Fischer, who were never useful - approx. Transl.), But neither Beidleman nor Boukreev has with you the simplest intercom, which weighs practically nothing. This blunder subsequently cost dearly to clients and instructors ...

The outcome of the expeditions was as follows:

• In Scott Fischer's expedition, only Fischer, who was ill, died, freezing during the descent (his body was found a day later by Boukreev), and all six clients (also Danish Lin Gammelgard and Klev Schening, whom Beidlman brought out), two instructors - Beidlman and Boukreev - and four Sherpas climbed to the top and returned alive.
• On Rob Hall's expedition, Hall himself and his old client Doug Hansen were killed, frozen on the descent from the peak, instructor Andy Harris, who had returned to help them from the South Summit, where he had already accompanied Krakauer, and client Yasuko Namba (47 years old), who fell behind groups in pitch darkness and blizzards near Camp IV (Boukreev found her a year later and apologized to the Japanese that he could not save her). The instructor Mike Groom, two Sherpas, and journalist-mountaineer John Krakauer, who wrote a book about this tragedy, remained alive. Client Beck Weathers (50 years old) also survived, who was twice left on the side of the mountain, believing that he was frozen, but he survived, remained disabled and then wrote the book "Abandoned to Die" (eng. Left for dead, 2000).

It is noteworthy that the journalist Krakauer, from the expedition of Rob Hall, wrote this book about the failure of his team and about another expedition - Scott Fischer, all of whose clients climbed the mountain and survived, although Scott Fischer himself died. “All of Boukreev's clients returned home practically healthy, without serious injuries, while the dead or crippled climbers belonged to the same expedition as John Krakauer

Annapurna

Accident

Anatoly Bukreev died on December 25, 1997 under an avalanche together with Kazakhstani cameraman Dmitry Sobolev during the winter ascent of his 12th eight-thousander Annapurna, accompanying the famous Italian climber Simone Moro. At an altitude of 6000 m, Boukreev and Moro set up a railing, and when, having untied, they began to descend to the base camp for rest, accompanied by Sobolev's camera, a snow cornice suddenly collapsed above them, which led to a sudden avalanche. Climbers bravely from the mountain, Simone Moro miraculously survived, having driven with an avalanche to Camp I at an altitude of 5500 m. With head and hand injuries, he managed to get to base camp and report the disaster. A rescue expedition from Alma-Ata, consisting of four experienced climbers, flew in search of the missing, but they could not find Bukreev and Sobolev. In March 1998, Simone Moro and Rinat Khaibullin repeated their searches, but to no avail.

Last message from Boukreev:

“12/18/97 Today we descended to an altitude of 1760 m to the village with hot springs for rest. For two weeks the weather was unusual for Nepal. It was covered with snow for more than 3.5 meters. We dug up tents and trampled the path to ABC. We lost two tents. Tomorrow we will return upstairs to the base camp. We will try to make the ascent until January 16, after which I hope to fly to Alma-Ata. Since February 5, I have an invitation to Iran and then to America. Anatoly "

Five years later, Simone Moro wrote a book about Boukreev and this ascent "Comet over Annapurna" (Cometa sull'Annapurna, Corbaccio editore, Milano, 2003), which went through 7 editions in Italy and was reprinted in Spanish and Polish