What was the problem between boukreev and Scott fischer?

Answer 1

a. A serious language barrier existed between the two men. Boukreev's English was very limited, to a degree Fischer may not have comprehended when hiring him.

b. When the deal was struck for Boukreev to hire on with the Mountain Madness expedition, the countours and parameters of his role were not sufficiently discussed, explored, negotiated, or delineated between the two men.

c. Related to b. above, these two mountaineers had extremely different temperaments and cultural and training experiences contributing to and determining how they saw mountaineering and even life. Boukreev was a stoic Russian who did not display emotion in the way Americans or New Zealanders do and expect others to do. Fischer was a flamboyant, swashbuckling, charismatic "gonzo" personality whose love of climbing was passionate and heartfelt, but who had a bit of a roguish bad-boy style.

d. Boukreev was a brilliant climber and when the chips were down performed like a lion at rescuing several dying clients, but he was not great with people, and was not a great "hand-holder" with the clients. Fischer was great with the clients, but expended an amount of energy at this in 1996 that may have contributed to the exhaustion that seems to have done him in on the summit.

e. Some more specific conflicts include: 1) Boukreev had a very definite and rigorous training and acclimatisation regimen that included a descent down and perhaps below Base Camp once the acclimatisation journeys had gone up to a grueling distance. He believed it gave more comlete rest and build/repaired muscle in a way that could save your life on a summet. Fischer did not agree that descent was necessaary to the level Boukreev recommended and subsequently insisted on for himself. 2) Boukreev had summited Everest and other mountains before without using "O's," what climbers call supplemental Oxygen with a tank and a mask. He intended to do this on the 1996 Everest journey and did so. Fisher was adamantly against this. Many climbers believe that regardless of what you decide to do on your own, no guide should do this, that it puts you at too much risk of not being able to function, which is unfair to the clients who are paying you. [The other school of thought is that Boukreev was the sole guide to get up to the summit and back into Camp IV fast enough to rest a bit and subsequently have the energy to save clients dying in a blizzard. This controversy will never be resolved. The Alpine Association gave Boukreev a prestigious award for his bravery in the rescue. It should be noted that the guides who went up late with the clients and brought them most of the way before they all got lost in the blizzard were equally brave. ]

These are not all of the issues between these two men. But bear in mind that the "conflicts" between Boukreev and Fischer were not even the half of the things that were going wrong or going awry on this expedition. And they were not the proximate cause of the tragedy which befell Fischer's team and Fischer himself. Fischer did not pull clients back from attempting the summit even when it was clear the latest even halfway safe turnaround time (noon at the earliest, 2PM at the latest and chanciest) had passed. Despite his own exhaustion and sickness, he himself summited even later than his clients. He was too sick and tired to get down and no one could rescue him because a murderous blizzard trapped him up high in the Everest Death Zone. The late-summiting Mountain Madness clients and guides spent forty to fifty-five minutes celebrating on the summit, endangering themselves still further. They were caught in the blizzard and got lost only 400 meters from their camp, and would have died if Boukreev had not been strong enough to leave the camp, go into the blizzard, and rescue them. In "Into Thin Air," journalist and summiter Jon Krakauer criticized Boukreev for going without the oxygen mask and for descending to camp ahead of the clients (Boukreev did stay at the summit for a full hour waiting for clients to escort down, but they were so slow and late he descended. Fischer, who was even later than the clients, inexplicably did not turn them around. No one knows why. He was a brilliant and much-loved climber and it was a tragedy.)

The next year, 1997, Boukreev successfully guided an Indonesian team to the Everest summit and brought them back safely. He used oxygen, perhaps because of the outcry in 1996, and summited late, I don't know why--and it was an extremely difficult summit for him but he brought the clients back safely. [Perhaps there is something to the idea of going without Os?] I do not know. Late in 1997, he was killed by an avalanche during an attempt to summit and break a usable route on Annapurna.

Highly recommended--

"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer

"The Climb: Tragic Ambition on Everest" by Anatoli Boukreev

Don't read one without reading the other!