Book Description
Ultimate High
My Everest Odyssey
"On October 16, 1995, [Göran Kropp] had left Stockholm
on a custom-built bicycle loaded with 240 pounds of gear,
intending to travel round-trip from sea level in Sweden to
the top of Everest entirely under his own power, without
Sherpa support or bottled oxygen. It was an exceedingly
ambitious goal, but Kropp had the credentials to pull it
off."
-Jon
Krakauer, Into Thin Air
Readers of Jon Krakauer's bestselling Into Thin Air will
recall Göran Kropp, the remarkable Swedish solo climber who
loves to do what others label impossible. His goal was to
reach and climb Mount Everest using his own physical means
and without any outside assistance. In doing so, he would
earn a place in the record books with the most self-contained
combined approach and climb of Mount Everest ever
accomplished.
Kropp's Everest quest began 7,000 miles away, in Stockholm,
where, at age twenty-nine, he set out by bicycle for
Kathmandu, towing behind him nearly everything he'd need to
live for a year. In this riveting first-person narrative,
Kropp puts his own unique spin on the concept of adventure as
he recounts his four-month trek across Europe and Asia,
during which he was robbed, assaulted with a baseball bat,
almost shot in Turkey, and nearly stoned in Iran. When he
left the staging ground in Kathmandu in April 1996, he became
the first ever to carry his equipment--all 143 pounds--up
17,100 feet to Everest Base Camp.
Kropp's first attempt at scaling Everest unassisted ended in
frustration when he was forced to turn back only 350 feet,
one hour, from the summit, his strength drained, his morale
crushed. Despite this setback, and in the face of rapidly
deteriorating weather that would result in the deadliest
season in Everest's history, Kropp steeled himself for a
second attempt. Just days after the legendary storm that
claimed the lives of eight climbers, he tried again and made
it to the top of the world--without Sherpa aid, without
bottled oxygen. Within a few days, he loaded up his bike for
the equally harrowing 7,000-mile trek back to Stockholm.
