Everest ’96 – Unheard Voices of the 1996 Disaster

Almost 20 years after eight mountaineers, including top American Scott Fischer and New Zealander Rob Hall, died in a ferocious storm on Everest in 1996, mountaineers still disagree on many aspects of the tragedy. But all agree that the British-born leader of the First South African Everest Expedition, Ian Woodall, was the villain. Ironically he not only survived, he also summited.

The human drama of the storm is subject of the new blockbuster movie Everest [ click here to watch official trailer ], due for release mid-September, which is sure to rip the scab off the never healed what happened on Everest in ’96.

Ken Vernon—an Australian journalist assigned to cover the South African expedition by the Sunday Times newspaper that sponsored the expedition—has produced a forensic examination of the ‘dysfunctional expedition with a delusional leader’.

His book, Everest ’96, looks at the wider issues that dogged Everest in 1996 through the prism of one expedition. Here’s a quick look at Everest ’96:

Everest ’96

The highest mountain on the planet brings out the best in people – and the worst. We usually only hear about the best – about the bravery, the courage and the sacrifice of mountaineers who risk life and limb to achieve excellence for themselves and others.

But there are other mountaineers – the charlatans, the conmen, the bullies, the petty-minded and narcissistic –who prefer to sacrifice others to their obsession to reach the top of Mt. Everest.

Vernon is talking about Ian Woodall, the Briton who led the controversial South African expedition and whose dictatorial attitude and delusional military and climbing record split the South African expedition before it even reached base camp.

Woodall was later pilloried by Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer for refusing to lend his radio – the only working radio on the South Col at the time of the killer storm of May 10-11 – to rescue efforts.

Despite this telling indictment, Vernon writes that Woodall has since contrived in books and on the international speaking circuit to cast his actions on the South Col in a heroic light.

In Everest ’96, Vernon tracks down two others who were on the mountain at the time but whose accounts have never been told before, and both say they also asked Woodall to make his radio available but he refused.

Neil Laughton, a British SAS officer who was on the South Col on May 10-11 as part of a commercial expedition organised by Everest veteran Henry Todd, says he personally went to Woodall’s tent on the South Col to ask Woodall to lend his radio to the rescue efforts but was rebuffed

“Anatoli Boukreev poked his head into our tent and explained in his Russian accent what had happened the day before and what he believed to be the current situation.

is available exclusively from Amazon.

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About the Author

Ken Vernon is an Australian journalist who spent over 20 years in Africa covering stories ranging from the South African revolution, to the wars of independence in Angola and Mozambique to the last hurrah of the white mercenary Bob Denard in the Comoros Islands.

Ken Vernon can be contacted at ken.vernon2013@gmail.com for interviews and to supply extracts of Everest ’96.