Storms of Silence

Összefoglaló

Having read each of Simpson's five mountaineering books, I walked away from this one with the feeling that Joe has finally reached a certain acceptance of himself, the world he is a part of and the dangers that go along with being a climber. Whereas some of his previous efforts have been dark and devoid of humor ("Storms of Silence" and "Dark Shadows Falling" for example), I found myself frequently laughing out loud at this one. Joe has mastered the art of storytelling and this may be his best effort since his classic "Touching the Void," which of course is in a class by itself.This book starts off as somewhat of a tribute to a friend of his who gave up mountaineering because of a fundamental war-weariness to its dangers only to be killed in a paragliding accident a short time later. This leads Simpson to vow to give up serious mountain climbing himself... but not before completing a handful of classic climbing routes (a "tick list" as he calls it). Among these is the 1938 route of the North Face of the Eiger, which is the focus of the second half of the book. There seem to be a few phrases in this one that were ripped off right out of Heinrich Harrer's "The White Spider" and Joe tacidly acknowledges some unintentional plagarism at the end of the book, explaining that he's read so many books on the North Face of the Eiger that he doesn't even know where much of his knowledge had its origin. A little lame, but I bought it. And fear not, the reader who has come to expect Simpson (the "Mr. Magoo" of the climbing world) to be in a precarious situation will not be disappointed. film-Red Flag Over Tibet