While reading this book one encounters many fascinating characters. They range from heroic, to naive, to stoic, to charismatic, to curious. I decided to write about a character who interests me for all of the wrong reasons, and who I believe could cause conflict later on.
Ian Woodall, the leader of the South African team, is not very trustworthy, not very kind, does not seem to be on Everest for good reasons, and does not appear to understand the enormity of the task at hand. At first mention, Woodall comes off as brave and interesting, leading his country out of a rough time and unifying it. His team mates explained how much support and attention Woodall received when he began the expedition. "The entire nation rallied behind the expedition. 'Woodall proposed the project at a really fortuitous time,'" (p99). However, as time passed and the journey began, Woodall turned out to not be as great as he was made out to be. An original member of the team explained that 4 of the South African team members resigned after reaching base camp. "Woodall, the leader, turned out to be a complete asshole... A total control freak. And you couldn't trust him" (p100). Woodall made false claims about his climbing experience, and about having a distinguished past military career. He also lied about which climbers he had put on the climbing permit for Everest, excluding one of the female climbers. His actions caused him unwanted media attention and lead to him isolating his team from others. "Woodall's numerous deceits became an international scandal" (p101). Woodall seemed to be ashamed, but not ashamed of his actions, ashamed that his actions were discovered. Over the course of the trip, tensions rose between him and the other teams, and when discussing who was going to summit which days, Woodall stated that "the South Africans would go to the top whenever they damn well pleased," (p147). All of this shows that Woodall, besides not being a good person, didn't take Everest seriously enough. Traffic jams near the summit can cause unwanted complications, and it is important that teams be able to communicate and plan so that everyones trip can go smoothly. Woodall did not understand Everest well enough, and I am curious to see if his arrogance and untrustworthiness will play a part in the rest of the story.
I completely agree with this analysis of Ian Woodall. Through out the book, Woodall has made bad decision after bad decision, landing himself the number one spot on my bad list. He is rather disgusting in the way he deals with certain situations. This becomes more obvious a little bit later in the book, when Krakauer's group is stuck in a storm. After realizing that Andy is no where to be found, Hall calls for help on the radio. He finally gets in touch with Base Camp, just as the batteries on the radio die. IMAX, remembering that the South African team had a very powerful radio, tries to convince them to loan it to Hall's group. IMAX gets in touch with Woodall to ask about the radio. "Look, this is an emergency. People are dying up here. We need to be able to communicate with the survivors in Hall's team to coordinate a rescue. Please lend your radio to Jon Krakauer. And Woodall said no. It was very clear what was at stake, but they wouldn't give up their radio” (228). This makes it blatantly obvious how cold hearted Woodall is and is a great example of another on of his bad decisions on the mountain. We soon find out how bad of a mistake this is and what Woodall truly has done.
ReplyDeleteFor those who are interested the real in-depth story of this ill-fated expedition and its delusional leader are detailed in a new book - Everest '96 - written by the journalist who accompanied the expedition. It's really worth a read. - Ozzie
ReplyDeleteFor those who are interested the real in-depth story of this ill-fated expedition and its delusional leader are detailed in a new book - Everest '96 - written by the journalist who accompanied the expedition. It's really worth a read. - Ozzie
ReplyDeletetypical selfish climber
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