Boukreev and DeWalt’s Collaboration
The ClimbThis flow traces the collaboration between Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt as they shape a personal account amid public controversy.
increasing
Bearing strength in each event
decreasing
A Meeting in Santa Fe

A Meeting in Santa Fe
First Conversation
G. Weston DeWalt meets Anatoli Boukreev after the climber returns from Everest injured, exhausted, and emotionally distant.
Listening
Boukreev wants to understand what happened more than to deliver a polished defense, and DeWalt begins recording their conversations.
An Open-ended Project

An Open-ended Project
Agreement
Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt agree to collaborate on a book, with DeWalt retaining freedom to ask beyond Boukreev’s experience.
Shared Curiosity
The project becomes both a record of events and an effort to understand what no single climber could see.
Building the Record

Building the Record
Research and Memory
DeWalt travels, interviews climbers, and uses journals, expedition documents, and the taped debriefing while Boukreev contributes his own account.
Translation
Their work depends on interpreters and repeated clarification, especially where Boukreev’s English cannot carry the full complexity of his meaning.
A Promise About the Work

A Promise About the Work
Shared Responsibility
When discussing what must be completed while Boukreev is away, DeWalt hears him say that the work must continue if he does not return.
Trust
The exchange makes their collaboration personal as well as literary, grounded in a promise to finish the account.
Writing After Loss

Writing After Loss
Completion
After Anatoli Boukreev dies, G. Weston DeWalt continues the book and later defends its account against Jon Krakauer’s criticism.
A Continuing Bond
The work becomes a form of memorial and a responsibility DeWalt believes he owes his collaborator.
May 28, 1996
June 1996
1997 during manuscript preparation
before Boukreev’s late 1997 expedition
December 1997 to 1999