Kanchung—Taboos and Mysteries Summary and Analysis

Messner discoveries the story of another attempt, by Canadian-born Earl Denman, who previously had climbed all eight Virunga volcanoes in Africa, barefoot and in shorts. In 1947, he attempted to climb Everest without oxygen. He intended to be accompanied on the climb by Sherpas Tenzing Norgay and Karma Paul, but the three were insufficiently equipped for fierce storms that thwarted their attempt. Denman never tried again. More than four years later, a Dane named Klavs Becker-Larsen also attacked the North Face. Larsen's Sherpas retreat because of a storm and the threat of falling stones. Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay finally reached the summit in 1953. Reviewing these efforts causes Messner to reconsider his own motives, one of which is to beat Naomi Uemura, but he writes that to experience a feeling of oneness with the...