Off the shelf - Reading on an imposing scale
Volume 49, No. 4, March 22, 2007

Anzac Day on Mount Everest explores some of what went wrong on the Ill-fated 2001 expedition.


ANZAC Day on Mount Everest is a book much in keeping with military form.

There are no flowery passages about the awesome beauty of the landscape, or sappy verses about the tragedy of friends lost.

Instead the author, Peter Maiden, chooses a concise news magazine style of writing. And in the end it works. While the writing is sometimes bland, the elements of this complex and true story eventually fully engross the reader.

The book essentially, analyses the complex tale of an ADF sponsored adventure training expedition to Mount Everest in 2001.

Despite the team’s best efforts to prepare for everything, they are confronted with death before they even begin their true ascent. An unexpected avalanche near their base camp kills three of the members, one of which is an 8-year-old girl.

This changes the whole dynamic of the expedition. But the team pushes on under the direction of their leader Maj Zac Zaharias.

Of course, eventually the media takes hold of the news, and the expedition comes under intense scrutiny from both the public and the ADF. The author does accurately highlight how news agencies can twist truths and turn momentum either for or against a particular party. But he does sometimes glorify the decisions made by Maj Zaharais.

And maybe rightly so, he did have to make many tough decisions as their leader. But it came off as a little one-sided.

No matter which way one looks at it though, the book does show the importance of adventure training for soldiers.

As the author states, the purpose of this kind of exercise is to better prepare soldiers for war through testing their physical, and mental mettle.

And tragic deaths, military inquiries and a media frenzy sounds exactly like modern warfare to me!
A good read.

– LT Joseph Ternowetsky