Racing For Everest -- Four Magazines Rush To Tell The Story Of Mountain Tragedy

And the first to reach newsstands is . . . Men's Journal, followed within days by Vanity Fair and Life.

In an unusually crowded field, the three monthly magazines have put out August issues in recent days that offer in-depth accounts of the dramatic ascent of Mount Everest in early May that proved fatal to eight climbers. Still to come: Outside magazine, whose September issue will feature a much-anticipated piece by Jon Krakauer, a journalist and veteran climber who was among the lucky ones to reach the summit and survive.

Except for Men's Journal and Outside, the four magazines do not compete with one another and certainly do not measure "victory" by the dates that same-month issues reach newsstands. At the same time, the efforts to publish quickly one of the great modern tales of man against the elements do reflect editorial hustle and the increasing flexibility of production technology.

"We don't usually do instant cover stories like this," said Life senior editor Robert Sullivan, "but the day the tragedy happened, I let (managing editor) Dan Okrent know that we had a pretty good network in place."

Claudia Glenn Dowling, the Life writer who started looking into the Everest tragedy, had climbed the mountain to a height of 21,500 feet in 1991 and knew some of the players. Sullivan himself, who had interviewed Sir Edmund Hillary while working in Australia for Sports Illustrated, knew how to reach the man who in 1953 was the first to

conquer Everest.

Hillary, now 77 and living in Auckland, New Zealand, says in a story accompanying Life's cover story that he once met a group of clients who had paid his fellow New Zealander, guide Rob Hall, to lead them up Everest, and one of them admitted to poor climbing skills. Hall, who perished on Everest in May after making a heartbreaking farewell call by satellite phone to his wife, took what Hillary calls "a big risk, a considerable chance" in agreeing to take on such ill-prepared customers.

In keeping with Life's long history of photojournalistic wows, the package also includes striking images from a roll of film found on the body of guide Scott Fischer of Seattle, who captured not only a line of climbers as they neared the snowy peak but the darkening skies that would assault them on the descent. Indeed, Fischer was among the eight who did not return.

Vanity Fair found its angle on the Everest tragedy in the person of a Fischer client - Sandy Hill Pittman. The New York socialite and adventure-seeker reached the summit of Everest, then collapsed and nearly died on the stormy descent, except for the intervention of others.

In a withering profile ("Snow-Blind Ambition"), writer Jennet Conant describes how Pittman, 41, went to Nepal with self-absorbed plans to relay accounts of her derring-do to NBC News and other outlets. In addition, Conant writes, "The experience would provide an operatic finale to her book-in-progress . . . and bring her one step closer to realizing her dream of becoming a sportswoman with media tie-ins, the Martha Stewart of mountaineering."

According to publishing sources, Men's Journal pushed to get "The Everest Disaster: What Really Went Wrong" in its August issue because Jann S. Wenner, owner and editor, had been especially pained to see Outside magazine generate so much media attention when the Everest story broke. Outside's online service had provided ongoing coverage of the tragedy a world away that was used as source material by many news organizations, and Krakauer, the magazine's man on the scene, was quoted widely.

Spanning 11 pages, the Men's Journal spread, written by Peter Wilkinson and photographed in large part by guide Neal Beidleman, offers a painstaking recap of the steps and missteps taken on high. A panorama of Everest, pinpointing where and when each of the victims succumbed, is especially helpful in understanding what happened.

Meanwhile, Outside plans to run the piece by Krakauer in its September issue. When he left for Nepal, his assignment was to cover the increasing commercialization of the Everest experience by confident guides and customers able to pay around $65,000 for a climb.

"Far too many don't belong there," Outside editor Mark Bryant said. "Jon's experience as a climber would call attention to that - a warning would come out of it, about the inherent dangers."

Krakauer, who had a bestseller in the spring with "Into the Wild" (Villard), his biography of a dreamy-eyed nomad who died in the Alaska bush, has agreed to do another book for the publisher that will expand on his piece in Outside. Villard plans to bring out the book next spring - in time for the next Everest climbing season.

TWO VIEWS OF MODELS

American Photo devotes its July-August issue ($3.95) to "Models: The Hot New Faces." The subject - referred to here as "the cult of skinny six-foot women" - is not as culturally trivial as it sounds.

These days, models are marketed as sex symbols and superstars - though they're still called "girls." Except, that is, for new male supermodels like Marcus Schenkenberg, "a strange, beautiful, almost androgynous creature, so stunning he nearly appears freakish," as writer Candace Bushnell gushes.

Female models earn far more than their male counterparts, "thanks to million-dollar cosmetics contracts and day rates that have exceeded $30,000 (a top day rate for a man is $10,000)."

But for serious gushing over supermodels, there's no topping TopModel magazine, which seems aimed at young women who move their lips when they read.

Here's the July-August issue ($3.95) on Angie Everhart: "Like Sleeping Beauty, she smiles when she awakens . . ."

Still, the magazine breaks news. Supermodels Karen, Naomi and Claudia (if you have to ask their last names, you are, like, clueless) have lent their faces and bods to a new line of Barbie-like dolls, made by Hasbro.

"It is only a matter of time before the tiny Karens, Naomis and Claudias are ready to become best friends to all the little girls of the world," blathers TopModel.

The Stepford girls, maybe.

- Lee Krenis More Gannett Rochester Newspapers