Throughout the semester we’ve read about expeditions in
which the expedition leader seems to successfully navigate the complexities of
group dynamics. While Herzog only briefly describes how he goes about
interacting with the rest of his group, Blum recounts the difficulties she
faced while learning to lead this particular group. Bancroft and Arensen also
depicted their partnership as successful, able to work through the difficulties
that arose while crossing Antarctica. After reading all of these accounts of
expeditions that were, for the most part, successful in regards to the group
dynamics component, I was surprised to read about the difficulties that this
Denali expedition faced regarding this particular issue.
From the beginning of the text, the fact that this
expedition was unable to come together as a team was apparent. When even
mediocre tasks such as cooking dinner become an ordeal, (Walt Taylor is quoted
as saying “No one even opens cans with gusto around here” (Tabor 73)), goals of
reaching Denali’s summit seem even more out of reach. I found the sections
regarding Joe Wilcox’s difficulty managing the group dynamics to be one of the
most compelling aspects of the narrative. Wilcox seems rather inflexible,
especially when dealing with managing group dynamics. In the group meetings
that Tabor describes, Wilcox is depicted as maintaining a rather authoritative
air, and does not seem to change how he approaches members of his expedition
even when his tactics to instigate change were not effective.
When reading about the different perspectives of these group
meetings, I was reminded of Blum’s descriptions about how she continued to
learn about her role on her expedition and adapt to the needs and expectations
of the group. In contrast, after reading Tabor’s account I did not have the
impression that Wilcox was able to adapt to the needs of parts of his group,
and that amplified his role in the group into what he describes as a “lonely
position.” I think that description highlights a difference between Blum and
Wilcox’s flexibility regarding their leadership styles. Eventually Blum created
the sense of the expedition being a cohesive unit, while Wilcox’s expedition seems
to remain two separate groups.
On another note, one part of the narrative that bothered me
was the way in which Tabor ended the chapters describing the build up to the
tragedy. By including sweeping statements like “But even experts err, and
appearances are most famous for their deceipt” (47), “Unfortunately, bubbles of
ice, with their sharp edges and frozen cores, do not succumb easily”(75), and “As
the men go higher, the rifts between them, like the crevasse fields they are
about to enter, will only increase in number and hazard” (83), Tabor constantly
reminds readers that this expedition does not end well. While this may be an
effective way to maintain reader’s interest, I found myself rolling my eyes as
I turned the page. I will say, however, that these types of sentences at the
end of the chapters leading up to the accident did help create a sort of
continuity in the narrative. I found the ending chapters of the book to be
quite choppy – they did not seem to build off one another at all and seemed to
instead just be a compilation of many different components of the aftermath of
the incident.
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