Towards the Mountain

by Sarah Myles

When an Air New Zealand sightseeing plane crashed into the lower slopes of Mount Erebus in Antarctica in 1979, all 257 people on board lost their lives.

The Erebus disaster sent shockwaves through our small country - it is said that 'everyone knew someone' involved. What's more, the aftermath wreaked its own trail of destruction, with the Royal Commission of Inquiry coining the oft-quoted phrase 'an orchestrated litany of lies' to describe the airline management's conduct. The surrounding media storm drowned out the stories of those at the heart of the tragedy: the families who lost someone, and the people who worked so hard to bring loved ones home.

Their stories were forgotten - until now.

Marking the fortieth anniversary of that horrific event, this is the first book on the topic written by a family member.

In Towards the Mountain, Sarah Myles uses extensive research and interviews to weave together the stories of her grandfather, his fellow adventurers and the first responders. This is the story of what happened and its enduring impact on those most affected.

What emerges is a testament to the possibility of hope.

Genres: Nonfiction

360 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[Laura Tremaine]

My grandparents were on flight TE901. Both. Robert and Florence Tremaine. My father was 23 years old and travelling the world. I learned so many details with this book, thank you Sarah. Still can't quite grasp what of all the depression and loneliness in my father's life is Erebus related and what of that has been passed on to us. We grew up in latinamerica, protected and far from this pain. I know close to nothing about Bob and Floss. Still I feel drawn to the mountain. And I seek healing.

[Caroline Barron · Rating 5 out of 5]

***NEWSFLASH*** Shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards!

The personal is the political, in this beautifully written narrative by Sarah Myles, granddaughter of Erebus victim Frank. Haunted by the memory of the night her grandfather's plane plunged into the snow, Sarah Myles turns detective and thoughtfully, sensitively, unfurls Frank's—and in turn her own—story and psyche.

Perhaps because I felt so many paralells with my own upcoming story (Ripiro Beach, out May 2020), there were so many 'yes!' moments. So many moments when I wanted to ring her up, talk a while. About how the story seemed to need to be told. About how the facts weren't quite as you had been told all these years.

There were plenty of moments that I found myself crying. In fact, if any of you out there can get through the final pages, especially 'Some Things to Place in a Coffin (for Frank)' without crying, then I'm sorry, but you've got a heart of stone ;)

This is a must read.


Some favourite quotes:

I know this meeting marks the departure point of my own Erebus journey, but today the weight of it threatens to topple me. It isn't just the facts of Rex's time on the mountain, but aspects of his own grief and longing, of finally accepting that the past can't be anything more than it already is. - page 95

Mike's words have solidified what I have already read in the coroner's report. His facts and records make the details of Frank's story more tangible. This truth-telling cuts through the years of misremembering and misrepresentations—a quagmire of emotional trauma that, through no fault of our own, became my family's Erebus. - page 163

I started this research because I wanted to learn more about my grandfather, but I never expected to uncover truths that were awkward and weighty and painful. - page 186.

From that night on, every time she woke, I sang the Hail Mary
It was as much for me as for my baby.
Thank you, Nana. - page 204

I am at a point where I have already learned so much—too much, perhaps—yet I cannot stop. I cannot halt this forward momentum. If my grandfather made it home from the mountain, then surely I will make it back from this, too. - page 271.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compelling look at the effects of a 1979 Air New Zealand plane crash -- still New Zealand's largest civil disaster -- on the country, the families of the crew and passengers, and the recovery workers. I enjoyed the first 1/2-2/3 of the book where the author recounts her research into the facts of the crash, in which her grandfather died, especially revealing the Herculean recovery effort much of which took place on Antarctica's Mt. Erebus, with which the plane collided. As a non-New Zealander, I would have found more on the subsequent government investigations into the causes of the crash helpful. (I got the impression that a documentary on the investigations -- the first of which blamed the pilots, and the second of which exonerated them and revealed a cover-up of errors on the airline's part -- had recently been released, so the largely Kiwi audience for the book would be expected to know those details. The last 1/3-1/2 of the book, where she reflects on the nature of grief and forgiveness did drag some and was less interesting to me.

[Helen Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

An emotional and compelling account of the author’s journey to find the truth behind her grandfather’s death on the mountain and to talk to the people involved in the Erebus tragedy.