Everest: Triumph and Tragedy on the World's Highest Peak - Hardcover

Dickinson, Matt

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060188065 ISBN 13: 9780060188061

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2002

Synopsis

This book brings the world's mightiest peak alive in a way no traditional book can.

Readers can chart a route on an early map of Everest, hold a Tibetan prayer flag like the ones generations of mountaineers have left at Everest's summit, and examine a dossier (complete with survival tips) for commercial clients attempting to climb the mountain. The pre–war attempts, the dangerous conditions, the recent discovery of long–lost climber George Mallory's body are featured, along with the history of the mountain, its geography, and the myths and legends which surround it.

About this title

About the Author:

Matt Dickinson is a British filmmaker and writer who specializes in chronicling the adventures of extreme expeditions. Matt's gripping account of his Everest ascent is 1996 was published as The Death Zone in the United Kingdom and as The Other Side of Everest in the United States. He lives in England with his wife and their three children.

From Publishers Weekly:

Once the destination of only the hardiest of adventurers, Mount Everest has become a tourist hot spot: commercial expeditions vie for climbing rights and a 400-room luxury hotel may be built at Base Camp. Still, according to this brief and visually arresting history (ideal for younger readers but also appealing to mountain-lovers of all ages), the mountain retains its deadly mystique, offering the "adrenaline rush of extreme danger." Dickinson, a filmmaker who wrote about his own 1996 ascent of the world's highest peak in The Other Side of Everest, delves into the mountain's geology and ecology, explores Sherpa culture, and examines the climatic rigors that have claimed the lives of 162 climbers with slick efficiency. He also recounts the exploits of those who made it to the top (and some who died trying), including contemporary daredevils who climb without oxygen or paraglide off the summit. He ends with an account of the by-now familiar disastrous 1996 Everest expedition that took eight lives, a reminder, he feels, that the mountain can never really be tamed. The book's "interactive" gimmicks include a pop-up photo of Everest and a number of loose "documents"-maps, a Nepalese prayer-flag, facsimiles of a diary and letter from a couple of lost climbers-tucked inside small pockets; young children may find these gratifying, while adults will find them but briefly amusing. Color photos throughout.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060188065
• ISBN 13: 9780060188061
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32