- Paperback: 48 pages
- Publisher: The Mountaineers Books; New edition edition (Aug 31 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0898866162
- ISBN-13: 978-0898866162
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.1 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 481 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #351,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
"If we can pull it off," said the climber, referring to a route up Mt. Everest's West Ridge, "it would be the biggest possible thing still to be accomplished in Himalayan mountaineering." To undertake such a route is to understand that failure is not an option; there is no turning back from the West Ridge. In 1963 Thomas Hornbein, the author of Everest: The West Ridge, and his partner Willi Unsoeld committed themselves to such a glory-or-death assault on the world's tallest peak. Their achievement is told within the pages of this book, one of the classic mountaineering sagas of all time.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
The classic book is a must-have for any Everest buff’s library. -- Cedar Rapids Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA
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First Sentence
OTHER MOUNTAINS share with Everest a history of adventure, glory, and tragedy, but only Everest is the highest place on earth. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
OTHER MOUNTAINS share with Everest a history of adventure, glory, and tragedy, but only Everest is the highest place on earth. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A CLASSIC MOUNTAINEERING BOOK,
By Catatau "Catatau" (World) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Everest: The West Ridge (Paperback)
This book tells the history of the 1.st ascent via West Ridge of Mount Everest by Thomas Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, both members of the 1963 american expedition lidered by Norman Dyhrenfurth that also putted the first american(Jim Whittaker) on top of Mount Everest.They set out to climb Everest by the traditional route via South Col, but somewhere along the journey to base camp a group of climbers decided that a new route would be the biggest thing still to be accomplished in Himalayan mountaineering, among them were Hornbein and Unsoeld. Hornbein became a fanatic about summiting Everest via The West Ridge through a couloir and with the support of Unsoeld, Barry Corbert,Al Auten, Dick Emerson and some good sherpas, he did it.Corbert and Auten pioneered a route to Camp 5W, followed by some sherpas and by Hornbein, Unsoeld and Emerson. From camp 5W Hornbein and Unsoeld attacked the summit, summiting it at 6:15 p.m. on may 22 1963, them they traversed the mountain and descented via the south col route at night. On the descent they actually found two other climbers(Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad - that summited that same day)and spent the night out with them at 8000 mt. The rest is mountaineering history. This classic book is a must have in any mountaineering collection and a must read to anyone who is interested in this subject. Note: The only fatality during the expedition was Jake Breitenbach who died in the khumbu icefalls while leading a reconnaissance team. The couloir that Unsoeld and Horbein used to reach the summit is still known as the Hornbein Couloir.
5.0 out of 5 stars
best literary exposition of the drama of climbing,
By Boris Aleksandrovsky (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Everest: The West Ridge (Paperback)
"Everest : The West Ridge" by Thomas F. Hornbein is an extremely well written book. A lot of climbers in their books are trying to explain why they climb - Hornbein gives one of the most honest, eloquent and convincing account; almost as good's as Mallory, who just said "because it is there".The book takes an honest, and sometime humorous account of foundational days of American Everest mountaineering; in sometimes naive ways the climbers are trying to vote themselves off the mountain; filling up psychological surveys in high camps, using a little robot to haul up food. In a matter-of-fact way Hornbein describes how they climbed beyond the point of safe return on the West Ridge, have to descend down the unknown to them side of the mountain, bivouac at 8500 meters .. and help their fellow climbers down the South Col route. Now, 40 years after the climb, the book and the events are as true to the times and the spirit of climbing as ever. And besides, to the best of my knowledge, Hornbein and Unsoeld's is still the only traverse in Everest history.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everest The West Ridge,
By Julian Westcott (Worcester England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Everest: The West Ridge (Paperback)
A detailed account of a great mountaineering feat. The tensions between the team is fascinating. Because the sheets the mountaineers were required to fill in about what they were feeling by the team psycologist were left behind before the final push the most interesting part of the account is related in the thinest detail. A shame cos it knocks the gloss off what would otherwise be truly a 5 star book.
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