Climbing Everest, edited by Geoffrey Broughton

Geoffrey Broughton presents a collection, circa 1960, of early Everest writing in Climbing Everest: An Anthology. This now classic collection tells the history of Everest through the writings of the climbers who were there. Broughton introduces the collection, as well as each chapter, with a sense of wonder and drama, showing later anthologists how to present an Everest collection. John Noel writes of the early mapping and exploration of the area in his Though Tibet to Everest. George Mallory writes of his climb of the North Col and the mountaineering possibilities on Everest in Mount Everest: The Reconnaissance. George Finch writes about his attempt, along with Tejbir and Geoffrey Bruce, to climb Everest in 1922 with supplementary oxygen, and Mallory tells of his tragic return to the North Col's slopes, in The Assault on Mount Everest. Col. Norton and Noel Odell narrate their experiences high on Everest in The Fight for Everest. Eric Shipton writes about his 1933 summit attempt, along with Frank Smythe, in Upon That Mountain. W. H. Murray tells of his experiences in the Khumbu Icefall on the 1951 reconnaissance in The Story of Everest. Lambert and Tenzing slog towards the summit in Forerunners to Everest. The British team prepares for Everest and takes the suggestions of some fanciful inventors in The Ascent of Everest. Wilfrid Noyce and George Lowe work out the problems of the Lhotse Face in Noyce's The South Col. Edmund Hillary and Tenzing finally make it to the summit, again in The Ascent of Everest. It's a short collection, at 150 pages, but a great introduction to the early Everest writings. Enjoy!