Letters from Everest - George Lowe / View from the Summit: The Remarkable Memoir by the First Person to Conquer Everest - Sir Edmund Hilary

Letters from Everest - George Lowe

Sixty years after the first ascent of Mount Everest, this unique book of letters celebrates, in a very personal way, this most majestic of mountains. With exclusive access to the private archives of pioneering New Zealand climber George Lowe, this is a welcome tribute to an unsung hero. The conquest of Everest in the summer of 1953 was one of the twentieth-century's greatest triumphs of exploration. George Lowe's exploits on the mountain would become legendary. He was one of the lead climbers, forging the route up Everest's Lhotse Face without oxygen, and later cutting steps for his partners up the summit ridge. In this touching book, a trove of unpublished letters from the Lowe collection are brought together for the first time, to describe the day-by-day moments of this historic expedition as never before. In clear and elegant prose, this is a unique testimony of a superlative human achievement.


    View from the Summit: The Remarkable Memoir by the First Person to Conquer Everest - Sir Edmund Hilary   Adventurers the world over have been inspired by the achievements of Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man ever to set foot on the summit of Mount Everest. In this candid, wry, and vastly entertaining autobiography, Hillary looks back on that 1953 landmark expedition, as well as his remarkable explorations in other exotic locales, from the South Pole to the Ganges. View From The Summit is the compelling life story of a New Zealand country boy who daydreamed of wild adventures; the pioneering climber who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth after scaling the world's tallest peak; and the elder statesman and unlikely diplomat whose groundbreaking program of aid to Nepal continues to this day, paying his debt of worldwide fame to the Himalayan region.

More than four decades after Hillary looked down from Everest's 29,000 feet, his impact is still felt -- in our fascination with the perils and triumphs of mountain climbing, and in today's phenomenon of extreme sports. The call to adventure is alive and real on every page of this gripping memoir.

Sterling stuff, indeed.  You can only stand back and gape in admiration at the man who was just utterly determined.  And along the way did so much.  He has a direct love of what he's doing.  The was no real grab for glory for him or others.  I admire that.  This book is probably still the best of a crop now available on the subject.  It's Unavoidably gripping and gives an excellent sense of the constant risk when climbing at high altitude.  It's a most marvellous life.  And at a time when New Zealand was at it's most feeble A tale of a true survivor, who not only overcame the hazards of Everest but put the fame this brought him to remarkable use.  We'll miss ya, Ed! - Right that bastard's knocked off!