In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit Everest via the South Col route. Roughly two weeks after Whittaker's achievement, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, fellow American mountaineers on the same expedition, became the first climbers ever to summit the world's highest peak via the dangerous and forbidding West Ridge—a route on which only a handful of climbers have since succeeded.This special fiftieth anniversary edition reintroduces the adventure in a larger form...

"Not only did Hornbein play a crucial role in one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in the history of mountaineering, his account of the feat is one of the finest things ever written about this peculiar, hazardous, and uncommonly engaging pursuit." —Jon Krakauer* Special anniversary edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest via the West Ridge* The West Ridge remains the least attempted and most deadly ...

Gripping and sumptuous, this is the definitive book on the history, mystique, and science of Mount Everest, including how climate change is impacting the world's tallest mountain. In 1963, the American Mount Everest Expedition made mountaineering history. It was the first American venture to successfully scale the legendary peak and the first successful climb up the hazardous West Ridge (a climb so difficult no one has yet repeated it). In 2012, adventurer Conrad Anker led a National Geogr...