Conquering Everest: The Lives of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay


Book Description

Tenzing Norgay was the son of poor Tibetan immigrants living in Nepal. He longed to see the world but was told he could aspire to be little more than a servant. Edmund Hillary was a humble beekeeper from New Zealand, who spent his youth dreaming of adventures he could never hope to experience. And Everest was the ultimate adventure. The mountain's peak is the highest point on Earth, stretching beyond the clouds. So dangerous and challenging, Everest had never been successfully climbed and many had died trying. In 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary joined a team of explorers determined to reach its top. Alone at the top of the world with their oxygen running low, they faced brutal elements and new dangers at every turn. And they were armed with little more than their courage, determination, and a belief in each other. But would that be enough to achieve the impossible, what no man had done before?




View from the Summit


Book Description

In a memoir by the first man to reach the peak of Everest, Hillary discusses the adventures that shaped his life, from the South Pole to the Ganges River.




The Boy Who Conquered Everest


Book Description

Jordan Romero was a regular nine-year-old boy. He loved BMX biking, listening to music, hanging out with his friends and family, participating in school activities, and studying nature and reptiles. So why would he want to climb the world’s tallest mountains? What made him decide to try something so dangerous and difficult? It all started when Jordan spotted a map of the famous “Seven Summits,” the tallest mountains on Earth’s seven continents, including massive Mt. Everest—the tallest of all. Jordan could not take his eyes off of that map; his head was filled with thoughts of snow-covered peaks, jagged rocks, billowing white clouds, and deep blue skies. Four years later, Jordan stood and gazed down at those peaks and cloudy skies from the 29,035-foot summit of Mt. Everest. He had reached his goal: to conquer the mightiest of mountains and inspire other kids to dream BIG! How did he do it? This is his story...




The Family That Conquered Everest


Book Description

A fast-paced and engaging story that takes the reader on a remarkable family journey from the flatlands of suburbia to the top of the world. Climbing Mount Everest is one of humanity's greatest feats of physical, emotional and psychological endurance. In 2008 Alan Mallory and his family took on the challenge and became the first family of four to set foot on the summit of the world's highest peak. It was a two-month journey filled with emotion, loyalty, adventure and terror. From staggering across ladders spanning seemingly bottomless crevasses and fighting exhausting bouts of altitude-related sickness to climbing through a blizzard in the dead of night and almost losing two family members' lives, every segment of the climb was an exhilarating and unforgettable challenge. This particular expedition is a fantastic example of the importance of strong family values and maintaining a deep level of trust between team members. The story highlights many of the background experiences and adventures that prepared the Mallorys to take on such a challenge, and explores the key traits that are essential for a safe and successful outcome to any team endeavour.




Into the Silence


Book Description

The definitive story of the British adventurers who survived the trenches of World War I and went on to risk their lives climbing Mount Everest. On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a twenty-two-year-old Oxford scholar with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned. Drawing on more than a decade of prodigious research, bestselling author and explorer Wade Davis vividly re-creates the heroic efforts of Mallory and his fellow climbers, setting their significant achievements in sweeping historical context: from Britain’s nineteen-century imperial ambitions to the war that shaped Mallory’s generation. Theirs was a country broken, and the Everest expeditions emerged as a powerful symbol of national redemption and hope. In Davis’s rich exploration, he creates a timeless portrait of these remarkable men and their extraordinary times.




Higher Purpose


Book Description

As Tom Whittaker struggled to keep conscious the night of 27 November 1979, his thoughts focused on a singular plea: Please, don't let them take my legs. Earlier that evening, a drunk driver struck Tom's VW van on an isolated, snow-covered road in Idaho and shattered his legs -- and his dreams. When he awoke from emergency surgery, the 31-year-old mountaineer's right leg had been amputated at mid-shin and his right kneecap removed. Devastated, he pondered suicide. Finally it occurred to him: you don't need your lower leg to kayak. Seven months after the accident, Tom hobbled down to the south fork of the Payette River, and began paddling. In the years since then, Tom has not only taken his life back, he's taken his family, his fellow sportsmen, and hundreds of thousands of disabled and able-bodied people to the top of the world. In May 1998, Tom became the first amputee to summit Mount Everest. The climb and his inspirational story, as well as his work on behalf of disabled people around the world, have earned him the recognition as one of America's most courageous heroes.




The Conquest of Everest


Book Description

Celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of the first ascent to Mount Everest's peak, photographs from the climber's personal collection display the landscapes and difficulties faced by the team before finally reaching the summit.




Everest: The Remarkable Story of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay


Book Description

In the late morning of May 29, 1953, the sun was shining brightly and a gentle breeze was blowing on the highest elevation of the world--and two men were there to witness it for the first time ever. Their names were Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, and they had ascended Everest. This is the breathtaking story of how two very different, yet equally determined, men battled frost-biting temperatures, tumbling ice rocks, powerful winds, and death-defying ridges to reach the top of the world's highest mountain. Combining fresh and contemporary illustrations by Joe Todd-Stanton with Alexandra Stewart's captivating writing, this unique narrative tells the story of how Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made their mark on the world from birth right up to their final days and the impact they've had on Nepal today.




Coronation Everest


Book Description

'Exquisite, powerful . . . I can think of no better way of commemorating British exploration's culminating triumph.' Simon Winchester? Coronation Everest offers a breathtakingly intimate evocation of the most famous of all mountaineering exploits - and of perhaps the last great old-fashioned Fleet Street scoop. 'It was Morris who broke the news that a British-led expedition had conquered Mount Everest the day before the Queen's coronation in 1953 . . . Allied to physical courage in getting down the mountain and a dogged resourcefulness in getting the news home, Morris scooped the world and was launched on one of the most remarkable literary careers in the second half of the twentieth century.' Guardian Jan Morris's collection of travel writing and reportage spans over five decades and includes such titles as Venice, Coronation Everest, Hong Kong, Spain, Manhattan '45, A Writer's World and the Pax Britannica Trilogy. Hav, her novel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Arthur C. Clarke Award.




The Mountain


Book Description

In national bestseller The Mountain, world-renowned climber and bestselling author Ed Viesturs and cowriter David Roberts paint a vivid portrait of obsession, dedication, and human achievement in a true love letter to the world’s highest peak. In The Mountain, veteran world-class climber and bestselling author Ed Viesturs—the only American to have climbed all fourteen of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks—trains his sights on Mount Everest in richly detailed accounts of expeditions that are by turns personal, harrowing, deadly, and inspiring. The highest mountain on earth, Everest remains the ultimate goal for serious high-altitude climbers. Viesturs has gone on eleven expeditions to Everest, spending more than two years of his life on the mountain and reaching the summit seven times. No climber today is better poised to survey Everest’s various ascents—both personal and historic. Viesturs sheds light on the fate of Mallory and Irvine, whose 1924 disappearance just 800 feet from the summit remains one of mountaineering’s greatest mysteries, as well as the multiply tragic last days of Rob Hall and Scott Fischer in 1996, the stuff of which Into Thin Air was made. Informed by the experience of one who has truly been there, The Mountain affords a rare glimpse into that place on earth where Heraclitus’s maxim—“Character is destiny”—is proved time and again.