London, 1954, 1st edition. 96 pp, 43 color photos. One of the first books on the Everest 1st ascent. Large-format hardcover, DJ, Near Fine.
A large format book of full colour photographs of the 1953 Everest Expedition reproduced with the authority of the Joint Himalayan Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club from the original coloured pictures taken by members of the British Mount Everest Expedition.
Chosen and explained by Alfred Gregory. Introduction by Sir John Hunt 43 full-page high-quality colour photographs, taken by members of the successful 1953 British Everest Expedition, including Sir Edmund Hillary. Each photo is accompanied by a full-page description of the circumstances.
Included is the famous shot of Tenzing at the summit, which served as the frontispiece to Sir John Hunt's 'THE ASCENT OF EVEREST'. Alf Gregory was the official photographer on the successful British Mount Everest Expedition of 1953. In his introduction, he writes: 'The picture of Everest is the portrait in colour of the fascinating country of Nepal and the highest mountain in the world. Many beautiful photographs were taken by members of the 1953 British Everest Expedition, and I have tried to select from the hundreds of colour pictures which we brought back, a number which will be a record, for all time, of our adventure. No book can hope to do justice to the lonely beauty of Everest and the peaks of Khumbu, but I hope that through these pictures the reader will be able to share in some part our life on Everest, and to go with us, in fancy at least, across the colourful and exquisitely lovely land of Nepal.
Because something must always be left to the imagination the reader must reconstruct for himself, through these pictures, the real joys of Himalayan life: the scent of juniper smoke from our camps in the foothills at the twilight; the sudden breathtaking sight of prayer flags on the crest of a pass, leading the wanderer on to the inner sanctuary of the hills; or the thrill of a first glimpse of Everest, seen across the deep valleys of Khubu, a wave of rock and snow glinting in the sunlight, with a cloud plume blowing from its top.... climbing on Everest is a grim and determined battle with the forces of nature. Neither I nor the pictures themselves can tell much of the. unbelievable fatigue that can come to a climber toiling up the last slopes of the mountain, where he almost reaches the end of human endurance and lives at the physical limit of possible life; but these pictures will perhaps bring you nearer to our adventure, and say a little of why men climb'.
