1999, 3rd edition. 789 pp, 52 photos, some in color. This is THE book to buy for all details of every Everest ascent and attempt, names, dates, deaths, etc. Updated to include events through 1996 and later. Thick hardcover, DJ, New. SIGNED by Chris Bonington
All lovers of mountains and mountaineering literature owe Walt Unsworth a debt of gratitude, as he is the writer of the huge, authoritative, prize-winning, and definitive book on Everest. This book first appeared in 1981 and received universal praise. It told for the first time the truth about many of the world’s mountaineering heroes, about the incompetence, the pettiness and rages as well as the courage, the skill and altruism that has gone into attempts to climb the mountain. By giving the heroes a human dimension Unsworth succeeded in making their achievements even more impressive than before.
This is the latest, third edition. In the second edition Unsworth radically revised and updated the book to take into account the opening of the whole of the Northern and eastern sides of the mountain to western climbers by the Chinese, which resulted in a huge upsurge in activities. Americans, Russians, Poles and climbers from the former Yugoslav republic and others put up astonishing new routes. The mountain has been soloed and even climbed in a day. In this the third edition records the climbing of the North East Ridge in its entirety.
Also the interesting routes on the North Face and the Secondary North face, as well repeats of the South pillar and Southwest Face. In a significant development, even in a huge book like this, whilst the list of expeditions has been updated since the second edition there are now so many that only successful climbers are listed along with the team leader.
It is a huge brick of a book coming in at 7894 pp, 18 color plates, 52 black and white plates, 4 figures and 5 maps, plus a separately printed 8 page update of ascents between 1990-1999 and selected biography for 1990-2000. An absolute essential for any one with even the remotest interest in Mount Everest.
