UK, 2005, 1st edition 350 pp, 128 b/w photos, 10 maps, Top Edge Gilt. Larger hardcover with a unique feature, double dust jacket - one jacket is a map of the North Face of Everest by Michael Spender.
Other than the author's signature, there is no writing in the book or other flaws, and the two dust jackets have no wear and are not price clipped. The Dust Jackets are protected by a removable clear plastic book cover that we call a Brodart, who are the makers of book covers. The Dust Jacket and the Book are in Fine or even New condition.
This copy is one of the Subscriber's Numbered Edition: No. 82 of 250 copies) and SIGNED by Tony Astill.
(The list of all 250 names who purchased Subscriber's editions is in the book. How many have you read about or heard of?)
This book is large and heavy so we will request additional postage for Media Rate, Priority Mail, or International Mail. The book is 10+inches tall and weighs 3 lbs 2 ounces.
This is the first and the only book on this little known, but historically important, British Mount Everest expedition of 1935, as told from the diaries and reports of the team members. This book designed in size, color, binding etc, to match the great books produced for the expeditoons of 1921, 1922, 1934, 1933, and 1936. Tilma wrote a small book, to match his others, on his unsuccessful 1938 expediton, and his 1938 book waited ten years to arrive, due to WWII.
Led by Eric Shipton, this fifth expedition to Everest gave an opportunity to 19-year-old Sherpa Tenzing for his first mountaineering experience. Just eighteen years later he, together with Ed Hillary, made the first ascent of Everest. Dan Bryant, the first New Zealander to climb in the Everest region, so impressed Shipton with his stamina, good nature and excellent climbing ability on snow and ice (NZ has glaciers, remember?) that he invited two New Zealander's to join him in 1953 to make the first ascent. One of those 1953 New Zealanders ended up making the first ascent, along with a Sherpa who had been a porter on this 1935 expedition, his first climb of any kind.
Dan Bryant joined the team of Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman, Edmund Wigram, Edwin Kempson, Michael Spender, and Charles Warren, who found the body of Everest aviator Maurice Wilson, which they "buried" in a crevasse.
During an 'orgy of mountaineering' within three months they made the first ascents of two dozen Himalayan peaks over 20,000 ft., a feat which remains unsurpassed. The expedition tried out new men and equipment in preparation for an attempt to reach the summit of Everest the following year. Snow conditions were tested on the treacherous North Col, with almost calamitous results. Many of the photos shown here have never been previously published. For almost all the climbers this was one of the happiest and most rewarding Himalayan expeditions any of them had been on.
When this book was published in 2005 many of the 1953 Everest team were still alive, although sadly Tenzing, who was 5 years older than Hillary, had died in 1986. The publisher presented a copy to all the living members of 1953 team.
Includes a foreword by Lord Hunt, an introduction by Sir Edmund Hillary, an appreciation by Dr. Charles Clarke, and biographical introductions by Norman Hardie, Kim Meldrum, Audrey Salkeld, Peter Steele, and Michael Ward. This remarkable new book will complete the history of Everest exploration, filling the long-empty gap on the shelves of libraries and mountaineering collections between High Ruttledge's two Everest books on the 1933 and 1936 British expeditions.
