London, 1955, 1st UK edition. 224 pp, 26 plates with 68 b/w photographs. Frontispiece is in color, and there are many maps, route diagrams, and delightful pen and ink sketches by George Djurkouic. Navy cloth hardcover in Near Fine condition.
As of 2025 we have only three signed copies of the first UK edition. All have handsome dust jackets that are slightly edge worn with one or two minor chips. One of the two DJ's is price clipped. The Books and the Dust Jackets are in near fine to fine. There may be a small name or inscription in the front. Near Fine overall.
Signed on the title page by Edmund Hillary(The book may be signed by Ed in pen as below, sharp black marker, or in 2007 in pen when his hand was a bit shaky)
Hillary's principal book on his Everest climb. Includes description of the 1951 Reconnaissance expedition, the Cho Oyu attempt, and his Everest success. This was his first book. In 1954 and 1955 when Ed wrote this book he did not yet know that he would become the most famous mountain climber who ever lived, and that he would become a celebrity who was recognized and respected throughout the world.
He (or his publisher) made the decision to write the book focused mostly on the Everest climb. He went on to have a life filled with rewarding work and other adventures. In those books he devoted more space to his other pre-Everest climbs, but in 1955 the demand was clearly on Everest.
In 1953, when he was thirty-three years old, Edmund Hillary became the first man to stand at the summit of Mount Everest. High Adventure is Hillary's definitive and entertaining memoir of his Himalayan quest, it takes us step by-step up the slopes of Everest, describing vividly and in great detail the agonizing climb that he and Tenzing Norgay embarked upon, the perils they faced, and the dramatic final ascent that forever secured them a place of honor in the annals of human exploration.
By conquering Everest, the beekeeper and the Sherpa affirmed the power of humble determination -- and won one for underdogs everywhere On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first human beings to conquer Mount Everest--Chomolungma, to its people -- at 29,028 ft. the highest place on earth. By any rational standards, this was no big deal. Aircraft had long before flown over the summit, and within a few decades literally hundreds of other people from many nations would climb Everest too. And what is particularly remarkable, anyway, about getting to the top of a mountain? Geography was not furthered by the achievement, scientific progress was scarcely hastened, and nothing new was discovered.
The names of Hillary and Tenzing went instantly into all languages as the names of heroes, partly because they really were men of heroic mold but chiefly because they represented so compellingly the spirit of their time. The world of the early 1950s was still a little punch-drunk from World War II, which had ended less than a decade before. Everything was changing.
This book is a record of his climbing experiences through the first ascent of Mount Everest where Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit. Hillary’s excitement, energy, and drive for mountaineering are apparent here. The passages relating his first encounter, and then climbs, with Eric Shipton are delightful.
Also, his high esteem for George Lowe, Tenzing, and John Hunt is apparent. The book includes Hillary's adventures in the Nepal Himalaya prior to the 1953 Everest expedition: Sola Khumbu reconnaissance with Shipton and Ang Tharkay, Cho Oyu and crossing the Nup La.
