London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1963, 1st edition. 254 pp, b/w photos, mapped end papers. Gray cloth hardcover with no dust jacket. Very nice copy but for bow to front board. Near Fine condition.
In this supremely exciting story of high ice and high adventure, the Master of Everest sets out on a two-part mission: (1) to find the Abominable Snowman and (2) to discover how ordinary men can survive a winter at dizzying altitudes. Although the Himalayan people's belief in the existence of the mysterious Yeti, or Snowman, is unshakable, Hillary and his companions had great difficulty at first in finding anyone who claimed to have actually seen one.
Nevertheless they were able to collect three high-domed scalps and three skins - unwillingly lent by the natives -which were flown out to civilization for expert examination. In addition, they photographed a skeletal hand, alleged to be that of a Yeti. The Hillary party soon decided that they had the answer to the Snowman riddle.
Any idea that man can easily adjust to life and work at high altitudes was disproved by the murderous hardships which faced the expedition, the best equipped of its kind. In spite of the treacherous weather, one team climbed the 'unclimbable' Mount Ama Dablam. But, first Hillary, and then other members of his party were struck down by altitude induced illness. The assault on a second peak, Makalu, had to be abandoned only 400 feet from the top.
Hillary had wondered whether six months of living at 19,000 feet and above would enable his men to climb Makalu without oxygen-but it became dramatically clear that prolonged 'adjustment' saps vitality and lowers resistance.
