The Epic of Mount Everest

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Longmans, Green & Company, 1926 - 319 pages
"Separate descriptions of the three mount Everest expeditions have already been written by those who took part in them, and have been published in the three books, mount Everest: the reconnaissance, 1921; The asault on mount Everest, 1922; and The fight for Everest, 1924. The present volume purports to be a condensed description of the three expeditions. It is ... based on the above-named publications."--Pref.
 

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Page 263 - ... it were, each tile sloping smoothly and steeply downwards; I began to feel that I was too much dependent on the mere friction of a boot nail on the slabs. It was not exactly difficult going, but it was a dangerous place for a single unroped climber, as one slip would have sent me in all probability to the bottom of the mountain. The strain of climbing so carefully was beginning to tell and I was getting exhausted. In addition my eye trouble was getting worse and was by now a severe handicap.
Page 299 - And who of us that has wrestled with some Alpine giant in the teeth of a gale, or in a race with the darkness, could hold back when such a victory, such a triumph of human endeavour, was within our grasp? The question remains, "Has Mount Everest been climbed?
Page 85 - ... the first slopes under the wall. We had taken three coolies who were sufficiently fit and competent, and now proceeded to use them for the hardest work. Apart from one brief spell of cutting when we passed the corner of a bergschrund it was a matter of straightforward plugging, firstly slanting up to the right on partially frozen avalanche snow and then left in one long upward traverse to the summit. Only one passage shortly below the col caused either anxiety or trouble ; here the snow was lying...
Page 280 - I noticed far away on a snow slope leading up to what seemed to me to be the last step but one from the base of the final pyramid, a tiny object moving and approaching the rock step. A second object followed, and then the first climbed to the top of the step. As I stood intently watching this dramatic appearance, the scene became enveloped in cloud once more, and I could not actually be certain that I saw the second figure join the first.
Page 306 - George Mallory, Andrew Irvine, lovely and pleasant in their lives, in death were not divided. " It seems as though when God means us to learn He is wont to clothe that by which He teaches us in some form of simple and solemn beauty, of which it is hard to mistake or resist the appeal. So it is here ! The cloud clears away for a moment and you are allowed to see the two men making, steadily and strongly, for the summit. That is the last you see of them, and the question as to their reaching the summit...
Page 269 - PM Within an hour we were fed, warmed and fast asleep. Norton is still recovering from severe snow blindness, unfortunately contracted on the climb. I can almost speak aloud again. We are both rather done in, too, in general condition, but are satisfied that we had the weather and a good opportunity for a fight with our adversary. There is nothing to complain of. "We established camps...
Page 153 - Hingston found immature forms of a new genus of grasshopper on the desolate moraines at 18,000 feet, and at the same height was a Guldenstadt's redstart. Descending to 17,000 feet life becomes much more numerous. In the Kharta Valley growing along the edges of the streams was a very handsome gentian (G. nubigena) with half a dozen flowers growing on a single stem ; and near by was an aromatic little purple and yellow aster (A. heterochceta) and a bright yellow senecio (S. arnicoides) with shiny glossy...
Page 299 - I incline to the view first expressed, that they met their death by being benighted. I know that Mallory had stated he would take no risks in any attempt on the final peak ; but in action the desire to overcome, the craving for victory, may have been too strong for him.
Page 136 - ... see how he would tackle the formidable task with which he was confronted on this his first mountaineering expedition. He did his work splendidly and followed steadily and confidently, as if he were quite an old hand at the game. Sometimes the slabs gave place to snow — treacherous, powdery stuff, with a thin, hard, deceptive crust that gave the appearance of compactness. Little reliance could be placed upon it, and it had to be treated with great care. And sometimes we found ourselves crossing...
Page 276 - Everest itself, the forgetfulness for long enough of its more cruel moods; for we must remember that the highest of mountains is capable of severity, a severity so awful and so fatal that the wiser sort of men do well to think and tremble even on the threshold of their high endeavour.

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