|
|
List Price: $19.95 Amazon.com's Price: $13.57 You Save: $6.38 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 796.522095496 EAN: 9780195167344 Edition: 50#Anniversary#e. ISBN: 0195167341 Label: Oxford University Press, USA Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 272 Publication Date: May 01, 2003 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Studio: Oxford University Press, USA Editorial Review: Product Description: Fear lives among Everest's mighty ice-fluted faces and howls across its razor-sharp crags. Gnawing at reason and enslaving minds, it has killed many and defeated countless others. But in 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay stared into its dark eye and did not waver. On May 29, they pushed spent bodies and aching lungs past the achievable to pursue the impossible. At a terminal altitude of 29,028 feet, they stood triumphant atop the highest peak in the world. With nimble words and a straightforward style, New Zealand mountaineering legend Hillary recollects the bravery and frustration, the agony and glory that marked his Everest odyssey. From the 1951 expedition that led to the discovery of the Southern Route, through the grueling Himalayan training of 1952, and on to the successful 1953 expedition led by Colonel John Hunt, Hillary conveys in precise language the mountain's unforgiving conditions. In explicit detail he recalls an Everest where chaotic icefalls force costly detours, unstable snow ledges promise to avalanche at the slightest misstep, and brutal weather shifts from pulse-stopping cold to fiendish heat in mere minutes. In defiance of these torturous conditions, Hillary remains enthusiastic and never hesitates in his quest for the summit. Despite the enormity of his and Norgay's achievement, he regards himself, Norgay, and the other members of his expedition as hardworking men, not heroes. And while he never would have reached the top without practiced skill and technical competence, his thrilling memoir speaks first to his admiration of the human drive to explore, to understand, to risk, and to conquer. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - A cracking good yarn!The funny thing is that people probably eschew this book, thinking it's written in "old fashioned" terminology or it's "just another summit book." Nothing could be further from the truth. Hillary's enthusiasm for mountain climbing punctuates every page (literally; I don't think there's a page in the book that lacks an exclamation point). He talks about the technicalities of climbing with ease and in accessible language, and he regards the mountains as beings in their own right, worthy ... Read More Rating: - Armchair Mountaineer Loves ItThis is Hillary's engaging first person account of his Everest Summit. Overall impression: The first and latter chapters are by far the best. The second and third chapters contain surveying narratives which didn't engage me all that much. I read the book in two days whenever I had a moment to read it... I had it with me at all times because I was dying to read the next page. Great book. What I loved about it: By the time you get to the final two chapters, you feel like you ... Read More Rating: - Wonderful book, written very matter-of-factly(I read the hard-cover edition which is not in stock at Amazon at the time of writing this.) The outcome of the adventure - the first successful summit climb of Everest - is a well-known fact. However, Hillary's telling of the story makes a gripping tale, well worth reading. Sometimes the matter-of-fact narration makes you think those climbs and hazards were really easy. A look at the black and white photos (in the paperback edition I have, these are separate plates) of the ice walls and crevasses ... Read More Rating: - I'm On Top Of The World!HIGH ADVENTURE is Sir Edmund Hillary's engaging and somewhat self-effacing account of the first recorded successful Everest ascent in 1953. An earlier reviewer describes Hillary as "a bigot," I suppose because he describes the Sherpas he worked with as "coolies." Of course, HIGH ADVENTURE was written in 1955, when attitudes were much different. And Hillary, far from being self-aggrandizing, seems to shun the spotlight. Certainly, Hillary makes fairly little of his pre-Everest climbs, ... Read More Rating: - Exciting mountaineering taleIt seems to me that Hillary's account of his Everest summit is honestly written. I found his writing style engaging, not because it was good, per say, but because it seemed to be a normal guy saying what he felt needed to be said. His style and opinions were very 1950's, and I don't think he meant any harm to anyone, sherpas and whatnot. I liked it. The fact that Hillary never saw a mountain until he was 16 makes me think I have a shot at Everest someday... |
