High Adventure: Our Ascent of Everest-Sir Edmund Hillary

Adventure/Memoir

 

High Adventure-Our Ascent of Everest

Sir Edmund Hillary

 

            On 29 May 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to set foot on the highest point on earth, the peak of Mount Everest at 29035 feet. This is Edmund Hillary's memoir of this remarkable feat.

            He writes in a smooth flowing prose, maintaining a charming style and language. He is never dismissive of his achievements nor indulges in self-aggrandizement. 'I was sixteen before I ever saw a mountain.' This sentence starts the memoir and this forthrightness is seen throughout the book. He writes about the 1951 expedition for reconnaissance and exploration of the Southern approach to Everest and the 1952 practice climbing expedition to Cho Lou too.

            In mid-twentieth century most of the Himalayan peaks lay unexplored. Nepal had recently opened its borders to foreigners for climbing and Hillary and his team-mates experienced limitless excitement and thrill in rigorous climbing as they scaled peak after peak varying from eighteen thousand to twenty-two thousand feet during the practice expedition and explored the vast, transcendentally beautiful valleys of Nepal. In his effortless prose, Hillary vividly brings forth the charm of this mountainous country. Thus the book in not only a chronicle of his great feat of being the first to climb Mount Everest, but also a well-written account of his travels through this mountainous country. His enthusiasm for climbing and his love for nature peeps from his words unpretentiously. In 1950s, mountaineering was an extremely risky sport. High altitude clothing, climbing gear and oxygen equipment were primitive. Hillary succeeds in conveying his anxieties, fears, thrills and ecstasy to the readers as he narrates this story.

            This book is a mountaineering classic. The adventure it describes was unique and it is told in a brisk and vigorous tone that does it deserves.