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Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge (Adrenaline Classics) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Sir Chris Bonington, Charles Clarke
Creator: Clint Willis
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $4.48
You Save: $10.47 (70%)
New (18) Used (14) from $3.54
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 180472
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 1560253908
Dewey Decimal Number: 915.496
EAN: 9781560253907
ASIN: 1560253908
Publication Date: May 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New book, ships out within 24 hours, 100% satisfaction guaranteed, remainder mark
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Adrenaline Classics continues to bring to the fore the work of the father of modern mountaineering, the celebrated climber and writer, Sir Chris Bonington. Everest—The Unclimbed Ridge is a genuine classic of Everest literature, a book that series editor Clint Willis calls "the real climber's Into Thin Air." Bonington and coauthor Charles Clarke tell the story of Bonington's most tragic expedition—a bold attempt on the fearsome Northeast Ridge of Everest. This is the expedition that killed two of Bonington's closest friends—two young men who were part of mountaineering's greatest generation; Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman set out one morning and never made it back. With 24 black-and-white photos and spectacular, edge-of-your-seat climbing, the book offers some of the most moving and powerful moments in modern mountaineering writing. "This was an epic, groundbreaking ascent by one of the most talented teams ever to hit the Himalaya."—Stephen Venables (author of Everest: Alone at the Summit)
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| Customer Reviews:
 "They Walked Out Of Our Lives..." May 21, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge" is the story of the 1982 British attempt on the then-unclimbed Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest. Co-authored by Sir Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke, it illustrates both the thrills and deadly perils of extreme high altitude alpine-style climbing.
Bonington put together a light but elite team for his 1982 expedition, featuring himself and accomplished climbers Pete Boardman, Joe Tasker, and Dick Renshaw, backed by two support climbers, Adrian Gordon and Charles Clarke. The first part of the book is a quick recap of previous climbing on Everest, following by a fascinating narrative of the team's journey to its base camp on the North side of Everest.
The struggle to forge an alpine-style route up the Northeast Ridge is candidly portrayed by Bonington and Clarke. Their narrative is supplemented by quotes from Pete Boardman's diary and letters. The team, climbing at over 8,000 meters without oxygen and with only limited use of fixed ropes, makes slow and painful progress over challenging terrain.
After weeks on the mountain, things begin to go wrong. All the climbers are physically deteriorating from too much time at high altitude. Chris Bonington, then in his late 40's, discovers he can no longer keep pace with his younger counterparts. Dick Renshaw suffers two minor strokes and must be evacuated to medical care. Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker make one last try at the summit, and disappear.
The bodies of Boardman and Tasker would be found years later on the ridge near where they were last seen from a distance by Bonington and Gordon. The Northeast Ridge would finally be climbed, with fixed ropes and supplemental oxygen, in 1995. These facts were obviously unknown to Bonington and Clarke when they closed out this narrative in 1983. The reader is left with a poignant mystery and the enduring question of high altitude climbing: was it worth it?
This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and well-written narrative of a high altitude expedition and its effects on the climbers.
 If you can find a copy, go for it! October 19, 1999
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
Heart-breaking, tense and on some level maddening, this is the story of Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker's last expedition. Copious quotes, especially from Pete's diary, give it its emotionally touching quality. Bonington chillingly describes the survivors' long wait and gradual realization that something has gone terribly wrong. No one really knows what happened to Boardman and Tasker, especially since their bodies were later found, indicating they were not killed in a fall as Bonington surmised. This book cannot illuminate the mystery, but can illustrate the magnitude of our loss.
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