The Longest Climb: The Last Great Overland Quest

by Dominic Faulkner

Dominic Faulkner's compelling account of his incredible journey from the Dead Sea to the summit of Everest.

Dominic Faulkner's team, EverestMax, was the first-ever to make the extraordinary journey from the Dead Sea to the peak of Everest. Following an old Victorian route, Dominic cycled through Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and India on his way to Tibet and the foot of the world's highest mountain.

From trying to find a wireless connection in Damascus and setting fire to the team's support vehicle in order to thaw the engine in Iran, to deciding whether or not to share the little oxygen they had and risk their own lives in order to try to save another climber, and beating their Austrian nemesis Gerry Winkler to the top, The Longest Climb is a high-octane combination of the huge personal risk, fascinating cultural insights, and moments of farce that make up a major expedition.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is me all over. Loved every page but the Everest section was particularly entrancing. Don't tell Sarah but books like this give me such wanderlust and ignite my adventurous soul. I'm not sure if I'll ever have the opportunity to have a crack at summiting but the base camp or the north col are definitely bucket listers.

I really admire the team leader Dom and think he was definitely in the right mould to lead such a challenge. Outside of the extreme travel and pure adventure that this book evokes, there are also some amazing insights into middle-eastern/west-Asian culture and some good lessons on leadership contained within.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a well written adventure story, although less remarkable than the classics. Traveling from the lowest to the highest point on earth is the premise of this book. It is a humbly told story, in the middle I found it a little slow, but it picked up again as they reach the Himalayas to reach an engaging climax

[Steve Chilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about an expedition from the lowest point in the world at the shores of the Dead Sea, to the summit of Mount Everest. Faulkner is the expedition's leader and something of an adventurer. It was a good read but I actually preferred the first two-thirds of the book which covered the overland trek to Everest.

[Wes Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read

[Antonio del Valle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read, interesting adventure

[Sicofonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of an expedition that took a group of 5 people to try to go from the lowest point on the Earth surface (the Dead Sea in Jordan) to the highest (Mount Everest in Tibet). The challenge being that they had to cycle all the way from Jordan to Tibet. The first chapters are about the background of the originator of this expedition, Dominic Faulkner; and all the planning and preparation of it.
Then, more than a half of the book is dedicated to tell the anecdotes and stories that happened during the bicycle trip. In fairness, Faulkner doesn't really get into details in this set of chapters. He just limit himself to relate the myriad of problems they had to deal with along the way. Leaving little room to describe things such as places, landscapes, cities, people or (for those who might be interested) the navigation.
Of course, he mentions several key points on the route, but I got the impression that depicting actual problems outweighed the cycling experience as a whole. And that left the cycling stretch as a mere small step in the big picture.
Once the team gets to Tibet, they are joined by some other friends who were going to play a support role within the climbing stretch. Although most of them were experienced, the whole team was relatively small and short on budget compared to some other "more professional" teams in the mountain. Later on, that will give us a sense of what they are trying to achieve.
Faulkner's account, on how hard to climb the Everest, is a precise and a stark one. I had the prejudice that, given the correct equipment, it is relatively easy to reach the summit. Nothing further from truth. It is quite shocking to see how death is very present on Everest, still nowadays. And, as he and his team struggles to organize and overcome hurdles you realize the truly dimension of the endeavor.
All in all, a very good book to read, which gets more and more interesting as the pages go by.

[Andy Walker]

Cracking tale of a journey from the world's lowest point - the Dead Sea - to its highest - the summit of Mount Everest at 29,028ft. Travelling by bike through Jordan, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Chinese-occupied Tibet, the British team then conquered the mountain in what has been called "the last great over...land quest". Part travelogue, part Boys' - and Girls' - Own adventure, team leader Dominic Faulkner - ex 22 SAS - describes proceedings briskly but with no little elan. Most entertaining, especially the descriptions of those little courtesies, mainly from those with nothing, which make humanity seem to be worth saving, after all.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars not because of wonderful writing, but because of the heartfelt enthusiasm; the great initial idea; not shying away from the hardships, difficulties and less-than-legal manoeuvres it took to cross borders and climb to the top; the truthfulness - it's not a cake walk, and not everyone summited Everest; and more than anything, for inspiring me on my own journeys and goals.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book by a restless young Brit. I enjoyed the first section on cycling from the Dead Sea to Everest best since it covered more territory. Interesting to see other team members wrote books - will have to check them up.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, engaging and heart warming. Well paced recount of an expedition, and at the end showed man's best and worst sides when on Mount Everest, how this team went out of their way to help ill and stranded climbers when other teams ignored them.

[Brammert · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most inspiring travel books I have read so far. It describes a trip, by bike, from the lowest point on the earth to the base of everest. After which they climb it.

[Sarah]

The book was being sold off at the library...... some nice pictures - and I'm sure the journey was fantastic - but I am not in the mood for this. I read the first few chapters and skimmed though the rest with a bit more attention to the last bit where people (but no-one close to the author) seemed to be dying on Chomolungma. This is a book about the author and about the journey. When picking it up I had hoped for more of a book about the places he journeyed through. Punctures and border crossings may have been important to the journey but did not fire my imagination.