Everest: The Mountaineers Anthology Series

by Peter Potterfield (Editor), Greg Child (Foreword)

* Includes accounts from Tom Hornbein, Jim Whittaker, Frank Smythe, Eric Simonson, Reinhold Messner, and many other legendary climbers

* Offers a great introduction to the history of Everest



A great addition to the libraries of both mountaineering literature affectionados and those who just want a variety of Everest's greatest dramas in one volume. Extraordinary insights into the early attempts, successes, disasters, and noteworthy moments. The authors of these collected stories give their personal accounts of the challenges and traumas that await all those who would climb to the top of the world.

Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Journalist Peter Potterfield writes about wilderness and adventure for newspapers, magazines, books, and on-line publishing. He is currently editor of GreatOutdoors.com.

Potterfield is the author of a dozen books, including the critically acclaimed In the Zone (The Mountaineers Books, 1996), and the Banff Book Festival Award winner, High Himalaya (The Mountaineers Books, 2001). His most recent books are Classic Hikes of the World (WW Norton & Co., 2005), Himalayan Quest (National Geographic Books, 2003) and Everest, the Anthology, a collection of first-hand narratives from the world's highest peak (The Mountaineers Books, 2003). He is the author of the best-selling climbing guide to the Cascade Range, Selected Climbs in the Cascades, in two volumes (The Mountaineers Books, 1994, 2000, 2002). He edited the first collection of funny climbing narratives for his anthology, Over the Top, Humorous Mountaineering Tales (The Mountaineers Books, 2002).

Potterfield has made a specialty of covering mountaineering and backcountry adventure for the popular press, and he has written on these subjects for National Geographic Adventure, Conde Nast Traveler, Outside, Reader's Digest, Backpacker, Modern Maturity, Summit, Smithsonian Air & Space, and other publications. He was named a finalist for the National Magazine Award for General Excellence during his twelve-year tenure as editor of Pacific Northwest Magazine. As editor of MountainZone.com from 1996 to 2003, he developed electronic adventure journalism by pioneering live reporting of Mount Everest expeditions and other real-time adventure stories from remote locations. A highlight was the discovery by a 1999 MountainZone.com-sponsored expedition of the long-lost climber, George Mallory. His work at MountainZone.com, according to The New York Times, "made a spectator sport out of Himalayan climbing."

A veteran of expeditions to the far corners of the world, Potterfield has roamed the Himalaya, explored the mountains of Canada's Coast Range, crossed the Swedish Arctic solo, traveled on foot through the wild southern reaches of New Zealand, and retraced Sir Ernest Shackleton's route to salvation on South Georgia Island. Potterfield is currently the editor of GreatOutdoors.com, one of the most frequently visited online adventure magazines, where he writes his monthly column, Wilderness Notes.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're interested in Mount Everest, as I am (philosophically, at least -- I haven't the slightest desire to actually climb it), then this little anthology will give you a pretty good idea of its mountaineering history. Beginning with the fabled and mystery-shrouded Mallory expedition and ending, fittingly, with the quest to discover Mallory's fate on the mountain, the excerpts collected here tell the tales of success and tragedy, and the drive some adventurers feel to conquer the world's tallest peak, as well as the abilities and limitations of human effort. I feared it may have been repetitious, but the editor chose well, showing the great variety of Everest experiences that have been documented over nearly a century. The tragic season captured by Jon Krakauer in his book Into Thin Air is deliberately left out.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and well-compiled collection of excerpts forming a complete(ish) history of climbing Everest by western nations.