Currently almost finished reading Dark Summit. This isnt the first book on Everest I have read. My over riding reaction to books written about Everest is; Why would anyone want to go and climb that mountain which is overcrowded, and thus, when combined with the severity of operating at 8000 metres isn't an enjoyable experience.
In reply to Blizzard:
My cousin, Edmund Hillaire Num Num definitely did not want to climb it, and at the time he actually thought that he had signed up for some double glazing so he was glad to get down in one piece.
I've accepted the fact that I would not get to the top of an 8000m peak because, for me, the feeling of accomplishment/bragging rights/whatever would not outweigh the outright misery that I've read about. Constantly struggling to breathe, frost bite, coughing up your throat lining, dehydration, sunburn, insomnia, constipation and the resulting piles, not to mention HAPE and HACE? Nah, if I got a few of them in combination I would have serious doubts about my motives for being there and the point of it all.
Not to say I don't like a good bit of suffering in the hills now and then, but I like to end the day with my feet up watching telly.
I was pretty obsessed by Everest as a kit, but have no interest in it at all now, thing is of course it is the Everest of Hillary, Tensing, Hornbeam, Scott and Haston I was obsessed with not he modern commercial Everest that was yet to exist. Plus having experienced more modest altitudes, 8000m+ really doesn't sound like fun.
In reply to Blizzard: I'd recomend Walt Unsworth 'Everest, the mountaineering History@ Not just cos its a good read, possibly the definitive history, but also I get a mention Though its a very small one.
Press Release Alpkit and Outside Bank Holiday Hathersage Tent Show 4-5th May
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