mountaineers

When Edmund Hillary first conquered Mt. Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world?s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.

About an hour after he left the South Summit of Mt. Everest, Brian Dickinson became snow blind. To make matters worse, his Sherpa guide, Pasang, had become ill during their ascent, and with only 1,000 feet to go, Dickinson had sent him back to camp. Dickinson attributes his successful blind descent to his Navy survival training, his gut instinct, and faith.

Reveals the details of his many extreme alpine ascents in which his only equipment is often just a pair of shoes and a small bag for holding chalk. As he makes his free ascents, Huber has become one of the world's most recognized and photographed extreme alpine climbers.

Reconstructs the final effort of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1924, a climb in which they both died; and tells the story of the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition of 1999 in which climbers found Mallory's body and attempted to discover whether the 1924 team had ever made it to the top.

Examines the many attempts by mountaineers to be the first to reach the top of Mount Everest, the lives lost, and the men who finally conquered it in 1953.

Journal excerpts help chronicle the experiences mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev had while climbing Mount McKinley, K2, Makalu, Manashu, and Everest.

Discusses the lives and accomplishments of five women who traveled and explored the mountainous regions of the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Presents the life and accomplishments of Edmund Hillary the famous explorer from New Zealand, one of the first to scale Mount Everest.