Everest: The West Ridge

"If we can pull it off," said the climber, referring to a route up Mt. Everest's West Ridge, "it would be the biggest possible thing still to be accomplished in Himalayan mountaineering." To undertake such a route is to understand that failure is not an option; there is no turning back from the West Ridge. In 1963 Thomas Hornbein, the author of Everest: The West Ridge, and his partner Willi Unsoeld committed themselves to such a glory-or-death assault on the world's tallest peak. Their achievement is told within the pages of this book, one of the classic mountaineering sagas of all time.