THE MOUNTAIN

In THE MOUNTAIN, bestselling author and world-renowned climber Ed Viesturs and cowriter David Roberts paint a vivid portrait of obsession, dedication, and human achievement in a true love letter to the world's highest peak.

Recent coverage of Everest has over-emphasized the negative. The “Everest Circus” has become a journalistic cliché, and books such as Michael Kodas’s HIGH CRIMES paint the scene as a chaos of egomania and naked ambition. Viesturs offers a different valence, and has extracted from Everest principles and lessons that not only have anchored his own mountaineering, but that translate into the way he leads the rest of his life—the “real life” far from Everest. His career on Everest has spanned and mirrored the trajectory of his life: from his first climb in 1987 as a somewhat rootless 29-year-old, to his most recent return to Everest for the seventh time, Viesturs is earnest in his belief that climbing teaches character. And no other mountain has taught him more than Everest.

Juxtaposed with his thrilling personal descriptions of his seven trips to the mountain, in the tradition of his bestselling memoir, NO SHORTCUTS TO THE TOP, Viesturs (along with cowriter and longtime collaborator David Roberts) also brings the triumphs and tragedies of decades of groundbreaking Everest climbs to life. From the brave trailblazers whose exploits have become legend--such as Apa Sherpa, a man who has summited a record-breaking 21 times--to those who fell prey to the mountain's treachery--such as Mallory and Irving, whose 1923 disappearance only about 2,000 feet from the top remains one of modern mountaineering's greatest mysteries. THE MOUNTAIN incorporates these immersive narratives and Viesturs' own firsthand experience into a thrilling portrait of place, where ambition, rivalry, heroism, and self-sacrifice are sewn into the very cliffs and glaciers of the mountain itself.

Here, then, is the story of why Everest still matters. Through Viesturs' uniquely qualified voice, the peak's 29,035 feet emerge as more than a mountain to be explored simply "because it is there," or a dangerous Himalayan circus for climbing dilettantes eager for another notch on their belts. THE MOUNTAIN offers a deeper meditation on the lessons Everest has to teach us all, from a climber who has mastered them time and time again.

Washington state resident Ed Viesturs is widely regarded as this country's foremost high-altitude mountaineer. He is familiar to many from the 1996 IMAX Everest Expedition documentary, and in 2002, he was awarded the historic Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorer's Club for outstanding achievement in the field of mountaineering. In winning the award, he joined an elite group of climbers including Sir Edmund Hillary. In 1992 he was awarded the American Alpine Club Sowles Awards for his participation in two rescues on K-2. Viesturs was born in 1959 and now lives on Bainbridge Island, Washington, with his wife of 13 years, Paula, and their children. He attended the University of Washington and Washington State University, and continues to go on adventures. Visit him online at www.edviesturs.com.

David Roberts is the author of twenty-five books on mountaineering, adventure, and the history of the American Southwest. His essays and articles have appeared in National Geographic, National Geographic Adventure, and The Atlantic Monthly, among other publications. He lives in Watertown, Massachusetts.