Eric Shipton: Everest & Beyond [ILLUSTRATED] (Paperback)

by Peter Steele (Author), Peter M.D. Steele (Author) "ERIC SHIPTON was born in 1907 in what was then Ceylon - today Sri Lanka - where his father, a tea planter, died before Eric..." (more)
Key Phrases: pyramid tent, organising secretary, alpine journal, Eric Shipton, Nanda Devi, Himalayan Committee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"He was a great explorer and a great man and I will always remember him." (Sir Edmund Hillary, from the Foreword)

From Africa to Everest to South America and the Southern Patagonia ice cap, the enigmatic Eric Shipton's (1907-1977) adventures continue to fascinate readers. Drawing upon scores of personal interviews as well as Shipton's own correspondence, Steele draws a full-bodied portrait of the self-effacing explorer and mountaineering legend, offering new information about his public and private lives. He reveals the full story behind Shipton's shocking exclusion from the 1953 British expedition to Everest, a controversy that reverberated through the climbing world long after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay successfully reached the summit.

Tracing Shipton's career from his early years spent climbing with H.W. Tilman in Africa to the 1933 Everest expedition--where Shipton's disenchantment with elaborate, large-scale expeditions became complete-to explorations of Garhwal, the Karakoram, and Kashgar, Steele gives him the place in history he has long deserved.

Includes a 16-page photo insert.

From the Publisher
Still available in hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 0-89886-603-0

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Product Details

• Paperback: 290 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books; illustrated edition edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898866596
• ISBN-13: 978-0898866599
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,800,136 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Must read book for Shipton fans!, January 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond (Hardcover)

This book together with Shipton's "The Six Mountain- Travel Books" and "That Untravelled World" let you fully understand the life of the great mountain explorer. Blanks in his life, never told in his books, are finally filled up!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good read, December 21, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond (Hardcover)

This book is a competently written biography. It puts into an easily-grasped perspective the full gammut of Shipton's climbing and exploring career and it gives much on his personal life and what he did between expeditions that is not available from his own books. It deals dispassionately but sensitively with such issues as the leadership debacle that preceded the '53 Everest expedition, and shares Shipton's views of his climbing companions, Tilman's reticence, for example. One thing that tickled my interest was that it reveals the sources of many of the pithy comments and aphorisms that have passed into mountaineering lore, such as Tom Bourdillon's comment on food: "The main thing is that there should be some". I couldn't put this book down.