Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I have no recollection of how old I was when my father first told me the story of Uncle Sandy..." (more)
Key Phrases: oxygen apparatus, rowing career, ice chimney, Mount Everest, North Col, Geoffrey Bruce (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

• Includes never-before-published letters and photographs
• The mystery of Mallory and Irvine continues to capture public imagination
• Written by an Irvine family member

Mallory and Irvine. These two names have been inextricably joined since the two climbers disappeared on Mount Everest more than seventy-five years ago. Mallory's story has been well chronicled, but Irvine has always been overshadowed by his more famous climbing partner. Little has been written about him until now. Who was he? Why was he invited by the British Everest Committee to join the 1924 expedition despite his limited mountaineering experience? And why did Mallory, sixteen years his senior, select Irvine as his partner for the final assult on the summit? Julie Summers, great niece of Sandy Irvine, has been fascinated since childhood by the story of "Uncle Sandy." In May 2000, Julie made an astonishing discovery: a long forgotten and unopened trunk containing Irvine's letters nad photographs from Everest. Drawing on these and other material, Julie writes a revealing story of a fearless young adventurer whose life and death linked him with one of the greatest mountaineering legends of all time.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books (March 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898867967
• ISBN-13: 978-0898867961
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #284,190 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The true picture of Sandy Irvine, February 26, 2001

By A Customer

Sandy Irvine has always been portrayed as Mallory's shadow, the bit player who followed the great man without question. If you read this book you will no longer be asking yourself 'Why Sandy Irvine?'. The answer is self explanatory. This man had personality, a history, humour and ambition. For the brief time he was on the expedition to the mountain, Everest was his peak as much as it ever was Mallory's. But there is more to Irvine than one might previously have thought: he was not only a great oarsman, rowing in the Oxford winning boat of 1923, and an intrepid explorer of the arctic, but he was also the passionate lover of his best friend's stepmother. Julie Summers pulls no punches, she does not allow her family allegiance to cloud her own vision and excellent research. Read this book to find out about the other half of the greatest mountaineering partnership of all time. I guarantee you will smile, more than once.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intensely personal, candid, and informative account, May 21, 2001

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Fearless On Everest: The Quest For Sandy Irvine is an intensely personal, candid, and informative account of the life of a young man who died at the age of 22 while on an expedition to climb Mt. Everest. Written with a narrative smoothness that completely engages the reader's attention, biographer and Irvine family member Julie Summers includes newly discovered letters and photographs and specifically addresses a long-debated question in mountaineering circles: Why did George Leigh Mallory choose the young, less-experienced Andrew Irvine as his partner on so hazardous an enterprise? Also very highly recommended for mountaineering enthusiasts are three related titles from Mountaineers Books addresses the doomed Mallory-Irvine expedition: Ghosts Of Everest: The Search For Mallory & Irvine (699-5, $.....); The Mystery Of Mallory & Irvine: Fully Revised Edition (726-6, $.....); The Wildest Dream: The Biography Of George Mallory (741-X, $......).

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fearless on Everest, March 30, 2001

By A Customer

Julie Summers sensitive telling of the story of Sandy Irvine is not only a great read, but is written with intelligence, grace and wit. Irvine's personality looms large in the book, and the reader is easily captivated by his infectious personality. Explorer, lover, adventurer, journalist -- one can easily imagine Summer's Irvine on the silver sceen, portrayed by Harrison Ford or Mel Gibson. This wonderful book will be enjoyed by climbers, mountaineers, armchair explorers and laypeople alike. A real tour de force, the only question that arises after reading is: who is going to option it, and when is the movie coming out?