TLDR: A fascinating tale of science and climbing at Mt. Everest during the Cold War. Thoroughly enjoyed it. 5 stars.
The bad: the author is a little academic sometimes. If you're not interested in how the team got to Mt Everest, then you might skip chapter 2. Don't skip 1 unless you truly hate history (it includes all kinds of interesting and weird old stories combining science and mountaineering, including monks and knights and conquistadores climbing for spiritual enlightenment or to face dragons or to restock their dwindling stores of gunpowder).
The good: the author thrills, too! I loved the chapter about the history of mountains and science (see above), the tales of Cold War science (2) and grantsmanship (3) and, of course, the Himalayan mountaineering (4-7)! He packs the pages with interesting details so that I felt like I was learning something new on every page (and I have read a lot of science histories and mountaineering yarns). Having done the Mt. Everest trek in Nepal, chapter 4 made me feel like I was there again.
The best: Mt. Everest menaces the whole book. The Americans learn it's a killer early on. It sends the team scrambling, scientists most of all. Their experiences on the mountain are my favorite chapters (5-7), where their scientific enterprise is only kept alive by American ingenuity, derring-do, and the strength of the team's Sherpas (kudos to Clements for placing the Sherpas at the story's center). Up and down we go, feeling right beside the climbers as they fight to stay alive against all manner of deadly obstacles. Freezing temps and hurricane winds, hypoxia, disease, crevasses, seracs--it's all here. I also found the Conclusion's ethical questions about the hopelessness and dangers of extreme science right into the 21st century compelling.
All in all, it's fun stuff told by an expert. Although I hope his next book is a little more accessible, this one gets 5 stars from me!
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