Craig Storti

This history of Mount Everest's early years in the public imagination is nonfiction at its finest!

The average reader may know a little about the 20th/21st century story of Everest... the summit conquered, the lives claimed, the burgeoning waste and crowding problems. A reader may know about George Mallory, one of the first and most famous climbers who lost his life on the mountain in the 1920's. Most histories of Everest would begin with him.
But in a fascinating rewind, this book treats Mallory as the end of the story, a story decades in the making, in which Everest is all but invisible to human eyes.

And it all begins with math. For decades, no Westerner could approach the mountain closer than about 100 miles due to the political restrictions enforced by Nepal and Tibet. And it's so remote that very few Easterners had ever gotten close to it either. From Darjeeling, India, on a clear day, the tip of Mount Everest could be seen, although it looks lower from there than other mountains due to the curvature of the earth. This book describes the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, a British project that took most of the 19th century to complete.

The calculations that led to the discovery, the frustrating attempts to get closer, the clandestine forays into Tibet, the fights and bloodshed that changed the political landscape, the countless feats of human strength and derring-do, and the humanizing of those early explorers all make for absolutely compelling reading. (I still want to know how close Alexander Kellas got in 1913!) The Googling kept me up late at night.

The book focuses mostly on the all-consuming goal of getting to the mountain, with all the bravery and persistence that required. But it also drops in a few thought-provoking observations about why these men were so driven to reach it. The spirit of exploration ("we climb it because it's there") was at its zenith, but there were some darker philosophies at work too. The author notes that it was "imperial hubris" that supported the British in their attitude that they must be the finders, climbers, and conquerors of the mountain. And one of the most ardent explorers described it as an effort to dispel "the ridiculous idea of the littleness of man." Yes, there's much to think about here.

I could have done with a little condensing of the political context, but this book was well written and gripping throughout. Easily one of the best works of nonfiction I've read!

Thanks to NetGalley and Nicholas Brealey US for this advance review copy!… (mais)

I had written this review originally for NetGalley, at https://www.netgalley.com/book/217770/review/670189

Standing tall—taller than everything else on the planet—and aloof, there was a mountain, mighty and majestic, unknown to the humans for the best part of their history. It still stands tall—in fact a bit taller than before—but is no longer left alone; besieged by thousands of people willing to risk their lives just to set foot on its summit, Mount Everest is the most famous mountain on earth today. The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti tells the story of this transformation from obscurity to renown, from the moment when some British surveyors on the hills near Darjeeling in British India trained their theodolites on this blotch on the horizon a hundred-odd miles away, up to the day seventy-one years later when a group of mountaineers and explorers stood at the foot on this colossus.

Situated on the Tibet-Nepal border, Mount Everest was inaccessible to the western explorers—particularly to the British rulers of the neighbouring India—due to political considerations. But that did not deter some enterprising individuals, drawn by the irresistible allure of the mountain, from doing all that was possible to find it, reach it and climb it. The account of these efforts is full of absorbing drama, political intrigue and espionage, wars and treaties, acts of cleverness and foolishness, feats of determination and endurance, and a lot of breath-taking adventure. Spanning across several decades and featuring an eclectic cast of characters—some well-known, like Sir Francis Younghusband, Lord Curzon and George Mallory, and some unsung, like Alexander Kellas, Sir Charles Bell and Guy Bullock—The Hunt for Mount Everest is a magnificent picture set on the immense canvass of the Himalayas.

While much has been written about Mount Everest and the attempts to climb it, beginning with the first attempt in 1921, there is little publicised information about the decades prior to that, and this book fills that void pretty nicely. In addition to telling the Everest story, the author generously touches upon the history of mountaineering itself—beginning with alpine climbing in late eighteenth century—providing a detailed background to the core of this book.

Backed by meticulous research and written in an appealing prose, The Hunt for Mount Everest is an essential read for all those who love mountains, mountaineering and adventure in general. My heartfelt thanks to Craig Storti, Nicholas Brealy Publishing and NetGalley, for the privilege to read and review the e-ARC of this engaging and enlightening work.… (mais)

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The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti tells the history of how Everest got its name, it’s title as the “tallest mountain in the world”, and how the English got the rights to climb it. Mr. Storti is a published author, and a businessman specializing in “intercultural communications and cross-cultural adaptation”.

This is not the standard book about Mt. Everest. The story starts when the English Empire was at its height, and ends before the famous 1953 expedition when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit.

The history of this most famous mountain is fascinating, and includes a whole bunch of colorful characters. In 1850 explorers already realized that the mountain might be the tallest in the world, but the closes they ever got to it was 40 miles away, for the next 71 years.

There were names I heard of like that of George Mallory, the 13th Dalai Lama, and George Everest. However, there were many I didn’t hear of such as Lord Curzon, Edward Whymper, Charles Bell, and to my surprise Francis Younghusband who contributed much to history.

The author doesn’t spend time on trivialities, but does tell the relevant parts of the story. A huge task when it comes to history, where sometimes a little, nuanced, action has large consequences.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that has a pull to Mt. Everest. This can be seen by the list of books about it – along with mountaineering. This one, however, is an important book for those of us who want to more than just climbing adventures. These men who traversed continents and suffered hardships have interesting tales. Egos aside, they helped shape history, and the world as we know it.

Even though this book is from a European centric viewpoint, Mr. Storti does honor to the local population. He tells how they viewed the English, and of course, how the English mostly ignored their wishes or cultures.

The Hunt for Mount Everest by Craig Storti is a very enjoyable book, as it gives an interesting overview and history to the 1953 historic climb. While Hillary and Norgay get much deserved credit and fame, none of it would have happened if it the people in this book didn’t pave the way.… (mais)

Interesting book that covers a largely ignored period in the history of Himalayan climbing - the 71 years between Everest's discovery by the West, and the first serious attempt to climb. During this period British explorers inched closer to the peak, hampered by the fact that both Nepal and Tibet were closed to outsiders. The British partly solved this problem by invading Tibet in 1904, trouncing the poorly armed Tibetan army, and forcing the nation to open up to (British) trade and access. Even so it took another 17 years before the first Everest expedition picked its tentative way to the bottom of the peak. Its a great story filled with interesting characters, the bellicose Francis Younghusband, who led the invasion of Tibet, the poet-explorer Alexander Kellas, who spoke fluent Tibetan and trekked all across the Tibetan plateau endearing himself to the locals, and the quintessential mountaineer George Mallory, louche playboy but also a superb climber. Fascinating story well told. A must-read for mountain lovers and armchair adventurers.… (mais)