Broughton Coburn is the author or editor of seven books, including two national bestsellers, Everest- Mountain Without Mercy and Touching My Father's Soul- A Sherpa's Journey to The Top of Everest (Collaboration with Jamling Tenzing Norgay). He has worked in environmental conservation and development in the Himalaya of Nepal, Tibet, and India for the past 25 years. He lives in Wilson, Wyoming with his wife and two children.
"This book is like a time capsule from the Cold War, showing how in
1963, a bunch of crazy American mountaineers embarked on a plan to
ascend via the never-before-summited west ridge, while racing a
Chinese group to the top." - "Sacramento Bee"
"Coburn brings this exciting chapter of American mountaineering
history to life." - "Library Journal"
"A sweeping account of the first American visitors to Mount
Everest's peak....Coburn's unhurried, character-driven narrative
pays scrupulous attention to the climb's every detail and to
Everest's majestic natural history....An exhilarating slice of
American adventure-sporting history." - "Kirkus Reviews"
"Gripping... Not just another book about mountain climbing, this is
also a story of America in the early 1960s." -"Booklist
"
"Broughton Coburn has written a book to renew our faith in what it
means to believe in each other, and in ourselves. This is what it
looked like when ordinary men of extraordinary courage and
self-discipline worked through tragedy, dissent, and hardship not
for individual glory but toward a common goal. When were we last
this self-effacing, this optimistic, this outrageously can-do? A
compulsively entertaining read." - Alexandra Fuller, author of
"Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness"
"Coburn brings this exciting chapter of American mountaineering
history to life." - "Library Journal"
"A sweeping account of the first American visitors to Mount
Everest's peak....Coburn's unhurried, character-driven narrative
pays scrupulous attention to the climb's every detail and to
Everest's majestic natural history....An exhilarating slice of
American adventure-sporting history." - "Kirkus Reviews"
"Gripping... Not just another book about mountain climbing, this is
also a story of America in the early 1960s." -"Booklist
"
"Broughton Coburn has written a book to renew our faith in what it
means to believe in each other, and in ourselves. This is what it
looked like when ordinary men of extraordinary courage and
self-discipline worked through tragedy, dissent, and hardship not
for individual glory but toward a common goal. When were we last
this self-effacing, this optimistic, this outrageously can-do? A
compulsively entertaining read." - Alexandra Fuller, author of
"Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness"
"A sweeping account of the first American visitors to Mount
Everest's peak....Coburn's unhurried, character-driven narrative
pays scrupulous attention to the climb's every detail and to
Everest's majestic natural history....An exhilarating slice of
American adventure-sporting history." - "Kirkus Reviews"
"Gripping... Not just another book about mountain climbing, this is
also a story of America in the early 1960s." -"Booklist
"
"Broughton Coburn has written a book to renew our faith in what it
means to believe in each other, and in ourselves. This is what it
looked like when ordinary men of extraordinary courage and
self-discipline worked through tragedy, dissent, and hardship not
for individual glory but toward a common goal. When were we last
this self-effacing, this optimistic, this outrageously can-do? A
compulsively entertaining read." - Alexandra Fuller, author of
"Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness"
"Broughton Coburn has written a book to renew our faith in what it
means to believe in each other, and in ourselves. This is what it
looked like when ordinary men of extraordinary courage and
self-discipline worked through tragedy, dissent, and hardship not
for individual glory but toward a common goal. When were we last
this self-effacing, this optimistic, this outrageously can-do? A
compulsively entertaining read." - Alexandra Fuller, author of
"Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness"
"A sweeping account of the first American visitors to Mount
Everest's peak....Coburn's unhurried, character-driven narrative
pays scrupulous attention to the climb's every detail and to
Everest's majestic natural history....An exhilarating slice of
American adventure-sporting history." - "Kirkus Reviews"
"Gripping... Not just another book about mountain climbing, this is
also a story of America in the early 1960s." -"Booklist"
Coburn (Everest: Mountain Without Mercy) presents a compelling history of the expedition that reached Everest's summit almost ten years after Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's pioneering ascent. Coburn describes the motivation behind the expedition as a quest to realize the American Dream. Norman Dyhrenfurth assembled a team of excellent climbers and capable glaciologists, as well as scientists who conducted psychological and sociological research on the team (how human behavior is impacted by isolated conditions; the implications for long space missions). The Americans were ultimately successful, summitting six climbers and with two men completing the first traverse of Everest by a new route on the West Ridge. While fundraising for the expedition, Dyhrenfurth had proposed that a weather station could be installed on Everest's summit. The U.S. government wasn't interested in the weather but was interested in monitoring a Chinese nuclear test facility just north of the Himalayas-. American Everest veterans Barry Bishop, Lute Jerstad, Dave Dingman, Barry Prather, and Barry Corbet participated in installing sensors on Nanda Devi (unsuccessfully) and later Nanda Kot, which provided invaluable data for years. VERDICT Coburn brings this exciting chapter of American mountaineering history to life and will satisfy readers of adventure and mountaineering literature.-Margaret- Atwater-Singer, Univ. of Evansville Lib., IN (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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