From the My Favourite series - favourite stories on different themes by
different authors, each volume edited by a celebrity in the field.
"After this, my first ascent, I had made up my mind to see the world, to
see it from above, from the tops of mountains, whence I could get that
wide and comprehensive view which is denied to those who observe things
from their own plane." In The Making of a Mountaineer, George Finch
recorded that resolution, made when he was a boy of thirteen standing on
a hill-top in the Australian Bush. It was his book, and the news of the
1924 Everest expedition when Mallory and Irvine were lost near the
summit, that made John Hunt decide to become a mountaineer himself. This
collection of favourite mountaineering stories was chosen to illustrate
the progress in climbing over the past hundred years, to illuminate the
differing attractions which draw climbers on, and to recall some of his
own experiences and friendships. The stories range from the steady
accuracy of Graham Brown climbing in the western Alps to the fluent
charm of Eric Shipton exploring the Himalayas, from Victorian horseplay
on the Matterhorn to a friendly expedition in the 'red snows' of the
Caucasus. Hermann Buhl in the Tirol, Frank Smythe in Wales, Geoffrey
Young dazed and frozen on the Taschorn: all are here, and so, of course,
is Everest. In 1953, just over a hundred years after Everest was
established as the highest point on the Earth's surface, John Hunt led
the party that made the first successful assault on the mountain.
Hillary's account is here, and so are the verses Wilfrid Noyce wrote on
that expedition, and Haston's and Scott's vivid description from 1975:
"We then walked up side by side the last few paces to the top, arriving
there together. All the world lay before us."
