Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge Hardcover – 1 Oct. 1983

Excellent book

Excellent book detailing the tragic expedition attempting this unclimbed ridge of Everest. Bonington’s agonising doubt that perhaps he could have done more to help save his comrades and the extreme challenges facing the team are well recorded and make for compulsive reading. Admiration for the skill, determination and bravery of the climbers but sadness and despair at the outcome and the loss of two of the UK’s best climbers.

A fascinating and very well written book. I would say a wonderful read, but great sadness about the loss of PeterBoardman and Joe Tasker makes for grim reading. I read it straight through,and as always with Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke , you feel as if you are there (thought possibly thankful you are not) .

I found this a very well put together account of climbing Everest, Chris Bonnington describes the ascent in detail, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. These climbers went through terrible weather to achieve their aim but got there in the end.I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Everest and the climbing intent. D Bowen.

A great read. There are lovely descriptions of Tibet and Lhasa and then follows some of the most dramatic pictures ever taken. What an awesome story.

Y husband loves the book

interesting book of a failed attempt to climb another bit of everest which after illness split half the climbing team led to the final pair walking off to climb and never returning,the whole venture had a rather lethargic feel to it interesting coment about how spending to long at altitude lessens the chance of success also a rather slanted look at tibetan history

Un bellissimo libro arrivato velocemente in perfetta condizione

This is a book I had been avoiding for a while. Having read Joe Tasker's books and Peter Boardman's books and Tasker's girlfriend's book, and having enjoyed them all, it took a leap of faith for me to order this book because I knew the ending. What I didn't know were the days leading up to the ending.The story is well written and lays out how the team came together, how they worked together, how much toll the mountain took on everyone. I had to pause in the middle of the book and search for photos of the mountain that were 3D so I could understand the shape/contours that were described. I think this book, more than any others, finally was able to describe for me just how BIG Everest really is.Most interesting to me were the glances into the journals of each person to read their thoughts as the days and weeks progressed.If you are drawn to Adventure/Mountaineering books I think you'll find this one, as we say in Texas, is "a good 'un". Highly recommend.

Kingdoms Of Experience: Everest, The Unclimbed Ridge should have been written the same way that this book was. There are tons of details about the actual climb, and the route itself. I think Bonington knew he was well past his prime by the time he lead this expedition, but he does write a good book. Boardman and Tasker climb the mountain the way it is meant to be climbed, and if you're a climber, you'll enjoy the book more-so than those written by non-climbers about Everest. Although I wish that there were more photographs of the route, Bonington never actually climbed into the pinnacles so you don't get to see them up close. Boardman had a camera that was found by the next expedition, but no mention was made about those pictures. Bonnington's website has had his NE Ridge expedition pictures listed as "coming soon"; on his website for 7 years, so that's why I bought the book. The pictures were disappointing, but the book is otherwise great, so I gave it 4 stars.

An exciting tale and a fitting obituary for the loss of two fine climbers, Tasker and Boardman. Sir Chris is a talented writer and very skilled at bringing the reader deeply into the risks, frustrations and triumphs of climbing the big mountains.

"Everest: The Unclimbed Ridge" is the story of the 1982 British attempt on the then-unclimbed Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest. Co-authored by Sir Chris Bonington and Charles Clarke, it illustrates both the thrills and deadly perils of extreme high altitude alpine-style climbing.Bonington put together a light but elite team for his 1982 expedition, featuring himself and accomplished climbers Pete Boardman, Joe Tasker, and Dick Renshaw, backed by two support climbers, Adrian Gordon and Charles Clarke. The first part of the book is a quick recap of previous climbing on Everest, following by a fascinating narrative of the team's journey to its base camp on the North side of Everest.The struggle to forge an alpine-style route up the Northeast Ridge is candidly portrayed by Bonington and Clarke. Their narrative is supplemented by quotes from Pete Boardman's diary and letters. The team, climbing at over 8,000 meters without oxygen and with only limited use of fixed ropes, makes slow and painful progress over challenging terrain.After weeks on the mountain, things begin to go wrong. All the climbers are physically deteriorating from too much time at high altitude. Chris Bonington, then in his late 40's, discovers he can no longer keep pace with his younger counterparts. Dick Renshaw suffers two minor strokes and must be evacuated to medical care. Pete Boardman and Joe Tasker make one last try at the summit, and disappear.Boardman's body would be found years later on the ridge near where he and Tasker were last seen from a distance by Bonington and Gordon. The Northeast Ridge would finally be climbed, with fixed ropes and supplemental oxygen, in 1995. These facts were obviously unknown to Bonington and Clarke when they closed out this narrative in 1983. The reader is left with a poignant mystery and the enduring question of high altitude climbing: was it worth it?This book is highly recommended as a fascinating and well-written narrative of a high altitude expedition and its effects on the climbers.