Tenzing by Ed Douglas
Fifty years after the first ascent of Everest, the heroism and determination of the climbers who pioneered the route still captures the imagination of people around the world. In an age before commercialism and adventure tourism made ascents of Everest commonplace, the courage and sense of adventure shown by an earlier generation of mountaineers remains an inspiration. Drawing on in-depth interviews with key family members, friends, and climbing partners, this volume throws new light on Tenzing Norgay's childhood and early years as a young climbing porter and how he overcame huge odds to reach the top of the world. The role of Tenzing Norgay in the success of the 1953 expedition wasn't just confined to standing atop the summit. He was at the center of the expedition's organization too, making sure that his team of Sherpas delivered enough loads to high camps on the mountain. Despite his fame and popularity, there is still a great deal to learn about the life of Tenzing Norgay, about his origins, his childhood, and how he managed to become one of the best climbing Sherpas of his era. Only the full story of his life shows the true scale of his achievement and the problems and difficulties behind his bright smile. His story is intertwined with the story of the people he worked alongside, a unique and unrepeatable story in the history of exploration. Part ethnography, part biography, and full of the excitement of early Himalayan climbing, Tenzing: Hero of Everest tells the story of mountaineering's most famous day, 29 May, 1953: Perhaps Tenzing's greatest gift to the story was the human face he put on their success. He took the keepsakes his daughter had given him, the little red-and-blue pencil and some small offerings of biscuits and candy for the deity Miyolangsangma, and scraped away a hollow in the snow in which to place them. He posed for Hillary's camera, holding aloft his ice axe with the flags he had carried with him of the United Nations, Britain, Nepal, and India but these grander messages seem lost in comparison to his thoughts of his family and his god. "All I can say is that on Everest," he wrote, "I was not thinking about politics."
Douglas, Ed: - Ed Douglas has been climbing for over thirty-five years and has been a writer and editor for the last thirty. He launched the magazine On The Edge while at university in Manchester, and has published eight books about mountains and their people. His books include biographies of Tenzing Norgay, rock-climbing visionary Ben Moon and the late British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves. His ghostwritten autobiography of Ron Fawcett, Rock Athlete, won the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature in 2010. Three of the essays in The Magician's Glass were either shortlisted for or won at the Banff Mountain Book Festival in Canada. Douglas's journalistic work most often appears in The Observer and The Guardian. He is the current editor of the Alpine Journal and lives in Sheffield with his wife Kate. They have two grown-up children.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780792269830 |
| ISBN 10 | 0792269837 |
| Title | Tenzing |
| Author | Ed Douglas |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | National Geographic Books |
| Year published | 2003-03-01 |
| Number of pages | 304 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |