Remembering Adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary

Celebrate Sir Edmund Hillary's 95th birthday by visiting your local library and checking out some mountaineering books.

Why risk altitude sickness and frostbite when you can enjoy a mountaineering adventure from the comfort of your favorite chair?  These reads will have you feeling lighted-headed and exhilarated, just as Sir Edmund Hillary must have felt when he and Tenzig Norgay stood at the summit of Mount Everest on top of the world.

Let’s start at the beginning.  Straight from the Kiwi’s mouth.  View From the Summit is the life story of Sir Edmund Hillary.  Discover what is was like for Hillary growing up in his native New Zealand.  Learn about the epic 1953 Everest expedition, and the great adventures that awaited one the greatest explorers of the 20^th century.

Perhaps something more modern will suit your taste.  Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer tells the story of a tragic accident high on Everest and the heroic efforts to rescue the stranded climbers.  Krakauer himself was high on the mountain during the expedition.  His first person account will have you trembling with fear, shivering with cold, and thrilled by the experience of reaching the roof of the world.

No other mountaineer has accomplished so much with so little as Ed Viesturs.  In The Mountain, he describes in rich detail his 11 Everest expeditions.  Viesturs is America’s greatest mountaineer, having summitted all the world’s 8,000 meter peaks, oftentimes without supplemental oxygen.