I wanted to make this one work for me, but after trying a few times to pick it up, I just don't feel invested. I definitely think it would work well for other readers!

Even with today’s guided climbs of Mount Everest which result in even novice climbers reaching the summit of the world’s tallest mountain, the peak still inspires wonder and even a mystery. It was a mystery that was nearly 100 years old that inspired the author of this book, Mark Synnott, to undertake an expedition on Everest and his account of this made for a great engrossing book. Add in stories of other climbers and the reason why he wanted to solve this mystery makes it a gripping read as well.
The mystery is a question of who were truly the first climbers to reach Everest’s peak. History shows that it was Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953, but nearly thirty years earlier, two British explorers, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, attempted the feat. They were last seen 800 feet short of the summit and Irvine allegedly had a Kodak camera that would have shown if they had reached the top and taken photos. That had never been proven one way or another, not even when Mallory’s body was found in 1999. Since Irvine’s body and the camera had never been found, Synnott became part of a 2019 expedition that want to answer the question. This expedition would not only be human but also use drones for recording and filming any evidence of Mallory and Irvine reaching the summit.
What evolves is not only what Synnott and the other team members endure on the mountain and at ground level (bureaucratic red tape by the Chinese government) but also an excellent critique of other aspects of scaling Everest. One of the best sections on topics not related to Synnott’s expedition is his description of the exploitation of the work done by sherpas. He tells of their dangerous work and the inadequate recognition and respect given to them. However, many people will risk their lives and their relationships for this occupation as the payout will often make a sherpa financially set for the rest of their life. He also includes a nice explanation of the general use of the word “sherpa” against the culture of the Sherpas in Nepal.
A reader who is not familiar with the climb by Mallory and Irvine will learn about it and the two climbers with enough information to understand why Synnott wanted to make this trek. This isn’t everything known about them, however, and there are other books on them if the reader wants to know their complete story. These bits about them are woven into the book at different times and it will require careful reading to keep their stories apart from those of the other climbers, but it is worth the time to do so.
Adventures and results of other climbers are also interspersed in the book, both for those who reached the summit and survived and for those who perished. The stories are personal, engrossing and will evoke many emotions for readers. One in particular that covers the gamut of these emotions is the climb by a British woman named Kamaljeet Kaur, who went by the name “Kam.” After a brutal gang attack and subsequent depression, Kam used climbing as her therapy and it led her to Everest, where she eventually reached the top but nearly died in the process. The writing of her story is not only hard to put down, but hard to read at times. However, it is one that illustrates what makes this book so good for any reader who likes adventure or mountaineering books. And the result of Synnott’s expedition? No spoilers here – pick up the book to find that out and be prepared to be drawn into the wonder of Mount Everest.
I wish to thank Dutton Books for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

The story told by a known mountaineer Mark Synnott is the history of mount Everest ascent, The first ascent took place in 1924 and ended in a mystery unsolved to this day: the climbers disappeared without a trace. New evidence of remains possibly being spotted prompts Synnott to consider going up Everest to investigate. The three main lines of the narrative are the story of George Mallory’s expedition in 1924, parallel to that one of Mark Synnott’ trip to Himalayas with successful ascent to the summit, and the stories of high risk mountain climbing woven throughout the book. The narrative about breath-stopping adventures with all the risks, difficulties and exhilaration of reaching the summit shows many darker sides to the life of many mountain enthusiasts.
depression being one of them. Surprisingly introspective when it talks about depression, environmental, political and moral aspects of high-risk tourism, the book is an excellent read for a wide range of readers especially now that the new season attracting new crop of Everest climbers is about to open. This is not a historical narrative where you can feel comfortably removed from the story. Events continue to unfold, and conflicts and controversies are still present. The book is well written and epithets like 'can’t put it down', 'heart-pounding' ''adrenaline rush' etc. all apply.

What an incredibly gripping story. These kinds of experiences have always fascinated me. Thank you for sending!

Like most people, I think, I occasionally wonder if I would be able to do wild, daring things. Would I jump out of a plane scraping the edge of the stratosphere, and plummet towards Earth for fun? Would I ever get into a submersible and try to touch the bottom of the deepest point in the ocean? If I tried, could I summit Mount Everest? These are vague hypotheticals, with all the depth of a cocktail party icebreaker. The more I learn about the details of Everest, the less I even want to think about. I’m much more content to sit with a cat on my lap and read about wild, dangerous adventures.

Author Mark Synnott was part of a crew hired to investigate the probable route of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. They were the leads of a 1924 British expedition to summit the peak. The men left base camp for the top of the world and were last spotted about 800 feet from the summit. They were never seen alive again. Experts would argue whether the pair made it to the top before succumbing to the mountain.

Mallory’s remains were found in 1999, reopening speculation. Synnott was part of a team whose mission was to recover clues from the body, particularly a camera Irvine may have been carrying. If the camera could be found, and if the film was recoverable, and if Mallory and/or Irvine made it to the top, their might be a photograph on that roll to prove it. Admittedly, the possible clue was tantalizing.

Some of the rock specimens Odell collected that day contained fossilized crinoids, a type of sea lily related to starfish and urchins. These fossils offered the first proof that the rocks comprising the upper reaches of Mount Everest are marine limestones that once formed the bed of the Tethys Sea, which separated the Indian continent from mainland Asia, some 225 million years ago. ~Loc. 4602

The team gets the go-ahead to document the trip, including altering the software in some video drones to help locate possible routes and bring back unprecedented footage from the mountain. The crew’s job was not (necessarily) to summit, but to find anything that could point to the answers of what happened to Mallory and Irvine. But by chance, they would be there in spring of 2019, and witness the “day that Everest broke.”Nirmal Purja, a Nepali-British mountaineer was also there and he snapped this photo on his way down from the summit. It quickly went viral and brought attention to the commercialized aspect of climbing the world’s tallest peak. Increasingly, expedition companies have been packaging a trip up Everest as possible for tourists. These amateurs, with little conditioning and experience, are on the same narrow paths as professional climbers. And because they have spent tens of thousands of dollars to stand at the top of Everest, they have a different mentality than a mountaineer in search of a challenge.

That photo was a confluence of scores of tourism climbers (too many, some would argue) and an incredibly small, ever-closing window to reach the summit. Dozens of climbers chose the same time to make a go of it. But the last bit of the climb are called “The Death Zone” for a reason. Extreme conditions, lack of oxygen, and summit madness all combine to cloud people’s judgement and dexterity. It is with all this in mind that journalist and mountaineer Synnott tries to complete his mission — and survive to write about it.

The strength of The Third Pole is Synnott’s tremendous historical research. He scoured dusty basements and explorer’s clubs, talked to other climbers, analyzed maps and diaries, and consulted with current guides and sherpas. The reader gets to know Mallory, Irvine, and Odell. And the reader gets a detailed look at the mundanity of base camp, the technical precision required in impossible settings, and the truly bizarre range of human obsessions.

This is a very interesting book that reads like a thriller and it was a five star read for me.. this book will take you to Mount Everest to the 2019 climbing season then back to the 1920’s to where Sandy Irvine went missing . I loved the history and facts of the ordeal of this extreme sport . Again it reads like a thriller and I couldn’t put it down .

For the life of me, I don't understand the obsession so many have to climb Mt Everest; the enormous costs, the suffering, the risk. Yet there are legion who feel this way, with a rich and tragic history of attempts.
The enduring mystery of whether George Mallory and Sandy Irvine actually made it to the summit before dying mysteriously has attracted many in search of an answer one way or the other. I too am super curious, so I was intrigued by the project this book covers.

It's a great read, clearly detailing the varying stories, theories and preparation in hopes of finding the lost body of Sandy Irvine and answering that big question. The preparation with research, tweaking the drones, weather technology, equipment and support personnel was exhaustive and impressive.

It was a wrenching trip and (spoiler alert) the mystery remains. But why it remains is almost as interesting when so much of the international politics andagendi.

I really enjoyed this book, well written and very detailed. The only thing that I think would have made it better were pictures and maps. It was a little difficult to image the relative locations of different scenes. When I looked up some of the pictures online, it brought a whole new dimension to the adventure.

And while many different players would love to have their personal desire for the answer one way or the other be proven, the fact remains, the mystery continues to beckon, and even those willing to suffer so much to find the answer.

Mount Everest is the third pole. It’s allure is its beauty and challenge to those who wish to climb it. Mark Synnott, an accomplished climber and writer, did not have a driving ambition to add this peak to the many he had already summitted. But….then came the mystery.

What if it were possible to locate Sandy Irvine (who was lost on Everest with Mallory in the 1920s) and locate a specific camera that might yield photos proving their ascent? What if someone had a feasible idea on how to search this vast icy terrain? What if the technology of today (drones, plus improvements in mountain gear, weather forecasting, etc.) would improve their chances? What if Synnott could assemble a superior team that would buy into this idea with enthusiasm and help lead with their expertise? What if the Communist Chinese government would greenlight this project since the preferred route was from the Tibetan side?

Many “what ifs” needed to come together as Synnott uses his research skills, contacts and own expertise to solve the mystery. Any one thing can go wrong and derail the whole endeavor and many factors are beyond Synnott’s control.

The prime objective, besides solving the mystery of the 1920s, is to get back alive. Everest is not forgiving of poor judgments and decisions – there is a reason it has a Death Zone. Synnott is not only cognizant of his team’s ambitions but he realizes that the accompanying and vital Sherpas also have goals of their own. Holding them all together becomes a lesson in life skills for the mountain and beyond.

There were also moments of surprising historical background and scientific developments that made their quest even more meaningful and incredible. Synnott never loses sight of the humanity of those who came before him; whether building upon knowledge gained, trying to summit the peak or eking out a living as a Sherpa mountain guide.

Thrills abound in this book…..could not wait to get back into it whenever daily life intruded. This book takes you on an exciting journey with the best. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title to review.

The Third Pole is an absolutely captivating story of mystery, intrigue, and danger that offers a fresh perspective on one of the 20th century's biggest obsessions. There has been a lot of high-quality reporting of the extent of commercialization and packaging that has constrained exploratory potential and substantially reduced the technical rigor needed to climb the world's tallest peak, but Synnott's work here stands out in its thorough discussion of the political and social context of this commercialization, the deep ties to colonialism, the ethical dilemmas of environmental conservation and the use of aids like supplemental oxygen, and the pinnacle of moral conundrums involved in the seemingly unavoidable question of whether to rescue another summiteer in distress or complete your own quest. I came for the mystery and stayed for the exceptional exposition on some of the biggest questions surrounding Mt. Everest expeditions today.

Beginning as a mission with a whole host of moral superiority, Synnott and his team set out specifically not to summit (indeed, even pitching their expedition as "anti-Everest"), but strictly to locate the body of Sandy Irvine, one of two men widely believed to have summited Mt. Everest from the north in 1924, decades before the much better-documented success of the Chinese in 1960. While the body of Irvine's partner, George Mallory, was discovered in 1999, Irvine's had yet to be definitively located, although there was wide speculation about where it was likely to be found. Armed with a drone to scope out the area before they made the climb--getting the drone to fly at that altitude was itself a magnificent achievement--the team set out on a journey that was bound to significantly bend quite a few rules, if not outright break them.

On their quest to the top, Synnott and his team encountered all of the usual hazards faced by the average summiteer: unfavorable weather, struggles with acclimatization, health effects from embolisms to sudden-onset neurological issues, and gear issues, aside from just pure exhaustion. But they also faced tremendous barriers specific to their unique goal, including Chinese spies embedded in their sherpa crew, political barriers to getting the drone into the country and operating it, and a full-blown disinformation campaign from the Chinese government resulting in a sherpa mutiny. What they did not have to contend with was the absolutely insane queueing that took place on Mt. Everest in the spring 2019 season and jeopardized dozens of lives from overcrowding alone. All because they gambled on the weather.

The story of Mallory and Irvine is quite an interesting one itself, although it gets a bit lost in everything else going on in this book. Even though the team did not end up turning up Irvine's body, I felt a surprising lack of disappointment. The search was no longer the main feature, and there was so much other knowledge to be gained. In particular, I became incredibly invested in the story of Kam, an Indian woman who managed to summit, but was so slow that her team (including her climbing sherpa) left her behind for dead, and placed her descent in considerable jeopardy. Her story brought up all of the moral questions around the marketing of Everest expeditions that make all of the danger seem surmountable, the question of when it is right to stop and assist another climber and when all you are doing is putting yourself in jeopardy, and all of the trauma that comes with watching others die and coming so close to death yourself. And yet her story was just one of many that brought up all of these issues.

I also did very much appreciate the consideration Synnott gave to descriptions of the pay disparities in American and local guides, the evolution of local outfitters and the socioeconomic context of how dramatically the balance has changed in the last ten years, and the true outsourcing of significant levels of risk to sherpas (that has been well-covered elsewhere in recent years as well). I also appreciated the level of mostly honest dialogue about how some of the decisions his team made had much greater repercussions for their sherpas than themselves. Overall, he's definitely still an American who thinks he should be able to do what he wants when he wants (and even overtly states that toward the end), but the weight given to the impact of these highly commercialized expeditions on the sherpas did surpass my expectations.

In sum, The Third Pole is an engrossing read that I consumed in almost a single sitting, and I highly recommend it to anyone with a penchant for outdoor adventuring. Much thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for the eARC in exchange for the review.

I know that I am never going to climb Everest but this well researched and quite gripping book made the back of my head tingle a bit with a desire to experience it. Not. Synnott did this climb to find a camera -and perhaps the body- of Andrew Irvine, who, along with George Mallory, may have summited in 1924. He's detailed both men's lives, as well as what is known about their efforts, but what made this different and more valuable for me was the information about the region. He examines not just the mountain but also the politics of the region. Best of all, the details about the climb, which was made during the infamous 2019 season. This is much more expansive than other books about climbing Everest and I learned a great deal. Synnott has a good way with building tension and his writing will pull you in and keep you turning the pages. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, Armchair adventurers will love this one.

Sir Edmund Hillary was the first person to summit Mt. Everest in 1953…or was he? Presented with new information about a possible first ascent in 1924, the author makes his first trip to Mt. Everest to investigate. The body of Sandy Irvine, who attempted Mt. Everest in 1924 with George Mallory, has never been found. With him might lie a camera with proof they made it to the summit of Mt. Everest 29 years prior to Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

Synnott writes a compelling story that combines the 2019 season on Everest, historical attempts to climb Mt. Everest, and mountaineering culture as a whole. Although I personally enjoyed every aspect of the book, it is a long book and there are parts of the book where the lay reader may lose interest. For example, I had followed Cory Richards and Topo’s 2019 attempt at a never-before-climbed route, but the time spent discussing Richards’ troubled childhood seemed a little out of place in this book.

All in all, I highly recommend The Third Pole for fans of mountain climbing or who want to know “Why climb Everest?”

This was an interesting look into Mark's quest to find the body of Sandy Irvine who was lost on Everest in 1924.

I like that there is a history of stories throughout the book. Often the stories are harrowing. There are so many things that can happen to even a very experienced climber. I enjoyed learning about the many expeditions that people have undertaken to climb this mountain. It also reaffirms my stance on never wanting to do this myself. I am content to read or watch movies about others who do it.

Mark Synnott's The Third Pole will transport you to Mount Everest during the 2019 climbing season as he searches for the remains of Sandy Irvine that may help prove the British summited Everest in the 1920s. Through extensive research from the original British Everest expedition as well as the 1960s China Expedition Mark set out to solve a mystery almost 100 years in the making. Mark shares with the reader not only his story but the story of people he meets along the way. Showing that there isn't a single answer to the question, “Why are you climbing Mount Everest?”. The Third Pole is a thrilling book that really grabs the reader with the sense of adventure and danger. Before setting foot on the mountain you are on a treasure hunt while Mark uses modern technology to analyze the mountain to aid in the search for Sandy. By the end of the book I was drained and felt like I had been on Mount Everest myself. The Third Pole was hard to put down, you just didn’t know what was going to happen next once they were on Mount Everest.

Half-travel diary and half-history lesson Mark Synnott takes us to the roof of the world during the 2019 climbing season in The Third Pole. This book is about the mystery of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine but it also dives into the bigger question of "why climb Everest?". Thanks to the compelling writing I found myself equally invested in both the past and present stories and read late into the night to find my answers.
Anyone who saw the viral photos of the Everest traffic jam in 2019 and found themselves baffled should read this book. It provides insight into that season and into the broader mountaineer culture. Synnott is a mountaineer who long resisted the siren call of Everest and was only tempted to climb in order to solve the mystery of the 1924 expedition. This puts him in a unique position to shed light on the mindset of Everest climbers and to evaluate the history that led to that infamous 2019 picture. I particularly enjoyed the section that tried to illuminate why so many people get left for dead on the climb. I think that is probably the hardest thing to understand about the situation of Everest today (and one I still find horrific even if I now understand it better).
This seems like a perfect update to John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" and shows that the more things change the more they stay the same.