I find mountaineering pointless, and never seek out books about it, to the extent that when I can't get sleep, I start reading one of my husband’s many Jon Krakauers:I find them so boring that I drift off in minutes. I stayed up till 1 am to finish this book, and as you can see from the 5 star rating, that would be even higher if that were possible, this book has changed my mind about writing on mountaineering! It's even changed my mind about mountaineering as a sport- I still think it's pointless but I'm less inclined to scoff at those who don't think that!
Storti traces the start of people's interest in mountaineering, with colonialists reaching ever more isolated parts of the globe. He brings out the state of mind of so-called empire builders, who wanted to show the extent of dominion over the most far flung parts of their conquered territories, mountains being an integral part of them. It didn’t really begin that way-the Industrial Revolution saw an increase in interest in people going to the countryside on walks specifically on weekends, to get some fresh air away from the smoke and dust of industrial towns, and mountaineering ended up being an extension of that. This wasn’t a difficult hobby and attracted men of all classes-in the beginning at least. Storti frames this activity in terms of erasing class distinctions, that it was interesting to read of, and his accounts of Edward Whymper and that catastrophic ascent of the Matterhorn are well written. Having given you a short history of mountaineering, what motivates these men and the formation of the Royal Geographic Society, Storti shifts to the scene of the action-India. As the reach of the British East India Company grew in the early 19th Century, they needed to know the extents of their borders, and territories, leading to the Survey of India with its hundreds of indefatigable surveyors and mappers, armed with their theodolites and Victorian instruments ( and potted biographies of interesting people involved, such as George Everest). They started mapping the heights as well, and one particular smudge on the horizon at Darjeeling warranted a closer look, just because it seemed to be more than cloud, but also seemed impossibly high. Storti details the painstaking observations and measurements taken, and the calculations done by the team of computers led by Radhenath Sikdar, headquartered at Calcutta, who had to use hundreds of observations to compute their measurements ( I now understand the entire point of what we used to call a compass box at school, and all those fiddly instruments like set squares, protractors and the entire point of trigonometry-our school syllabi having been decided by what was useful for Victorians and never updated, nor explained to us-if my maths teacher had said that the point of learning sine and cosine was to be able to map the extent of the Deccan Plateau, or the height of K2, I would have been a lot more engaged). Over a period of 4 years, they checked and re-checked their calculations, and there it was-the highest part of the world. Now all they had to do was actually figure out where it was and how to get there. Storti even makes the way it was named interesting-among the only peaks in the world to not be known by its local name, because nobody could get close enough to it to find out what the locals called it!
It seems obvious now, but before Everest could be climbed, it had to be mapped, and before it could be classified, other mountains had to be measured. And even before that, you had to actually see these mountains. My idea of a mountain range before reading this book, was rather like a child’s drawing of a landscape, with a plain and a triangular mountain leaping out of it. Cataclysmic changes in geology don’t happen that way, and the crashing of the Indian subcontinent into Asia, that happened over hundreds of millions of years, flung up huge parts of land, in a series of towering ranges. These were hard to access and given their stupendous heights, hard to even see ( anyone who’s been taken as a child to Darjeeling’s Tiger Hill at the crack of dawn, with the promise of seeing the sun rise over Kanchenjunga, only to see a mass of clouds will attest to this). These were known of, right from the time of Marco Polo, and an 18th century map by a French geographer, based on a Qing dynasty atlas presented to Louis XV, also made mention of a very tall mountain called Tchomour Langma. Tibet and Nepal, by the 18th Century, had sealed off from foreigners, coinciding with the boom (such as it was) in exploration and mountaineering, so the places from where these peaks could be seen the most clearly were out of limits to explorers. Not to colonialists though, or people who said they were acting in interests of national defence. Here’s where the next set of people are introduced, including Younghusband, and the Great Game. To quote from Hopkirk’s ‘The Great Game’, when the encounter began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay some 2000 miles apart. By the end, the gap had shrunk in places to 20 miles. Both Britain and Russia wanted buffer states between their respective territories, with unfortunate consequences for regions in their path, and in the case of Afghanistan, unfortunate consequences for the British who tried to attack them! Tibet and Nepal’s policies infuriated the British-how could these regions bordering India refuse to passively acquiesce to British control? A cassus belli had to be found, which was a minor brawl among Tibetan shepherds on the border -surely an act of aggression against the Indian subcontinent. What follows is a harrowing account of the British invasion of Tibet-a well-equipped modern army fighting against a sparsely populated country that had shut itself to the modern world and believed in the power of amulets blessed by the Dalai Lama for victory in war. The victory of the British meant that a treaty was forced on Tibet, by Younghusband, who included an innocuous-seeming clause that allowed the British to map the farthest reaches of Tibet. The route to mapping Everest had now been secured.
The next section of the book is about the expedition to map the route surrounding Everest, and the mountaineers who were going to attempt to climb it. The writing is deeply objective-Tibet isn’t portrayed as an ideal society, but the injustices of colonialism and the complete lack of respect for territorial boundaries by the colonisers are not elided either. Finally, the last section is about the first attempt at finding a way to Mt.Everest, so enter Mallory. This book was illuminating about the deep association the mountain with Mallory, though he wasn’t the first to successfully summit. To quote from the book about their associations with the peak
“Hillary became a celebrity. Mallory became a myth.”
Apart from Mallory though, an influential mountaineer who laid a lot of the groundwork for the expedition and conducted pioneering research on the use of oxygen for mountaineering ( apart from taking the help of the Sherpa people for mountaineering, and naming them in all his accounts of his travels-a obvious thing to do but not so obvious to early 20th Century explorers) was Alexander Kellas, and Storti writes movingly of this self-effacing, dedicated man who’s been overshadowed by the larger than life personalities associated with the peak. Storti explores the obsessive focus on the ascent of Mt.Everest for a nation devastated by war, and desperate to prove their success at some astounding feat of exploration, the Poles having slipped away from their gasp.
I started this book warily, as I’ve mentioned, I find mountaineering of no value. I finished it wanting to read every single book in the bibliography hes mentioned, including the ones on mountaineering! This book to me represents the best of travel writing- a keen sense of history and interest in the geography of the places being written about, which can sometimes get lost when writers are more focussed on the travails of the explorers being written of, a sense of what drove these men, the venial politics behind the decisions of colonial administrators, with enough of adventure and derring-do for the vicarious adrenaline junkie within all of us.

"The Hunt for Mount Everest" is a captivating read that blends adventure, history, and geopolitics seamlessly. Storti's prose is engaging, making this book not only a compelling historical account but also a testament to the enduring allure of Everest and the indomitable spirit of exploration.

For anyone intrigued by mountaineering history, colonial adventures, or the indelible mark of human curiosity on the natural world, Craig Storti's exploration of Everest's early years is a must-read.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

My inner history nerd wanted to like this book so badly. I almost DNF'd at a couple of points because the text just seemed so dry. I expected this book to be about the circumstances that lead up to the expedition that first climbed the summit of Mount Everest. Instead, I got a dry tome of hundreds of years of history that seemed like it jumped all over the place. There were so many individuals listed that were only relevant for a chapter that I couldn't keep track of them all. This read like a book that desperately wanted to be published by an academic press.

This was an interesting read by an author that I was not familiar with having never read their work before. I always enjoy a new to me author and I wasn’t disappointed.
I found the characters interesting and really had a depth to them with lots of details described for me to portray them in my mind and really get inside them.
The story line took me to a place I wasn’t expecting and kept me intrigued right until the end.
I would recommend to anyone interested in this genre and will be reading more.

The history of mountaineering seems to be marked by jealousy and petty rivalries, nationalist showing off and colonial attitudes that ignored the knowledge of locals or even other Western exploration and mapping. It’s a story of pride, often coming before a fall, of bravery and stupidity and sheer bloody-mindedness.

Craig Storti’s book brings together a wealth of information about the history of mapping, exploring and finding Mount Everest. The mistakes that were made along the way, the false starts and unsung heroes. It’s all fascinating stuff. Storti brings it all together in this book. This is not the usual story of the people who climbed to the top of the tallest thing ‘because it’s there’, this is the tale of how they knew it was there in the first place, with several false starts along the way.

First observed by westerners in 1850
North Pole reached in 1909
South Pole reached in 1911
Matterhorn first ascent 1865
Everest, ‘the Third Pole’ climbed nearly 50 years later, in 1953, not for want of trying before that time.

“It is a tale of high drama, of larger-than-life characters – George Everest, Francis Younghusband, Lords Curzon and Kitchener, George Mallory – and a few quiet heroes: Radanath Sickdhar, Alexander Kellas, the 13th Dalai Lama, Sir Charles Bell. It is a tale of spies, intrigue and beheadings; of war (two wars, in fact) and massacre; of breath-taking political, diplomatic and military bungling; of derring-do, hair-raising escapes and genuine bravery. The wind is a powerful presence, as are the rain and the mud, along with rhododendrons and orchids, leeches and butterflies, mosquitoes, gnats and sandflies. Hundreds of bullocks, yaks and mules are featured, as are thousands of camels, numerous elephants and at least two zebrules (they were not a success). And its setting is some of the most spectacular geography on earth.”

Sadly, I didn’t quite finish this before it was archived, as I was reading a digital ARC via NetGalley. I apologise for taking a year to post my review. This is definitely a book I would consider buying for our own collection of mountain books.

The Hunt for Mount Everest is an interesting book that details the exploration of Everest. There is much more to the story of this landmark than most realize. This book covers that and more. Those that enjoy adventures will enjoy learning the history of how it was explored and how it was “conquered”.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

I had no real interest in Mount Everest but I love a good tale and this, for sure, delivered the goods. So many fascinating stories. Very well done, certainly time well spent, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quality read. 5 Stars !!

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

The Hunt for Mount Everest is a non-fiction read about scientists and explorers with fire to know more about Mount Everest. A must-read by non-fiction lovers interested in nature.

Much like how the 1969 Apollo mission put an end to a curiosity much of mankind had developed about outer space, the 1953 Mount Everest expedition which put humans on top of the world and saw them come back down alive ended a long, arduous tussle between man and nature over whether the former could make it to the extremes of the latter whilst battling the elements. What's a smidgen more interesting, to me at least, than the Norgay-Hillary story, or the Armstrong-Aldrin-Collins achievement, is what went into making it happen.

Craig Storti's The Hunt for Mount Everest traces the beginning of the great imperial quest for this mountain, which began in the mid-19th century with the first official measurement of the peak and culminated decades later in the 1921 expedition which located a route to and reached the base of Everest.

Storti does an excellent job of tracing the roots of the mysticism that surrounds Everest, and sifts through the rigorously documented history with swiftness, introducing the reader to personalities aplenty: from George Everest, the man for whom the mountain was named in the West, to that great traveller Francis Younghusband, to Alexander Kellas, the unsung hero of the titular "Hunt", and George Mallory, who is as famous as the mountain herself.

The narrative is fast-paced without sacrificing on detail, and is vividly descriptive of India and Tibet. It's often easy to forget that the approach to Everest Storti is writing about is no longer the conventional one - Chinese occupation of Tibet for seven decades means few climbers approach it from that side, preferring to scale the Nepalese face of the mountain. More than anything else, the book is approachable (unlike the mountain) to a layperson, and is as much an account of history that seems almost quaint a century on as it is about an obsessive hunger to know more about the planet we reside on.

The one quibble I had with the book was a portion where Storti accorded Tenzing Norgay secondary status to Edmund Hillary, an unforgivable error for just how important the former is to mountaineering history.

Thank you, NetGalley and Nicholas Brealey US, for an ARC of the book.

This was a truly gripping read, illuminating a story I wasn't familiar with before. Indeed, probably very few people are familiar with the story of the "hunt" for Mount Everest in the late 19th century. The idea that anyone would have to go find the tallest mountain on Earth is intriguing, to say the least. Between the personalities of the men trying to get to Everest, the terrifying amount of peril involved in actually traveling to the mountain, and the remaining murkiness about the fate of its first two climbers, there is so much to sink into in this book. One of the most interesting reads of the year for me!

Wonderful true adventure tale. Well researched and well written. This book should be on a must-read list for all travelers, be they actual or armchair only. Having traveled to this part of the world myself many times, I found myself transported back in time to the wildness, cold. hardships, and ultimate mystery of the men in search of adventure. And it is an adventure that the reader can be a part of by reading this book.

As someone fascinated by Mt. Everest I found this a enjoyable and informative read.
Well done to the writer on a well researched book. If you like reading about Mt.Everest this would one for you to pick up and read.

Thank you Net Galley for the copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to Net Gallery for the Amazing Book.
Something exhilarating about this wonderful book-
Something you have always taken for granted is cast in a new light -
How did they ever even find the path onto the summit of Everest?
For someone who knew absolutely nothing about the history of the discovery of Everest this book was rich in detail and nuance with fascinating history - it’s also beautifully written so a joy to read and rather like going up a mountain as we finally get to meet Mallory the trail picks up new zest and after the early foothills one suddenly just can’t put the book down - and once I’d read it once I went straight back and reread it - it was so good - enjoy!

The idea and attempt to write a book on the search for Everest works out better than the execution. Each of the chapters starts tied to the subject matter, but devolves into a detailed description of the person or events that are related to, but not about the search for Everest. While topics like the Great Game are needed to fully understand the context of the 19th century British control of South Asia and their incursions into Central Asia, detailed histories of Russian commanders did not contribute enough to the search for Everest to warrant its inclusion. This book is worth the read for those who are extremely interested in text topic and have read other books related to the tallest mountain in the world already.

This book rich in history of Mount Everest and the climbers who dared to conquer it. Very interesting and knowledge enriching but it doesn't cover the recent endeavours of climbers. Over all a very rich historically important book.

The kindle version as viewed on an iPad5 or Kindle Paperwhite5 was not able to be read. Is there a newer/corrected version? I cannot view this book at all. The text was impossible to follow.

This tour of Everest through the ages was a bit too stale cracker style writing for my liking and that likely comes down to my enjoyment around Everest climbs and expeditions being rooted in the dramatic memoirs these adrenaline junkies share with us readers. This book does not touch on recent climbers, which is where I have received the most enjoyment concerning learning about Everest. Nevertheless readers will come away with additional knowledge and experience Everest in a more raw version, no computer, no GPS, no direct communication and limited mapping.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- Love the cover on this one!

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of the early explorers of Mt. Everest was limited. After reading this book, I feel like I have climbed mountains along with these "characters". This author did such an amazing job of making the history of Everest and its early explorers come alive. I was engaged throughout and often couldn't wait to pick up the book and dive back into the story. The only disappointment for me was that there were no photos in my review copy. I assume there will be in the final copy, just a bit of a bummer for us ARC readers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

**ARC Via NetGalley**

The Hunt for Mount Everest is an engaging and informative read about the history of Everest and the various expeditions that have attempted to climb it. Craig Storti does an excellent job of weaving together the different stories and providing a well-rounded account of the challenges and successes of those who have attempted to summit the world's tallest mountain. The book is well-researched and provides a wealth of detail, making it an excellent resource for anyone interested in Everest or mountaineering.