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  • Everest the Cruel Way

  • By: Joe Tasker
  • Narrated by: Stewart Crank
  • Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (34 ratings)

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Everest the Cruel Way

By: Joe Tasker
Narrated by: Stewart Crank
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Summary

On 30 January, 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible.

Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker's story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth - an attempt which pushed a group of Britain's finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter. Tasker's epic account vividly describes experiences that no climber had previously endured. Close up and personal, it is a gripping account of day-to-day life on expedition and of the struggle to live at high altitude.

Joe Tasker was one of Britain's best mountaineers. He was a pioneer of lightweight, alpine-style climbing in the Greater Ranges, and had a special talent for writing. He died, along with his friend Peter Boardman, high on Everest in 1982 while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers.

©1981 The Estate of Joe Tasker (P)2019 Vertebrate Publishing
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An intimate exploration into the unknown

A beautifully read and written audio book. To an avid lover of mountaineering books this one was fantastic. Exploring the stresses and strains altitude puts the human body through let alone the mind. Would definitely recommend.

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People Will Climb Mountains

This was a very audacious attempt on the mountain. Joe Tasker shows us all about ambition in this account on the first British winter attempt on Everest. The objective was chosen to be hard. Very hard, Everest hadn’t officially been climbed in winter, they were trying it as a small, sherpaless team, in winter, by the hardest then route. Without oygen. All this at a time when lightweight expeditions to the Himalaya were rare.
The book unfolds and it gives the reader a remarkably honest account of why such an endeavour is so unbelievably gruelling and dangerous. The book is also honest in that it doesn’t shirk from discussing personality, arguments and other usually brushed under the carpet incidents, especially the less than honest and charming local support.

The book ends with failure and with that now famous quote. ‘We had left some unfinished business’.

A good book, easy read.

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