The Boys of Everest
Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing's Greatest Generation

As someone who has never, will never, and wants never, to climb even a hill without a path and ice cream shop every mile, I remain somewhat perplexed by those who feel they must endure freezing cold, ridiculous food, tea all the time (if you’re British), and the constant risk of death. But these psy......more

I've been reading climbing books for many years now and found that they can be rather variable. Books on Everest will tend to crop up quite often as Everest is perceived as the big challenged (kind of ignoring the many mountains that are actually harder in many ways). While this is called the "Boys o......more

I liked this book because it gave me more detail on the technical aspects of climbing than most mountaineering tales do. On the other hand, it was odd that the author put thoughts and actions into the heads of dead men, trying to imagine, I guess, what they were thinking and feeling when they died c......more

Interesting subject. Very comprehensive and detailed on the efforts of these adventurers. However, I was frustrated by the author's constant need to wax poetic on the thoughts of dying men. The presumption and creepiness of these lengthy monologues was off-putting as was the nasty swallowing sound t......more

After having read some of the negative reviews here, I am almost reluctant to admit that I liked this book. I have read a LOT of books on mountaineering and have enjoyed just about all of them. I could tell as I read this that Willis was obviously inventing dialogue and describing scenes that no one......more