The Last Blue Mountain, Ralph Barker
The Last Blue Mountain, Ralph Barker
List: $12.99 | Sale: $9.10
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The Last Blue Mountain
The great Karakoram climbing tragedy

Author: Ralph Barker

Narrator: Stewart Crank

Unabridged: 7 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/14/2020

Synopsis

‘When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh.’The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them.The group’s efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them.An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker’s The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sharon on June 09, 2023

The Last Blue Mountain is about the 1957 mountain climbing tragedy in Pakistan. I listened to it on audiobook and it went in my DNF pile when I was 50% through the book. I've read several reviews that indicate it is worth the very slow build up to the tragedy. My preference is to be thrown right into......more

Goodreads review by P on February 15, 2021

I was sceptical this would be another report of men very much of their era having some sort of epic in a foreign climate, and whilst this is me being flippant this book surprised me and was far more engaging than I was expecting. The author is not a climber, not that you could tell from a technical......more

Goodreads review by Mike on April 06, 2020

Its fair to say that this book is a product of its time with a very slow(almost ponderous) build up and rather formal language at times. However stick with it as underneath it all is a tale I'd certainly never heard of before that is of epic proportions. Its definitely a story which should be read an......more

Goodreads review by Dave on April 21, 2020

The Last Blue Mountain is the story of an epic mountaineering tragedy in 1957. First published in 1959, it is written by a non-climbing military historian, Ralph Barker. The tale is worthy of a Boy’s Own Adventure book – 5 young men set off to tackle the unclimbed 24,000 feet Haramosh in the Karakor......more

Goodreads review by Vincent on July 03, 2024

eThe Last Blue Mountain was written in 1960 about a mountain climbing expedition on Haramosh Mountain in Pakistan in 1957. The book apparently was out of print for a while and then re-released with a new introduction by Ed Douglas. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that some of the climbers died o......more

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