Mount Everest : The Reconnaissance 1935
by Tony Astill
Foreword by Lord Hunt and Introduction by Sir Edmund Hillary
A new book privately published by the author.  2005
[265 x 190 mm] with 360 pages on matt art paper, 125 photographic illustrations of the expedition, 10 maps [3 folding] and a double dust jacket illustrated by the coloured survey map of the North Face of Everest by Michael Spender.

Eric Shipton was the leader of this 5th Everest expedition, but, although an extraordinarily gifted writer, did not write the book of this forgotten adventure with his good friend Bill Tilman.
All the other attempts on Everest have had books written about them, usually by the expedition leader. For 70 years, the final chapter of Everest remained unwritten but now the full story is told through the diaries and photographs of the expedition members.

This was a delightfully small ‘alpine style’ excursion which gave Tenzing Norkay his first mountaineering opportunity and Dan Bryant became the first New Zealander to go to Everest.
Charles Warren found the body of Maurice Wilson the aviator who had disappeared on the mountain. A huge avalanche just below the North Col could have proved disastrous, but the team, which also included Edwin Kempson and Edmund Wigram went on to make two dozen first ascents of Himalayan peaks over 20,000 ft. in ’an orgy of mountaineering’.

Jane Morris in The Times ‘A very handsome book which fills the half-century gap in the Everest record, brings the whole enterprise vividly to life. It all makes compelling mountain reading, courtesy of Tony Astill’.

Winner of the James Monroe Thorington award for best book mountaineering history at the Banff Mountain Festival 2006

Copies of this book are for sale from the author

http//www.mountaineeringbooks.org

at the Royal Geographical Society Thursday 9th June 2011 7p.m.

Eric Shipton was an extraordinary mountaineer and a great proponent of lightweight mountaineering in the Himalaya. His experience on Mount Everest spanned two decades from 1933 to 1953 when he was obliged to step down as leader of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition in favour of John Hunt.

Stephen Venables, a great admirer of Shipton and the first British mountaineer to climb Everest without supplementary oxygen was one of a four man team who pioneered a new route up the huge Kangshung Face of Everest. His talk will concentrate on his many other climbs and journeys in Shipton’s steps, from East Africa to Snow Lake to Tierra del Fuego.

Special guest Dr Mike Gill first met Ed Hillary in 1960 and will talk about the early days of the Himalayan Trust, the ‘Silver Hut Expedition’ and their first ascent the striking peak of Ama Dablam in 1961. This spontaneous climb by a team of four mountaineers, in the Shipton mould,  would have been much admired by him. Mike wrote ‘Seldom have I felt so keenly my dependence on a piece of rope as I did then.’ This is your unique opportunity to hear at first hand the account of this ascent, unauthorised by the Nepalese Government, which jeopardised their permission to climb Makalu – a diplomatic situation resolved by the intervention of Ed Hillary who ‘for nine days trudged around government buildings seeing officials and ministers’ before the Foreign Secretary agreed ‘you can go ahead but you will have to pay a very substantial fine.’ Ed had to keep the smile of his face as he hastily handed over $60.

Tickets £17.50 each can be purchased online at www.worldexpeditions.com
or by post cheque payable to Himalayan Trust UK with s.a.e. to:
Tony Astill
Arcadia, Hazel Grove
Ashurst, Southampton SO40 7AJ
tel. 02380 293767 or astill.tony@gmail.com

If you collect old or new mountaineering books then you will want to see all the mountain books for sale at this online bookshop www.mountaineeringbooks.org

The finest selection of old mountain paintings is available at www.mountainpaintings.org

The Matterhorn

It’s simple to find your way around, just click on the relevant button. If you’re looking for used mountaineering books, second hand books, a first edition, rare books, new books, out of print books then you should find it amongst the mountaineering books that are available here.

Mountaineers have always written of their adventure. Climbing Mt. Everest became a bit of a national tradition in the 1920′s when Mallory and Irvine lost their lives and this subsequently created an inexhaustible interest in the mountain which was successfully climbed for the first time in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa.

Edward Whymper was the first to climb the Matterhorn. Paccard and Balmat reached the summit of Mont Blanc in 1786. The exploration of mountains and history of mountaineering has been recorded in literature since the 17th century.

‘The Ascent of Everest’ by John Hunt must be the most widely read of all mountaineering books. Apparently the print run of the first edition itself was 500,000 copies and the book is still in print today.

Whymper’s ‘Scrambles Amongst the Alps’ is surely the mountaineering book which has been in print for the longest period. The first edition, just 1245 copies, sold out within a few weeks. It was incredibly popular and read by everybody who could get their hands on a copy. Today a decent example of this most sought after edition can have a price tag up to £1500 – a signed copy would attract a significant supplement.

Vote for your favourite mountaineering book by a British author

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=375008

Your choice will determine the outcome of the search for the most popular British mountaineering book? If you would like to see the complete list as it stands at the moment then please contact me astill.tony@gmail.com or browse through it http://www.mountaineeringbooks.org/

Some recent choices include -

Styles    ROCK AND ROPE.
Moffat    SPACE BELOW MY FEET.
Ashcroft    BRITAIN’S HIGHEST PEAKS.
Barford    CLIMBING IN BRITAIN.
Wilson    COLD CLIMBS.
Ruttledge    EVEREST: THE UNFINISHED ADVENTURE.
Stainforth    EYES TO THE HILLS.
Alvarez     FEEDING THE RAT.
Coffey    FRAGILE LOSS: LOST ON EVEREST.
Hankinson    GEOFFREY WINTHROP YOUNG.
Cawthorne    HELL OF A JOURNEY.
Venables/Fanshawe    HIMALAYA ALPINE STYLE .
Tyndall    HOURS OF EXERCISE.
Fleming    KILLING DRAGONS.
Greig    KINGDOMS OF EXEPERIENCE.
Fiennes    MAD, BAD AND DANGEROUS TO KNOW.
Greig    MEN ON ICE.
Perrin    MIRRORS IN THE CLIFFS.
Greene    MOMENTS OF BEING.
Baker    MOOR, CRAGS & CAVES OF THE HIGH PEAK.
Hankinson    MOUNTAIN MEN.
Tyndall    MOUNTAINEERING IN 1861.
Murray    MOUNTAINEERING IN SCOTLAND.
Engel    MOUNTAINEERING IN THE ALPS
Macfarlane    MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND.
Craig    NATIVE STONES.
Unsworth    NORTH FACE : The Second Conquest of the Alps.
Ashton    RIDGES OF SNOWDONIA.
Gray    ROPE BOY.
Moran    SCOTTISH WINTER MOUNTAINS.
Simpson    THE BECKONING SILENCE.
Burgess Brothers    THE BURGESS BOOK OF LIES.
Tyndall    THE GLACIERS OF THE ALPS.
Bailey    THE RIDGES OF ENGLAND, WALES AND SCOTLAND.
Irving    THE ROMANCE OF MOUNTAINEERING.
Smythe    THE SPIRIT OF THE HILLS.
Hudson & Kennedy    WHERE THERE’S A WILL THERE’S A WAY.
Tuckett    A PIONEER IN THE HIGH ALPS.
Saunders    ELUSIVE SUMMITS.
Scott    HIMALAYAN CLIMBER.
Curran    K2 THE STORY OF A SAVAGE MOUNTAIN.
MacFarlane    MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND.
Greig    SUMMIT FEVER.
Tilman    THE ASCENT OF NANDA DEVI.
Fowler    VERTICAL PLEASURE.
Newby    A SHORT WALK IN THE HINDU KUSH.
Borthwick    ALWAYS A LITTLE FURTHER.
Pritchard    DEEP PLAY.
McLewin    IN MONT VISO’S HORIZON.
Kirkus    LET’S GO CLIMBING.
Fowler    ON THIN ICE.
Tasker    SAVAGE ARENA.
Astill    MOUNT EVEREST : The Reconnaissance 1935.
Bowman    THE ASCENT OF RUM DOODLE..

Should you collect mountaineering books then you might like to take a look at all the mountaineering books for sale http://www.les-alpes-livres.com
As the oldest established specialist in old mountaineering books and paintings I offer the finest selection to be found anywhere.
My online bookstore is easy to navigate, just click on the button for the various categories – Himalayan mountainering books, Alpine mountain paintings, Swiss mountain engravings and other separate sections for Mont Blanc, Mt. Everest, the Matterhorn or Cervin, Dolomites, Tyrol, Oberland Bernois and British Mountains.
I have used books for sale, out of print, second hand, rock climbing guides, first editions, rare books, some signed by the authors and all are about mountains and mountaineering from 1633 to the present day.
Some of the Mount Everest books are signed by members of the 1953 British team when Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made
the first ascent. Other climbing books for sale are signed by some of the finest mountaineers of their day including Bonatti, Bonington, Brown, Bruce, Conway, Coolidge, Desmaison, Diemberger, Finch, Franco, Habeler, Hardie, Haston, Herzog, Hillary, Hunt, Ichac, Lachenal, Languepin, Lowe, Messner, Noel, Noyce, Rebuffat, Roch, Shipton, Smythe, Streather, Tensing, Terray, Tilman, Tyndall, Ward, Whillans, Whymper, Wills and others.

The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountaineering Literature
The trust promotes literature by providing an annual award to authors of books, written in English, the central theme of which is concerned with mountains. This prestigious literary award, which commemorates the lives of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker, offers a £3,000 prize to the author of an original work which has made an outstanding  contribution to mountain literature.

http://www.boardmantasker.com

The winner for 2009 will be announced on Friday 20 November during the Kendal Mountain Festival.

http://www.mountainfest.co.uk/home.cfm?page=48

At this time of the year look out for The Banff Mountain Book Festival
Each year the Banff Mountain Centre hosts the largest Mountain Film and Book Festivals in the world and has done so since 1994
It attracts as many as 120 books, in any language, which all vie for the Grand Prize, although there are separate categories.
Each year three new judges, after a programme of pre-judging, read the books which have been shortlisted and then decide which books will receive these prestigious awards.

http://www.banffcentre.ca/MountainCulture/festivals/2009/books/