Second Death of George Mallory: The Enigma and Spirit of Mount Everest FROM THE PUBLISHER
The world's greatest living climber hauntingly evokes the vision and voice of his legendary predecessor.
As a child, Reinhold Messner's mother read him stories about George Mallory and fellow climber Andrew Irvine; their heroic and tragic attempt to scale the world's tallest peak in 1924 inspired his own unequaled exploits in the Himalayas. To Messner, Mallory was a climber of the purest order, and his final ascent a work of genius, beauty, and unparalleled courage. His disappearance haunted and inspired the imagination. Though Mallory's remains were discovered in 1999, the question of whether or not he made it to the top of Everest rests unanswered. Moreover, believes Messner, though we have found Mallory's bones we have lost or destroyed the spirit of amateur adventure that pushed him inexorably higher. Today, climbing Everest has become a mundane media event involving sophisticated equipment and corporate funding. The Second Death of George Mallory is both an investigation into the death of George Mallory and a deeply felt homage—to a mountain, to the spirit of an age, and to the man who inspired those who followed in his footsteps.
About the Author:Reinhold Messner was the first to climb Mt. Everest without oxygen and the first to climb all 14 of the world's mountains over 8.000 meters. He lives in a castle in the Italian Alps
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
The author has had a lifelong obsession with George Mallory's three attempts to, in his hero's own words, "catch the summit by surprise" in 1921, 1922 and on the 1924 quest from which he never returned. In this homage, Messner (My Quest for the Yeti) draws from Mallory's own journal entries to relive those three expeditions, fleshing them out for the reader with his own heroic experiences in climbing Everest. Avid mountaineers will be especially intrigued by the step-by-step detail Messner shares, enabling his readers to see the mountain as Mallory did. What is even more important to Messner is to celebrate Mallory's legacy and "the disappearance of the spirit of amateurism that drove him." Although he believes that Mallory never reached Everest's summit, Messner is adamant that all who came after this pioneer owe him a great debt. Employing Mallory's spirit, the author recounts subsequent expeditions, imagining what Mallory would say about each: the 1933 trip by Wager and Harris, who found an ice ax that could have been left behind only by Mallory or his colleague Irvine nine years before; Hillary and Tensing's triumphant climb in 1953; the expedition sponsored by the Chinese government in 1960 and the subsequent trek in 1975, which was the first time that "artificial climbing aids" (in contrast to Mallory's tweed jacket, hobnailed boots and a book by Keats) were used and have been so ever since; and, finally, the 1999 expedition during which Mallory's remains were found and ceremoniously buried. This tribute will resonate most strongly with veteran climbers, but even armchair enthusiasts will be gripped by Messner's seductive and uplifting narrative. 30 b&w photos; 6 maps. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
Legendary Italian climber Messner (My Quest for the Yeti, LJ 5/1/00), whose accomplishments include being the first to climb Mount Everest without bottled oxygen and the first to climb all 14 of the world's peaks over 8000 meters, attempts to trace what he considers the loss of the spirit of amateur adventure in mountaineering. The author quotes Mallory and his contemporaries and reconstructs Mallory's succession of expeditions to Everest from 1922 to 1924 through evidence found via the 1999 discovery of Mallory's body. This approach is useful for understanding the changes in motivation and attitudes toward climbing over the years. It gets a bit odd, however, when Messner attempts to comment on the current state of affairs by using Mallory's imagined voice, rendered in italics. All told, however, this is an interesting take on the evolution of climbing, adding perspective to the body of works on Mallory and the unsolved question of the circumstances surrounding his death. With its useful bibliography and 30 black-and-white photos, this would be a good acquisition, after David Breashears's Last Climb (National Geographic, 1999), especially for larger public libraries and those with extensive mountaineering/adventure collections. Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, WA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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