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The National Geographic Society (NGS) has chosen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United States/ NGS team’s ascent of Mount Everest in 1963 in combination with the 60th anniversary of the first documented ascent and successful descent. This was the 1953 culmination of the triumph of Hillary and Tenzing under the leadership of Brigadier John Hunt’s British expedition. The historical depth of the book extends back to the 19th-century discovery of the mountain and the assumption that it was the world’s highest, incidental to the monumental British Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. The book covers the earliest reconnaissance and the several attempts on the summit from the northern, Tibetan, side prior to World War II. It is beautifully executed with exquisite photographs that we all, long since, have come to recognize as the hallmark of the NGS. The presentation is broken down into 8 chapters. Preceded by Tom Hornbein’s Foreword, each chapter is written by a specialist in the relevant field: the meaning of Everest, geotectonics, anthropology, natural history, climbing history, medical research, an account of 1 season on the mountain, and the future. There are recommendations for further reading, mini-biographies of the contributors, illustration credits, and an index. Apart from accounts of the early British attempts from the north side, the book emphasizes the southern approach as well as the entire Khumbu region of the Nepal Himal. The scientific accounts are attuned for a general readership. Several revered Everest photographic archives have made contributions, especially that of the Royal Geographical Society. This has ensured a widely embracing photo record of Everest’s mountaineering history. Understandably there was no attempt to be complete. The 3dimensional diagram giving a Khumbu Glacier–South Col perspective, used as a frontispiece, is highly effective. Similarly, the oblique highaltitude photograph (pp 144–145) gives a dramatic display of 15 of the major routes to the summit, linked to their respective expeditions. Surprisingly, the impressive second successful attempt of 1956 that included the first ascent of Lhotse (8501 m) by the Swiss is neglected. In Chapter 1, Conrad Anker explores the ‘‘call’’ of Everest from its first sighting, through the early mountaineering attempts, to realization of the ‘‘American Dream’’ in 1963. He proceeds from 1963 to introduce the subsequent changes in the meaning of Everest. These have been influenced by improvements in equipment, techniques, and the onrush of mass trekking tourism, to the serious overcrowding of the last 20 years. Regardless, his beliefs are couched by his final chapter subheading: ‘‘Forever Everest.’’ In Chapter 2, David R. Lageson provides a substantive account of the birth of Everest from the Ordovician life forms on the seafloor of the Tethys Ocean, via plate tectonics, to the fossiliferous sediments (The Yellow Band) close to the summit of today. En route he introduces Sir George Everest and the British Survey of India, as well as 2 geological pioneers who went before him: Noel Odell and Augusto Gansser. Brot Coburn uses Chapter 3 to illustrate the special people of the Khumbu, the Sherpas. He gives an overview of their original culture, religion, sacred places, and way of life. The impact of the closing of Tibet by China in 1949 is emphasized as marking the beginning of the vast changes that have overtaken both their way of life and the landscape itself. This leads to an introduction to the rapid growth in mountaineering and trekking. One devastating statistic is that the Khumbu experiences annual influxes in excess of 25,000 trekkers compared to a resident population of about 3500. The significance of this enormous challenge, positive and negative, is outlined: from the highly beneficial creation of hospitals and schools, initiated by Sir Edmund Hillary, to the disproportionate number of deaths of Sherpa climbing guides, alcoholism, drugs, and garbage, not to mention a significant Sherpa diaspora. Coincidentally, Coburn has published a separate book on the 1963 ascent of Everest giving highly relevant and detailed personal information on the primary members of the expedition (Coburn 2013). Alton C. Byers, as the only geographer among the contributors, appropriately, has produced Chapter 4, ‘‘The Nature of Everest.’’ This constitutes a realistic account of the natural landscape based in large part on his extensive field research. He provides a balanced account of recent human impacts correcting former unsupportable assumptions that were presented as authoritarian conclusions. While this has been published previously in the scientific literature following his early fieldwork in the 1980s, its reiteration here is necessary in the context of a possible uninformed general readership: massive deforestation was not occurring in the 1970s and 1980s, and there is strong evidence for human entry into the Khumbu centuries prior to the conventionally accorded 16th/17th-century immigration of Sherpas from eastern Tibet. He also introduces the current concerns about climate change that is leading to glacier retreat and thinning and the growth of potentially dangerous glacier lakes. The conspicuous change in the glaciers is convincingly demonstrated by his replication of photographs dating from the 1950s. Bernadette McDonald introduces the reader to many of the MountainMedia Mountain Research and Development (MRD) An international, peer-reviewed open access journal published by the International Mountain Society (IMS) www.mrd-journal.org

The Call of Everest: The History, Science, and Future of the World's Tallest Peak