Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Everest: The West Ridge” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Everest: The West Ridge

(Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series #12)

Thomas F. Hornbein

4.17 · Rating details · 441 ratings · 41 reviews

"Not only did Hornbein play a crucial role in one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in the history of mountaineering, his account of the feat is one of the finest things ever written about this peculiar, hazardous, and uncommonly engaging pursuit." --Jon Krakauer
* Special anniversary edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest ...more

Get A Copy

ebook, Anniversary Edition, 304 pages

Published March 13th 2013 by Mountaineers Books (first published 1966)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Everest, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Everest

Lists with This Book

This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 4.17 ·

Rating details

· 441 ratings · 41 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Everest: The West Ridge

Aug 28, 2016 Duane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rated-books, reviewed-books, non-fiction, memoir

The first successful summit attempts of Mt. Everest occurred in the mid 20th century. Of course the first, and most historical, was achieved in 1953 by a British expedition when Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to stand on the top of the world. Their route was up the southeast ridge, still the most used route today. The Chinese were the first to conquer the famous northeast ridge in 1960. Famous because because of the earlier, and unsuccessful, British attempts from that side. ...more

flag 20 likes · Like · see review

Mar 27, 2010 Jake rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, everest-lit

"Here man seemed to be reaching for something. His grip was tenuous, inconsequential, yet full of beauty and meaning." -The Author

I'm not a mountain climber. I read Everest books to grapple with the existential issues, and to contemplate how I might take my lifestyle up a notch using the climber's principles. I would not recommend Everest: The West Ridge for first-time readers of this subgenre. Start with Into Thin Air , Dead Lucky , or Touching My Father's Soul A Sherpa's Journey to the Top "Here man seemed to be reaching for something. His grip was tenuous, inconsequential, yet full of beauty and meaning." -The Author

I'm not a mountain climber. I read Everest books to grapple with the existential issues, and to contemplate how I might take my lifestyle up a notch using the climber's principles. I would not recommend Everest: The West Ridge for first-time readers of this subgenre. Start with Into Thin Air , Dead Lucky , or Touching My Father's Soul A Sherpa's Journey to the Top of Everest . From page one, these books struck me as more accessible.

Hornbein's book, published by The Mountaineers Books, gives a technical account of pioneering a new route to the summit. The first third of the book seemed bogged down in logistics. I would imagine it's engrossing stuff for serious mountaineers, but for layman like me, it's harder to find intellectual purchase in these chapters.

This is not to say that I found this book boring or inhuman. Hornbein adeptly constructs his own layered identity as the protagonist. He starts out as a cool customer, almost disinterested with this large, premiere American expedition in 1963. Yet as the story unfolds, his deep desire to conquer the mysterious ridge begins bubbling to the surface.

Hornbein paints with a fine stroke, both in describing the landscape and the climbers. He and his climbing partner Willi Unsoeld become a multi-faceted duo, at once supporting and competing with each other as they belay up and down the ice and rock. This offers more than a few moments of laugh-out-loud humor to balance out the tension.

Hornbein ends the book on a paradoxical note, questioning the merits of an unquestionably successful expedition. It's a perfectly justified conclusion. Still, it felt like a hasty wrap-up to a surprisingly deep and cerebral work. I also felt other writers have done more justice to the Sherpas, an ethnic group who largely come off as simple-minded employees here. Similarly, Hornbein's wife at home is relegated to the status of emotional motif rather than being an integral character.

In any case, Hornbein climbed the mountain. I sure haven't. And he tells the story with a deliberateness and nuance that I really respected. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in a deeper exploration of climbing Everest, especially as relates to the internal politics of large national expedition. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

May 01, 2017 bri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Like all books about Everest I was riveted. This book is about the 1963 summit of Mt Everest via the west ridge. (Ueli Steck who just died this weekend was planning on summiting via this route). I really enjoyed reading this book; though I enjoy reading all books about Everest, so take that with a grain of salt. I struggled with some of the technical detail about climbing as I am not a climber. I also really wished there were more maps to reference. The pictures, even though they were from 1963, ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 13, 2016 lynn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Always enjoy reading mountaineering books. You can just feel the passion and drive of these individuals who seek the highest peaks despite the risks involved. This is the story of the first summiting of Everest by the west route. Meeting their goals and the interaction between the climbers, who each have their own agenda and big egos, is always interesting. Managing to achieve those goals while still getting along may be the biggest challenge on the mountain. Hornbeam is somewhat different as he ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2010 Jennifer rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2010, nonfiction, mountaineer-or-travel-adventure, survival

I wish he'd spent less time on logistics and decisions leading up to the climb, but it's still a very interesting account of the first ascent of the West Ridge. Also very interesting to read about a climb in 1963 since the technology available to them was so vastly different from today. They really had to rely on grit and experience.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 28, 2012 Mihai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering, nat-geo-100-greatest-adventures

A recollection of one of the greatest achievements in mountaineering history, that is both meditative and funny. The 1963 American Everest Expedition put 6 people on the summit, two of them (including Hornbein) blazing a route up the West Ridge that has never been equaled. This book does utmost justice to the seemingly overused phrase, "a triumph of the human spirit."

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 18, 2013 James Moss rated it it was amazing

Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award Classics Award for 2013. One of the best books ever written on climbing Mt. Everest

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 16, 2018 Keith A. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In late May, 1963, two men, having spent the night at 27,000 feet on a ledge carved out of ice on a sheer cliff face, begin the final ascent to the highest place on Earth, Mt. Everest, 29,029 feet above sea level. They are climbing without fixed ropes, freestyle, with no support team and no chance of rescue. They are wearing reindeer-skin boots, woolen pants, shirts and mitts and windbreaker jackets. Except for rudimentary oxygen tanks and masks, they are without any of the high tech gear that In late May, 1963, two men, having spent the night at 27,000 feet on a ledge carved out of ice on a sheer cliff face, begin the final ascent to the highest place on Earth, Mt. Everest, 29,029 feet above sea level. They are climbing without fixed ropes, freestyle, with no support team and no chance of rescue. They are wearing reindeer-skin boots, woolen pants, shirts and mitts and windbreaker jackets. Except for rudimentary oxygen tanks and masks, they are without any of the high tech gear that is standard to even the lowliest mountaineer today. It is an achievement in mountaineering that is in many ways unrivaled for its sheer audacity and, unless you are a climbing aficionado, largely unknown. This is the story told in “Everest: The West Ridge” by Tom Hornbein, one of the two men that made the historic summit of Everest by the previously untried West Ridge. Told in an almost matter of fact and humble manner, it is the stuff every boy and most men dream of privately. Of facing death, going on anyway, and winning. It is the stuff of legends and dreams.

Climbing Everest by a route no man had ever tried before. Knowing that they could not reach the summit with time to get down. Knowing that the route they chose did not allow them to turn back or retreat. Hornbein never admits it in this book, but he had to know that death was more probable than survival. And still they made the decision to go forward, a conscious decision in my mind that left only success or death as the two possible outcomes. Hornbein dances near to this issue throughout the book, but for some reason never tackles it head on. Maybe it was a decision he did not want to admit to for some reason. But when faced with the opportunity to do what no man had ever done before, even if it meant his death, he pushed on and grasped for the gold ring, and then spent the better part of the rest of his life trying to pretend it was no big deal.

Only dumb luck and iron will saved them. But they succeeded, the gods smiled at their audacity and will to succeed. There are two kinds of bravery and heroism I think. The first kind occurs when you have a split second to react, to save a life or lives with little time to think or ponder. The second kind occurs when you have lots of time to think. When the only life at risk is yours. When the easiest course is to turn back and no one would think the worse of you. But you move ahead anyway, knowing the two outcomes are success or death. That is a special kind of heroism and the subject of this book. Serendipity and luck also course through this story. How it never could have happened without the alignment of the heavens and almost mystical providence. The other key element I took from this book is how, when served up similar circumstances, men react and behave so differently. How some men, experienced mountaineers and strong climbers, never acclimated to altitude and suffered cruel defeat while supposedly lesser men soared to glory and thrived in the inhospitable environment presented to them. How is it that the man recruited to be the radio operator, needed to provide a willing back for manual labor because of the illness of others, ends up on the North ridge of Everett at 27,000 feet blazing a trail to the final camp?

I highly recommend this book, as well as the excellent historical recounting of the expedition The Vast Unknown, by Broughton Coburn.
...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 24, 2018 Weysan rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering

In reading the book, I realized that just because one has had the opportunity toexperience something extraordinary, doesn't automatically necessitate good writing. *Duh! I know*I was in awe of Tom Hornbein’s personal journey; not only did he have the guts to venture into the unknown, but he also survived overnight in Everest! All those elements combined made me have high hopes for this book, until I realized, to my disappointment, that the writing was quite stilted. :( In here, I found a man in ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 29, 2019 Brandon Carter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the story of the first Americans to summit Mt. Everest in 1963. I went looking for it because it was cited several times in “Into Thin Air.”

It isn’t a minute by minute, blow by blow account of the climb, but there’s enough of that here to be satisfying. However it offers a fascinating look into the logistics of putting together an Everest expedition.

If “Into Thin Air” is more of an accessible every man’s book about Everest, “The West Ridge” is written more to an audience that is familiar ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 29, 2019 Alexrose rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Just wanted to read it a while ago after seeing Hornbein's interview with Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air); I love the way it's written and the story is quite entertaining, especially after they crossed the 26ooo ft line. Also, have to point it out, there are a slew of pictures in the book, so you'll grasp the atmosphere and surroundings, since sometimes it's hard to imagine how the Cwm or Lhotse face looks like, of course you can easily google it, however the pictures taken back at the time are ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 24, 2018 Radu Cristian Neagoe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An impressive tale about some of the first bravesmen to mount the Everest through a never before taken route, in the 1960s, back when there was not much advanced technology, and people had to carry extremely heavy oxygen tanks with them, this book teaches you a bit about bravery, recklessness, endurance, and the mental battle with yourself, when faced with a seemingly impossible challenge, that somehow becomes possible. Written by one of the participants, it might be the closest sensation will ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 01, 2019 Wandering Wizard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4.5 stars. A good account of the American 1963 Everest expedition. Lots of good photos to accompany the main text. The only slight downside - little has been described about the final summit day as well as the descent. It gets over in a jiffy esp. when compared to the lengthy descriptions of the preparation days (even when they were killing time on Base/Adv Base camps). But may be it is just me trying to nitpick things. The climb itself was a great achievement and still is by any standards. So a ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 09, 2019 Erika rated it liked it · review of another edition

From the blurb I read about this book in a previous Everest book, I expected a lot of facts about the emotional states and inner workings of Hornbein's Everest team. There was a little information about some of the differences of opinion and conflicts, but it was a pretty superficial look at the expedition. The photos were wonderful.

flag Like · see review

Nov 17, 2017 Brendan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fantastic summit account. Nowhere near as tragic as the 1996 disaster, yet still fraught with peril.

flag Like · see review

Feb 22, 2018 J.B. rated it it was amazing

Awesome perspective on a mountainous adventure

flag Like · see review

Jan 28, 2019 Colin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A great teal of an outstanding first ascent of Everest's West Ridge. Enjoyed the adventure of the American efforts on Everest.

flag Like · see review

Jun 03, 2019 Brittany rated it liked it · review of another edition

Way too many quotes, so I skipped a lot of those, but an interesting tale of an Everest expedition charting a new route up and over the mountain.

flag Like · see review

Mar 15, 2017 Brodyn rated it did not like it

beautiful cover deathly boring read. very american.

flag Like · see review

May 19, 2013 Roger rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering

Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld are written into the history of Mt. Everest, being the first team to ascend via the West Ridge (in 1963), the first to traverse the mountain, and bivouac overnight above 8000 metres. The Hornbein Couloir on the North Face of Everest was named for Tom during the 1963 expedition. Everest : the West Ridge is Hornbein's recollection of that expedition, drawn from his diary notes and transcripts of meetings and radio conversations that took place during the expedition.

Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld are written into the history of Mt. Everest, being the first team to ascend via the West Ridge (in 1963), the first to traverse the mountain, and bivouac overnight above 8000 metres. The Hornbein Couloir on the North Face of Everest was named for Tom during the 1963 expedition. Everest : the West Ridge is Hornbein's recollection of that expedition, drawn from his diary notes and transcripts of meetings and radio conversations that took place during the expedition.

The book begins on the trek to Base Camp, with meditations on Hornbein's friend Unsoeld, on why people attempt to summit mountains, and Everest in particular, and on the beginnings of the idea to try the West Ridge. Norman Dyhrenfurth, the leader of the expedition, had gathered sponsors on the basis that the expedition's aims were to climb Everest, Nuptse and Lhotse, and do some scientific work. Some of the climbers, led by Hornbein and Unsoeld, felt that retracing the steps of others up the South Col route was not pure mountaineering, and formed a view that it would be better to try and forge a new route up the mountain.

It was agreed, on the march in to Base Camp, that while the South Col route would be the main focus of the climbers, men and equipment would be sent across to those who wished to try the West Ridge. The politics of this division of attention take up a decent portion of the book as events unfold, and the pressure to put aside enough materiel for the West Ridge attempt told on tempers and friendships. Hornbein in particular was a big advocate for attempting the Ridge, and this put him offside with many members of the expedition at times.

When the West Ridge team finally got the go-ahead to try their route - after the South Col team were successful - they had a small window of opportunity to get the job done. They had to weather a terrible storm at Camp 4, where the team was very nearly blown off the mountain, before Hornbein and Unsoeld could head to the summit.

They realised, as the summit day unfolded, that it would be impossible for them to return by the route they climbed, and so the traverse became a reality. Summiting at a very late hour, near sunset, they descended on unfamiliar terrain towards the South Summit. Night fell, and they were left without light as their headtorches died. Hornbein and Unsoeld knew that Barry Bishop and Lute Jerstad had summited the same day via the South Col route as they were following their footsteps, and they found them huddled exhausted in the snow near the South Summit. Hornbein and Unsoeld got the other two up on their feet and attempted to reach Camp Six on the South side of Everest. They failed, and spent the rest of that night huddled in the snow.

When the sun rose they found their way to Camp Six and safety. The final moving chapter of the story is when Unsoeld departs for Kathmandu via helicopter, wrenched away from Hornbein before they could really comprehend what they had achieved together.

Hornbein, in the coda to the work, meditates on the meaning of the whole venture. He has never returned to the Himalaya.

This is not the best mountaineering book that I have read - I somehow feel strangely short-changed by the lack of focus on the mountaineering. But, given the historic nature of the events chronicled, I'd have to say this is a must-read for any armchair Everesters out there.

Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/ ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 19, 2015 Dan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was fortunate to get a copy of the Sierra Club Exhibit Format version of this book from my public library. This is a big book - about 14" x 18" - with beautiful full-page color photographs. It's about 200 pages, with numerous short sayings, poems, essays, excerpts, etc, interspersed with the photos and with the text of the book. It's easy to love this book.

And mostly I do. I did find the first third of the book, about the logistics, and about getting CLOSE to Everest, a little slow - I did ...more

flag Like · see review

Nov 11, 2016 Al Bergstein rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Most Americans that care about writing of the outdoors, have probably read Jim Whittaker's biography, in which he describes the incredible assent of Everest in 1963, the first by Americans. While Whittaker's book is excellent, the real secondary and less known drama of that expedition was the amazing summiting of the West Ridge by two other members of the expedition. That feat, is still considered one of the most remarkable climbs of mountaineering history. Tom Hornbein was one of the two that ...more

flag Like · see review

Oct 02, 2012 Doug Canfield rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Mountaineers Books Staffer: Another mountaineering classic on the Mountaineers Books list. In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to set foot on the summit of Mt. Everest. While the summit team was pushing to the top, two young less-accomplished members of the team, sat in base camp wondering how they might make their mark.

"Everest: The West Ridge" is the story of Tom Hornbein and Willy Unsoeld's big idea: "Let's try summitting by the West Ridge", something that no one had ever done. ...more

flag Like · see review

Apr 08, 2013 William rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Wow--still a mountaineering classic. More humans have walked on the moon than successfully summited Everest via the West Ridge---and to read how what was really a small splinter group of alpine-style climbers split off the main 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition (AMEE) and not only successfully climbed to the summit but accomplished the first traverse of Everest (they descended via the South Col route). Hornbein captures the tension between the "West ridgers" and the other traditional route ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 31, 2014 Beth Mitchell rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mountaineering, mount-everest

This is one of the premier books about Mount Everest. It is the personal account of the members of the 1963 American expedition to Mount Everest who made the first ascent of the West Ridge.
The book was first published by the Sierra Club with extraordinary photographs of the trek through Nepal (these were the early days of Everest expeditions when climbers walked from Kathmandu to the mountains)and of the mountain.
I first read the book in 1967; it was a gift from my cousin Pat "For mountains ...more

flag Like · see review

Jul 31, 2016 Michael Fenner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Articulate and inspiring, Dr Hornbein's written account of his and Willi Unsoeld's legendary climb is among the finest in mountaineering literature. Everest: The West Ridge continues to impact current-day readers as an entertaining story about what it is like to do very serious mountain climbing. It also continues to grow in importance from an historical perspective. The Khumbu has cell phone service now!! Hornbein's thoughtfully selected quotes and sayings are worth spending extra time to ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 24, 2016 Julia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In chapter 13, when Barry Corbet said "This is my first expedition. I'll be coming back again someday.", I googled his name. He never came back. In 1968 he was permanantly paralyzed from below waist in a helicopter crash. In the preface to the new edition, Hornbein wrote "8 of the 20 members of the expedition are gone." It leaves me speechless, pondering how this experience of one mountain could change the lives of so many in such unexpected and subtle ways.

flag Like · see review

Feb 01, 2014 Kusumbar Changmai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

But to those men who are born for mountains, the struggle can never end, until their lives end. To them, it holds the very quintessence of living – the fiery core, after the lesser parts have burned away….
On Earth there is nothing physically greater than the great unconquered peaks. There is nothing more beautiful. Among their barren snows they hide the ultimate simplicity of spiritual splendor….
-Elizabeth Knowlton

flag Like · see review

Dec 29, 2011 Rick rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: outdoors, mountaineering

One of the most well-written, introspective and thoughtful books I've ever read. I've read tons of mountaineering stories and this one had by far the most lines in it that seemed to go to the core of what climbing is and what climbers are made of. If you enjoyed Jon Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" you will enjoy the descriptions of Everest climbing and mountain expeditions.

flag Like · see review

Jul 06, 2013 Mark Klink rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A big picture book with lots of long quotes interspersed with the story of the first American ascent of Everest. I got this from the library (thru Link+). It was amazing to hold a 47 year old library book (it was stamped 1966) that had been so respectfully handled over all this time ... history in itself. This book is an adventure, and I loved it.

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 next »