Everest: Mountain Without Mercy

The terror and triumph of the May 1996 climbing season on Mount Everest will go down in infamy. Made famous by Jon Krakauer's bestseller Into Thin Air and recounted in David Breashears's gripping IMAX film, the story is relayed in National Geographic's gripping volume, updated with brilliant new panoramic photography. Written in suspenseful detail, the book documents how a courageous photographic team, facing hazards of their own, became an essential part of a rescue effort that brought some--but not all--of their companions down from the mountain alive. Added to the classic main text are fascinating updates: brief portraits of those who lived through the tragedy; a time line of subsequent climbing events on Everest, up to 2014; and never-before-published detailed panoramics of Everest and the Himalaya.

BROUGHTON COBURN is a writer, lecturer and college instructor who specializes in crafting narratives of the people and landscape of the Himalaya. Since 1996, he has authored a young adult photo-biography of Sir Edmund Hillary, Triumph on Everest; collaborated with Jamling Tenzing Norgay on his auto-biography, Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to The Top of Everest; and written The Vast Unknown, which explores the first American ascent of Everest, in 1963, and its aftermath. Some of his lectures vividly recount the events and the context for the 1996 Everest film expedition.

CONRAD ANKER is a world-renowned mountaineer who has summitted Everest 3 times and climbed many of the other most challenging heights around the world. Best known for having discovered the body of early 20th-century adventurer George Mallory on Everest in 1999, Anker is captain of The North Face Athlete Team and continues to inspire with his climbing prowess and his thoughtful dedication to the people of the Himalaya. He is the author of The Lost Explorer, about finding Mallory, and the primary coauthor of National Geographic’s The Call of Everest.