The Last Climb by David Breashears, Audrey Salkeld
Last Climb: The Legendary Everest Expeditions of George Mallory is yet another History of Everest/Did Mallory Make It To the Top book. It adds nothing new in that respect. If you’ve read ten, you’ve read them all. (You may wonder why I’ve read so many and the answer is that, being a climber, people give them to me and then I generally go ahead and read them.) What this version does have is a lot of photos: intimate, interesting, different photos. And quotes from letters and diaries. Obviously the authors had better access to the source materials than most get. As such, if you’re only going to read one History of Everest/Did Mallory Make It To the Top book, I’d go ahead and read this one. And the answer is no, he didn’t make it to the top. No one wants to say it out loud but it’s obvious.