Last Hours on Everest

May 27, 2013
Hoyland, a longtime climber and BBC filmmaker, has spent much of his career sorting through details of the 1924 Mount Everest trek that took the lives of fellow Britons George Mallory and Sandy Irvine. In this adventure-filled volume, Hoyland sets out to convey "a personal story, a detective thriller, a biography and a history book." He recalls his own growing interest in mountaineering and early affini-ty for Everest, where "the extremes of human experience played out in the most dramatic surround-ings." Hoyland meticulously re-creates Mallory and Irvine's ill-fated climb, describing the work they did ahead of time, the equipment they used, and the clothes they wore. "His upper layers started with a silk wool vest next to the skin, then a beige silk shirt, a Shetland-wool pullover, then another silk shirt, green this time, then a flannel shirt." Readers will appreciate the background Hoyland provides on surveying techniques, British love for alpinism (a leisure activity for many beneficiaries of the Indus-trial Revolution), and the motivations behind many major ascents. This is a thorough investigation into Mallory and Irvine's 1924 climb and an engaging look at the psychology that draws us to our planet's highest peak.