In the 1930s, a different kind of battle was raging across the mighty Himalayas. Teams of mountaineers from Great Britain, Germany & the US were all competing to be the 1st to climb the world’s highest peaks – Mount Everest & K2. Unlike climbers today, they had few photographs or maps, no great oxygen systems, no technology, wore leather boots & cotton parkas. Amazingly, against all odds, they went farther & higher than anyone could have imagined.
James Hilton created the mythical land of Shangri-La in Lost Horizon, Maurice Wilson set out for Tibet to climb Mount Everest. Set in London, New York, Germany, India, China & Tibet, The World Beneath Their Feet is not only a story of mountain climbers, but of passion & ambition, courage & calm, tradition & innovation, tragedy & triumph. Scott Ellsworth tells a real-life adventure story that moves seamlessly from the streets of Manhattan to the deadly avalanches on Nanga Parbat, the wild mountain dreams of a New Zealand beekeeper – Edmund Hillary & a young Sherpa – Tenzing Norgay.
Climbing the Himalayas was a moonshot. A gritty, fascinating history.
