Product Description

As a child, Reinhold Messner's mother read him stories about George Mallory and fellow climber Andrew Irvine; their heroic and tragic attempt to scale the world's tallest peak in 1924 inspired his own unequalled exploits in the Himalayas. To Messner, Mallory was a climber of the purest order, and his final ascent a work of genius, beauty and unparalleled courage. His disappearance haunted and inspired the imagination. Though Mallory's remains were discovered in 1999, the question of whether or not he made it to the top of Everest rests unanswered. Moreover, believes Messner, though we have found Mallory's bones we have lost or destroyed the spirit of amateur adventure that pushed him inexorably higher. Today, climbing Everest has become a mundane media event involving sophisticated equipment and corporate funding. THE SECOND DEATH OF GEORGE MALLORY is both an investigation into the death of George Mallory and a deeply felt homage - to a mountain, to the spirit of an age, and to the man who inspired those who followed in his footsteps.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #623089 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-21
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 205 pages

Customer Reviews

One legend on another
In this strange little book the Tyrolean climbing legend and prolific author Reinhold Messner describes and imagines the three major British Everest expeditions that took place between 1921-24, culminating in the summit attempt and subsequent disappearance of Mallory and Irvine. Messner uses journal accounts, his own descriptions and finally and most curiously, his 'voice of Mallory', his imagining of what his long-dead hero would be thinking. Somehow, despite a lot of fairly dry and humdrum prose about establishing tents and carrying supplies, it works quite well; some of the descriptions, particularly the first sighting of Everest by the expedition as it emerges from the mists, are evocative and spine-tingling. The whole book is suffused with a gentleman's quiet outrage at the rampant commercialism and lack of 'amateur spirit' shown by modern mountaineering (the 'second death' of the title), and tinged with tragedy and the thought that it is better to fail by fair means than to succeed by foul. Moving and interesting; undoubtedly there are broader and more accessible books to read about both Mallory and his expeditions, but this one sits well alongside those.