A National Geographic special publication
As far as outdoorsy stuff goes, I like walking in the woods. That’s about as far as it goes. I’ve never spent a single night in a tent. I certainly haven’t done anything remotely strenuous. But I like reading about people who do, and watching tv shows and movies about people doing things I wouldn’t even consider doing. (Well, I would consider doing The Amazing Race, but since I wouldn’t pass the physical, it’s safe to consider it.)
Go up a mountain? Only if it has a paved road. But I’ve always had somewhat of an interest in Everest, which intensified after the disastrous 1996 climbing season. I devoured Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air and David Braeshear’s IMAX movie Everest — they were both on the mountain when the blizzard hit. I read some of the other accounts as well, and then books about the mountain and its climbers in general. I also watched the Discovery Channel tv series Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006-2009), which chronicled three expeditions. The interesting thing about this show was that it was impossible to predict who would be able to summit or not, as some of the inexperienced climbers did and some of the experienced ones did not.
I was in the grocery store a little while back and saw, amongst other publications on National Parks, Korean boy bands, and Marvel movies, this National Geographic special on the mountain we call Everest. (The Tibetans call it Chomolungma, and the Nepalis call it Sagarmatha.)
These magazine-like publications can be good or mediocre; some can be recycled every few years, with some new content and some reprinted from earlier versions. This one is one of the better ones I’ve picked up. It does contain some pieces from National Geographic’s 2013 hardcover volume The Call of Everest (which I have), but most of it is from the pages of the magazine itself or its website from 2018-2021. And of course many wonderful photographs.
The articles cover the geology of the mountain, the people who live in the area, some of the historic climbs, and the changes in the expeditions over time. There’s an interesting piece on the snow leopard, an animal which hardly anybody ever saw, until one started showing itself in public. After a few years, it died, and now nobody sees them again. The articles are generally well-written and interesting. What you don’t get is detailed information on the climbing routes. (The tv series — available for streaming on Discovery+ and Prime Video — is pretty good on that.)
This turned out to be a worthwhile purchase; I quite enjoyed it.
One response to “Everest”
I have to agree with you. Not really into outdoorsy stuff these days, though I did camp out in my youth. We went to summer camp for six years, and some of these we went on overnight horseback trips. Half the group rode the horses out and the other half got a ride in a truck of sorts and rode the horses back in the morning. I always preferred horses at night, truck back in the morning. The last year, I was one of the (so-called) Horsemen, had my own horse that I had to take care of, feed, curry, clean its stall, etc. We always got the first overnight. We slept out in sleeping bags, which was OK even though the ground was not exactly smooth.
I do have a thing about Everest too, though even when I was a lot younger I would never have wanted to climb it.