RED PEAK

by Malcolm Slesser ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 1964

This is the absorbing, sometimes witty, personal (rather than official) account of the 1962 British-Soviet Pamir Expedition to the top of Pik Kommunizma, at 25,000 feet the U.S.S.R.'s highest peak. The author was deputy leader of the British team under the guidance of the famous mountainr, Sir John Hunt, a conquer or Everest. The dangers of the climb share equal attention with British-Soviet interpersonal tensions. Slesser relates first the long Red ribbons of political tape, how they stretched from Moscow to London and were snipped. He allows the character of each mountaineer to emerge in the telling while each man fulfills his duties. The climb itself was filled with extraordinary peril, particularly after two of the English climbers were killed during crucial stages of the ascent. After this tragedy, some members turned back and others continued. (The Russians, by the way, had haphazardly supplied themselves with crystallized fruit, caviar and boeuf stronganoff as rations!) When the combined party finally reached the top, an Englishman breaks out a cigaret and lights up while an admiring Russian says, ""How is it, Mac, that you can climb so well, when you are so decadent?"" The author attempts to give a fair picture of the Russians but is sometimes quite cross-grained.

Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Coward-McCann

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION