FROM EVEREST TO THE SOUTH POLE

by George Lowe ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 8, 1961

First published in England under the title Because It Is There, this absorbing book by an outstanding explorer and photographer covers deep-freeze adventure in New Zealand, on Everest with the successful Hillary expedition of 1953, and in the Antarctic with the Fuchs Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1956-1958. As a boy the author, son of a New Zealand farmer, was crippled by a badly-healed broken arm; outgrowing this disability, he cut his mountain-climbing teeth on the New Zealand Alps, and encountered another New Zealander, Edmund (now Sir Edmund) Hillary, who became his close friend. With Hillary on the Everest expedition, he acted as substitute camera-man, and helped prepare the way for the final assault on the mountain. He was ""the man left behind"" at the final camp below the summit, waiting alone while Hillary and Tenzing ""knocked the bastard down,"" as Hillary phrased it on his return. After another Himalayan expedition, ""Bunny"" (now Sir Vivian) Fuchs asked Lowe to serve as official photographer on the Trans-Antarctic trek from the Weddell to the Ross Sea via the South Pole, with Hillary, starting at the Ross Sea, leading the other half of the project. The expedition was successful but scarcely comfortable, with Sno-Cat tractors falling into crevasses and frost-bite an accepted hazard. In clear prose and in photographs the author tells of the different expeditions, the men who took part in them, and their reactions to extreme heights and extreme cold; one section of the book is filled with technical information for photographers. All in all, it is a man's book with an appeal for any who enjoy authentic accounts of high exploration.

Pub Date: March 8, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION