The Vast Unknown

By Broughton Coburn,

Book cover of The Vast Unknown: America's First Ascent of Everest

Book description

In the midst of the Cold War, against the backdrop of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the space race with the Soviet Union, and the Vietnam War, a band of iconoclastic American mountaineers set off for Mount Everest, aiming to restore America's confidence and optimism. Their objective was to reach…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Vast Unknown as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’ve read a slew of books about climbing the big Himalayan summits and this is one of the best. It chronicles the first ascent of Mount Everest by an American team and in doing so provides a thrilling account of the climb itself, of the natural majesty of the mountain, and of the eccentric personalities of the team’s members.

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