This was an interesting read by an author that I was not familiar with having never read their work before. I always enjoy a new to me author and I wasn’t disappointed.
I found the characters interesting and really had a depth to them with lots of details described for me to portray them in my mind and really get inside them.
The story line took me to a place I wasn’t expecting and kept me intrigued right until the end.
I would recommend to anyone interested in this genre and will be reading more.

The history of mountaineering seems to be marked by jealousy and petty rivalries, nationalist showing off and colonial attitudes that ignored the knowledge of locals or even other Western exploration and mapping. It’s a story of pride, often coming before a fall, of bravery and stupidity and sheer bloody-mindedness.

Craig Storti’s book brings together a wealth of information about the history of mapping, exploring and finding Mount Everest. The mistakes that were made along the way, the false starts and unsung heroes. It’s all fascinating stuff. Storti brings it all together in this book. This is not the usual story of the people who climbed to the top of the tallest thing ‘because it’s there’, this is the tale of how they knew it was there in the first place, with several false starts along the way.

First observed by westerners in 1850
North Pole reached in 1909
South Pole reached in 1911
Matterhorn first ascent 1865
Everest, ‘the Third Pole’ climbed nearly 50 years later, in 1953, not for want of trying before that time.

“It is a tale of high drama, of larger-than-life characters – George Everest, Francis Younghusband, Lords Curzon and Kitchener, George Mallory – and a few quiet heroes: Radanath Sickdhar, Alexander Kellas, the 13th Dalai Lama, Sir Charles Bell. It is a tale of spies, intrigue and beheadings; of war (two wars, in fact) and massacre; of breath-taking political, diplomatic and military bungling; of derring-do, hair-raising escapes and genuine bravery. The wind is a powerful presence, as are the rain and the mud, along with rhododendrons and orchids, leeches and butterflies, mosquitoes, gnats and sandflies. Hundreds of bullocks, yaks and mules are featured, as are thousands of camels, numerous elephants and at least two zebrules (they were not a success). And its setting is some of the most spectacular geography on earth.”

Sadly, I didn’t quite finish this before it was archived, as I was reading a digital ARC via NetGalley. I apologise for taking a year to post my review. This is definitely a book I would consider buying for our own collection of mountain books.

The Hunt for Mount Everest is an interesting book that details the exploration of Everest. There is much more to the story of this landmark than most realize. This book covers that and more. Those that enjoy adventures will enjoy learning the history of how it was explored and how it was “conquered”.
Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book for an honest opinion.

I had no real interest in Mount Everest but I love a good tale and this, for sure, delivered the goods. So many fascinating stories. Very well done, certainly time well spent, I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quality read. 5 Stars !!

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

The Hunt for Mount Everest is a non-fiction read about scientists and explorers with fire to know more about Mount Everest. A must-read by non-fiction lovers interested in nature.

Much like how the 1969 Apollo mission put an end to a curiosity much of mankind had developed about outer space, the 1953 Mount Everest expedition which put humans on top of the world and saw them come back down alive ended a long, arduous tussle between man and nature over whether the former could make it to the extremes of the latter whilst battling the elements. What's a smidgen more interesting, to me at least, than the Norgay-Hillary story, or the Armstrong-Aldrin-Collins achievement, is what went into making it happen.

Craig Storti's The Hunt for Mount Everest traces the beginning of the great imperial quest for this mountain, which began in the mid-19th century with the first official measurement of the peak and culminated decades later in the 1921 expedition which located a route to and reached the base of Everest.

Storti does an excellent job of tracing the roots of the mysticism that surrounds Everest, and sifts through the rigorously documented history with swiftness, introducing the reader to personalities aplenty: from George Everest, the man for whom the mountain was named in the West, to that great traveller Francis Younghusband, to Alexander Kellas, the unsung hero of the titular "Hunt", and George Mallory, who is as famous as the mountain herself.

The narrative is fast-paced without sacrificing on detail, and is vividly descriptive of India and Tibet. It's often easy to forget that the approach to Everest Storti is writing about is no longer the conventional one - Chinese occupation of Tibet for seven decades means few climbers approach it from that side, preferring to scale the Nepalese face of the mountain. More than anything else, the book is approachable (unlike the mountain) to a layperson, and is as much an account of history that seems almost quaint a century on as it is about an obsessive hunger to know more about the planet we reside on.

The one quibble I had with the book was a portion where Storti accorded Tenzing Norgay secondary status to Edmund Hillary, an unforgivable error for just how important the former is to mountaineering history.

Thank you, NetGalley and Nicholas Brealey US, for an ARC of the book.

This was a truly gripping read, illuminating a story I wasn't familiar with before. Indeed, probably very few people are familiar with the story of the "hunt" for Mount Everest in the late 19th century. The idea that anyone would have to go find the tallest mountain on Earth is intriguing, to say the least. Between the personalities of the men trying to get to Everest, the terrifying amount of peril involved in actually traveling to the mountain, and the remaining murkiness about the fate of its first two climbers, there is so much to sink into in this book. One of the most interesting reads of the year for me!

Wonderful true adventure tale. Well researched and well written. This book should be on a must-read list for all travelers, be they actual or armchair only. Having traveled to this part of the world myself many times, I found myself transported back in time to the wildness, cold. hardships, and ultimate mystery of the men in search of adventure. And it is an adventure that the reader can be a part of by reading this book.

As someone fascinated by Mt. Everest I found this a enjoyable and informative read.
Well done to the writer on a well researched book. If you like reading about Mt.Everest this would one for you to pick up and read.

Thank you Net Galley for the copy in exchange for my honest review!

Thanks to Net Gallery for the Amazing Book.
Something exhilarating about this wonderful book-
Something you have always taken for granted is cast in a new light -
How did they ever even find the path onto the summit of Everest?
For someone who knew absolutely nothing about the history of the discovery of Everest this book was rich in detail and nuance with fascinating history - it’s also beautifully written so a joy to read and rather like going up a mountain as we finally get to meet Mallory the trail picks up new zest and after the early foothills one suddenly just can’t put the book down - and once I’d read it once I went straight back and reread it - it was so good - enjoy!

The idea and attempt to write a book on the search for Everest works out better than the execution. Each of the chapters starts tied to the subject matter, but devolves into a detailed description of the person or events that are related to, but not about the search for Everest. While topics like the Great Game are needed to fully understand the context of the 19th century British control of South Asia and their incursions into Central Asia, detailed histories of Russian commanders did not contribute enough to the search for Everest to warrant its inclusion. This book is worth the read for those who are extremely interested in text topic and have read other books related to the tallest mountain in the world already.

This book rich in history of Mount Everest and the climbers who dared to conquer it. Very interesting and knowledge enriching but it doesn't cover the recent endeavours of climbers. Over all a very rich historically important book.

The kindle version as viewed on an iPad5 or Kindle Paperwhite5 was not able to be read. Is there a newer/corrected version? I cannot view this book at all. The text was impossible to follow.

This tour of Everest through the ages was a bit too stale cracker style writing for my liking and that likely comes down to my enjoyment around Everest climbs and expeditions being rooted in the dramatic memoirs these adrenaline junkies share with us readers. This book does not touch on recent climbers, which is where I have received the most enjoyment concerning learning about Everest. Nevertheless readers will come away with additional knowledge and experience Everest in a more raw version, no computer, no GPS, no direct communication and limited mapping.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ -- Love the cover on this one!

Prior to reading this book, my knowledge of the early explorers of Mt. Everest was limited. After reading this book, I feel like I have climbed mountains along with these "characters". This author did such an amazing job of making the history of Everest and its early explorers come alive. I was engaged throughout and often couldn't wait to pick up the book and dive back into the story. The only disappointment for me was that there were no photos in my review copy. I assume there will be in the final copy, just a bit of a bummer for us ARC readers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

**ARC Via NetGalley**

The Hunt for Mount Everest is an engaging and informative read about the history of Everest and the various expeditions that have attempted to climb it. Craig Storti does an excellent job of weaving together the different stories and providing a well-rounded account of the challenges and successes of those who have attempted to summit the world's tallest mountain. The book is well-researched and provides a wealth of detail, making it an excellent resource for anyone interested in Everest or mountaineering.

This book made my hikes up Scotland's Munros feel like a casual stroll! It was a well-researched and comprehensive book, albeit a bit euro-centric. The early history of mountaineering is fascinating and imagining how these major surveying projects functioned is just mind boggling.

There are plenty of books out there about climbing Everest— Mallory's dream, Norgay and Hillary's victory and the disaster in 1996 among them. In our rush to the top, less known is the story of how we set foot at the bottom— no easy feat in its own right. Storti's book tells that story, starting with the observation of a peculiar shadow on the northern horizon from India in 1847, through how the location and height of the mountain were established, Storti explains the politics, negotiations and egos of the players who paved the way for Mallory and Bullock to set foot on the mountain in 1921. I absolutely loved this, a look into a lesser known history of a point of obsession for the entire globe. Mallory's famous answer to why he wanted to climb it was 'because it's there'. This book explains how we know what 'there' is, and how we got 'there' in the first place.

"The Hunt for Mount Everest" by Craig Storti is a well researched and detailed historical account of the background, events, and people that led up to the British expedition to Mount Everest of 1921. Frequent quotation from primary sources makes the events come alive and the people feel real. The maps included are artistic and informative. It was too bad that the review copy I received had no pictures in it, but since the Picture Credits section acknowledges a number of photos, I assume the final version includes historical photographs. Although the idea of adventuring into the unknown and discovering new things is certainly exciting, and finding the right route to the top of Mount Everest is certainly an accomplishment, claims of Westerners discovering and naming a mountain that was already well known by the locals feels somewhat uncomfortable.

This was an interesting and educational book which gave me a chance to contemplate about the world long before smart phones, GPS, and universal availability of maps when overseas travel and communication took weeks or months.

I thank the author and publisher for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this book.