EVEREST, INC. is an interesting and well-informed addition to the genre of alpinist tourism. Everest has captured many imaginations, mine included, and this book does a good job of outlining the history of Everest climbing and extreme mountaineering guiding. There were discussions of Sherpa exploitation and their attempts to empower themselves and take leading roles within the alpine guiding industry. This was a well-balanced and thoughtful exploration of the ongoing fascination and critiques of the high mountain tourism industry. Suffice it to say, the critiques will never dissipate, nor will the prospective clients in need of guides for their next thrill.

This was informative and clearly written, but it wasn't as engrossing as I hoped it would be, mainly because of the style and the organization (which I couldn't really figure out). But also because he was weirdly defensive of the industry being built on Everest, and weirdly critical of anyone who criticized it, and it just rubbed me the wrong way. The focus he gives the Sherpas and their growing control over the industry on the mountain that is in their country, not the world's, was great, but I can't explain it, I just felt weird about some of how he wrote this. I knew going in this wasn't going to be a narrative thrill ride like <i>Into Thin Air</i> and other disaster books (Cockrell and people he interviews are very critical of Krakauer, which also rubbed me the wrong way) but I wish it would have had some sort of thread for me to follow.

This is a well-researched, comprehensive look at the guided climbing industry on Mount Everest, shedding light on the dynamics between climbers, guides, and the mountain itself. There are interviews with many key figures in Everest history, such as Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker, however there are often too many names it is hard to keep track. Additionally, the book often veers into opinion, which holds little weight.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading and watching mountaineering related books / documentaries. This was a delightful book covering key moments and mountaineers in the history of Everest. Great book to dive in and armchair climb.

Everest, Inc. is a synopsis of the history of guiding paying clients up Mt. Everest. From Edmund Hillary to Nims Purja, this book gives the reader an excellent synopsis of the history of expeditions over the past sixty years.

I really enjoyed this book. Reading Into Thin Air as a teenager made me fall in love with high-altitude mountaineering stories. The book is well-written and researched. There are a lot of interviews and facts gleaned from many different sources; at times it was difficult to keep everyone straight.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

My husband and I have watched every Everest documentary we can get our hands on, so when I came across this book I was very excited. I read many passages aloud to him.

This book was informative and shared many viewpoints, however, it was a little slow at times and I felt I had to make myself read it to finish it.

As a huge fan of mountaineering books, I was eager to read Everest, Inc. and am happy to say that it did not disappoint. Informative and interesting, a must for those who read adventure /mountaineering nonfiction.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced reading copy.

I usually love Everest books and this is no exception.

This is such an informative book. I really enjoyed the background and the personal stories within story.

Really enjoyed it !

I really enjoyed this book at face value. It is informative and well reported. I listened to the audio and was all in on the narrator and overall experience. However, this book feels borderline racist. A lot of the opinions and writing about the Sherpa people made me double take. I also wasn't wild about how so many of the sources were Everest guides. It felt clear that they wanted to promote their businesses and say its not too crowded and everyone belongs on the mountain. The author was also pretty hard on people who chose not to be interviewed for the book (mainly Jon Krakauer and a alpinist named Nims). So yes, I enjoyed reading the book as a glimpse into a world I know nothing about, but wish parts had been very different.

Everest Inc. is a good, though not totally necessary, entry into the larger Everest library. As the subtitle suggests, author Will Cockrell focuses on the building of "an Industry at the Top of the World." It's a new angle, and the author does well with it, but the meat is largely comprised of voices and stories we've heard elsewhere by now, at least in fragments.

As can be true with non-fiction, it has a certain benefit of being the most recent of its kind published. Once through the well-trod histories covered by almost every Everest book, the author was able to mine more recent events (2016-2023) and present a stronger narrative of his own.

I would recommend the book to fans making their way through multiple Everest works, but would not recommend it as the singular read for someone with a fleeting interest — there are more compelling stories out there.

As someone who is a huge fan of Into Thin Air, and fascinated by these giant mountain climbs, I was really impressed by this book. I’ve never read such an in depth and “readable” book about the history of Everest climbing. I have always been a little jealous of those who had the fortitude to make it partway, or to summit mountains like Everest. These people have such strength and determination, willpower and apparently tons of money!

There are so many people discussed in this book, among the different climbing companies, that it is very difficult to keep track of who is who. I appreciated the appendix in the back to help keep track. It was written in a way that made it enjoyable, even though a ton of information was presented. It not only covers Everest but also touches on quite a few other big climbs and the Seven Summits in general. There are so many men involved that I really was glad to see that the author also covered the women that have made an impact in climbing.

This book really represented the highs and lows of climbing Mt. Everest. It described the beauty and the hard work that it demands, but it also shows the extreme danger and l what happens when tragedy strikes.

I was really impressed, and I thank Will Cockrell and Gallery Books for providing me with this copy to check out!

WHEW. Not gonna lie, this book primarily served to continue to feed my obsession with Everest. I had read Into Thin Air, watched both 2015 movies, and consumed a variety of media on Everest going into picking this up, but even as an Everest aficionado, I still learned a TON and had many highlightable moments while reading Will Cockrell's comprehensive history. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

I received this as an egalley from NetGalley.

I probably wouldn't have read this if not for a friend that is *very* into Everest. So knowing a little bit about the 'business' of climbing Everest I started this book with some interest. By the end of the book I was blown away by what humans and corporations have done to mountains around the world by turning it into status and a corporation. And still people keep dying doing something they don't have to do!

First, apparently I am on some 'non-fiction find myself in the mountains kick' because this is like the fourth book in the last 2 months that I have read on this topic. However, this time I switched it up and went outside the US for the mountain loving read.

This book has so much information, that at times I felt overwhelmed, or slightly dumb because this isn't really spoken about in normal conversations/on the news/ in classrooms.

I know Everest has always been "the" hike or "the" mountain, but I never realized how someone did it. To me, I just thought you went, you climbed, you came back. I didn't know there was an entire community and people in Nepal (Sherpas) who go along on these treks, and also work with Western companies (and then also created their own) to help people achieve the dream of climbing Everest.

This book was so insightful, and so much history as well. Great read.

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For those familiar with "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer, Anatoli Boukreev's response "The Climb", and other works debating how Everest should be climbed and by whom, this will be an excellent addition to their collection. A "niche" book, a reader interested in this debate should definitely purchase this title, as well as public libraries where there is a demand for books on this topic.

After reading DIXON DESCENDING by Karen Outen, my interest in all things Mt. Everest was sky-high, so I was excited to find this narrative nonfiction account of the Mt. Everest industry. I was not disappointed; this is a gripping and revealing look at the history of Mt. Everest exploration, sherpa guided tours, the fallout from INTO THIN AIR, the rise of sherpa advocacy, and much more. If you're into adventure nonfiction, this is a must read.

Many thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love reading books about Mountaineering and Everest in particular, and this book takes an interesting look at the business of making it to the summit of the world’s most famous mountain. There are a lot of names and companies covered in this expansive text and the first-person accounts enrich the story and make it compulsively readable. That said, there are some organizational issues with the text sometimes jumping ahead in time and then jumping back, making it hard to follow because otherwise the text is chronological. Similarly, the 1980s and 1990s get a significant portion of the text, leaving the early 2000s and 2010s a cursory overview. This feels especially misplaced as the core thesis is that Nepalis - and Sherpas in particular- have not been afforded the respect they deserve for their role in making Everest the business it is today, and it is in the last decade or so that the Nepalis have taken a larger organizational role in leading companies, guiding expeditions, and publicizing themselves and their accomplishments. I still wholeheartedly recommend this book to those interested in learning more about early years on the mountain, and I hope more scholarship follows up on the more recent years.

Great read for the Everest and mountaineering enthusiast about the commercialization of guiding and climbing of Everest and the 8,000 meter peaks that make up the Himalayas.

I love books about climbing and Everest specifically, and overall I think that Everest Inc. is a really interesting addition to the genre. This book is a sweeping history of the rise of the guiding industry of Everest, its ethical implications, and the way it has changed over the past 30ish years.
I thought it was really interesting to read about stories and important players that I am already familiar with, but with more perspective of the business side of the mountain guiding industry. The author successfully covered a wide variety of topics in chronological order, and clearly conducted an insane amount of research.
Because there are so many books in this genre about major tragedies or exhilarating expeditions, I’m glad to have read a book that discusses the future of the industry, especially the rise of key Sherpa players and companies in the space.
I would give this book 4.5 stars because I think it’s extremely well-written and well-researched, but the sheer volume of characters and stories made me want more details about expeditions that only got one paragraph of space.

A very interesting addition to the vast Everest library. I am a fan of this genre and have read many books about the Himalayas, two of my favorites being (perhaps predictably) Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air and Wade Davis’ Into the Silence. Most of these works focus on a particular event (like the disastrous 1996 season) or person (like George Mallory). Everest Inc. takes a different and fresh approach, following the rise of the guiding industry on the world's highest peak, from its unlikely beginnings, when the very idea seemed preposterous, to the current reclaiming of the place by the long-overlooked Sherpa people.

There are many marvelous stories here, and many fascinating characters - sometimes to a fault, as in some instances I got lost in the parade of names. Nevertheless, it is a compelling story that gives a broader perspective to many facts that you may already know, but will now see in a different way. The author deconstructs some of the myths surrounding the business of helping beginners climb and crowded routes. You don't have to agree with his diagnosis, but it is certainly thought-provoking.

Thanks to the publisher, Gallery Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.