HIMALAYAN REVIEW
THE MOUNTAIN WORLD, 1954, edited by Marcel Kurz; George Allen and Unwin, English price 25/-. RINTED in Switzerland, and with editions published in America, France, Switzerland, Germany and Italy, this book can claim to be the most international of its kind. The success of the 1953 volume prompted the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research to concentrate on the Himalayas for their next issue. The result is a list of subjects and writers that for interest and brilliance may never again be equalled in mountaineering literature. Mount Everest is covered by the Swiss, Gabriel Chevalley and Raymond Lambert, followed. by. Sir John Hunt.and Wilfrid Noyce. The version by Noyce is clear and simple. The American attempt on K2 by Charles S. Houston is magnificently described and the complications of serious illness at a high altitude camp, an accident, an avalanche, death, and subsequent descent are shown with (continued on next page)
(continued from previous page) all the implications. This is one of the truly great stories of Himalayan struggle. The French ascent of the Nun, in the Nun-Kun massif, was another stirring triumph. The German conquest of Nanga ‘Parbat is given a somewhat expurgated account, compared to that of the book recently reviewed in these pages. This is the only disquieting tendency of The Mountain World, The other famous attempts are Manaslu by the Japanese, and Dhaulagiri by the Swiss, whose accounts give the first ones available in English to the general reader. The African peaks of Ruwenzori, Baffin Island, and Arctic ranges, with a stiffener of scientific work on glaciers and botany, make a readable 50 pages. Finally Kurz gives a masterly summary of Himalayan work for the seasons 19511952. New Zealanders will glow to read his description of Riddiford’s 1951 party as "real explorers, not simply climbers on holiday." : The illustrations supporting the papers are numerous and varied, well produced, and with full captions. The book is of great value whether as reference or as arm-chair entertainment. It should
quicken the pulses of mountain-lovers throughout the world, and thus fulfil its purpose and its title.
John
Pascoe
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 805, 24 December 1954, Page 10
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350HIMALAYAN REVIEW New Zealand Listener, Volume 32, Issue 805, 24 December 1954, Page 10
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