The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest Paperback – April 5, 2022

Mark Synnott adds a bunch of information to the mystery of Mallory and Irvine, but does so in a subtle method that is necessary in the post-truth era we live in.For instance, he starts by praising the 1999 search team for finding Mallory's body -- which is the conventional narrative which everyone expects. He then proceeds to systematically take apart everything you thought you knew about the incident. He provides a detailed and gruesome account of how Mallory's body was ripped from the ice causing the searchers to choke on the dust of the disintegrating remains. He describes in chilling detail how one climber crawls underneaths Mallory's body to stroke his face with his hand and possibly inventing, from thin air, one of the major mysteries surrounding Mallory's death. And he goes further to dismantle nearly everything you thought you knew about this mystery.Synnott also sets up a larger allegory for his own search out to the "Holzel" slot to illustrate a point about Mallory's climb. It is a very subtle point, but Synnott does not provide any photos of his excursion to the slot, and people have been curious as to whether he actually made it all the way there. But that is just the point Synnott is trying to make. Do you really need a photo to know what happened?The books answers a lot of questions, but for every one it answers, it poses two or three more. Most importantly, it illustrates how to convey information in the post-truth world. If you are a Mallory and Irvine fan, this book is a must read. If you are not really familiar with the 1924 expedition, it provides enough background and signal points to follow along, and a couple simple searches on the internet can explain why he goes into such detail on seemingly trivial points.This is a thinking person's book. If you think it is just about some people climbing a mountain, you are missing the real story.

Complete history of mtn Everest climbs and dangers of this mountain

Wonderful book about the follow-up quest (after the discovery of George Mallory's body on Everest in the late 90s) to find the body of his companion, Sandy Irvine....and possibly his camera, which might answer the question - did Mallory and Irvine summit Everest in 1924? Were they, perhaps, the first, before Hillary?The characters here are people that adventure fans will know from Instagram - climbers, filmmakers, adventurers. It is a wonderful and truthful view into their lives.As with all great Everest books, the difficulty of this climb and the many issues surrounding any Everest expedition are laid out well and the reader feels as if he/she were there on the mountain.The team faces many challenges and many temptations, including the fact that they do not intend to summit, yet....Everest calls, ego calls, personal need for achievement calls - and they must struggle to put their mission above the relentless call of the mountain. This part is written so truthfully that we feel the conflict - among team members and internally - it is almost like being there.I would give 4.5 stars, as this is certainly not a perfect book and there are certainly better books about Everest, but this one is lovely and human, and the quest is very special. A great read.

I was genuinely sorry the reach the end of THE THIRD POLE; MYSTERY, OBSESSION, AND DEATH ON MOUNT EVEREST. Reading the book was a total escapist experience--it took me into Tibet, into Nepal, and right up onto the mountain (Mt. Everest) with the author.A well-researched documentary, the book is also a genuine page-turner. Dramatic accounts of real events that occurred on historical Everest expeditions (especially the disastrous 1924 British expedition) are skillfully interwoven with the equally dramatic account of the author’s own 2019 expedition to find the long-missing body of George Mallory’s climbing partner, Sandy Irvine.Importantly, the author delivers on his promise to unravel the mystery of what really happened to Mallory and Irvine. Although the answer remains speculative--as it probably always will, given the political situation that exists in the Himalayan region--the reader is left with a pretty good idea of what became of Irvine. Also, the author makes a good case for the idea that Mallory and Irvine actually summited Everest, only to lose their lives on the descent.After reading the book, it remains a mystery to me, why anyone would want to pay tens of thousands of dollars to climb today’s Everest. Although today’s guided expeditions nearly guarantee that every client will reach the summit, the mountain continues to kill people every year (icefalls, avalanches, high winds, rockfalls), and a certain percentage of climbers die each year from high-altitude-related causes (sudden unexplained death, falls, fatigue, lack of oxygen, cold).The maps and photographs are excellent aids for armchair mountaineers like myself. On a Kindle, the maps are awkward to enlarge, and the photographs are in black and white so that much of the detail is lost. On an iPad, the exact same maps are much easier to use, and the photographs are in full color so that all the details come out with finger-pinch enlarging.