Boys of Everest

The exploits of mountaineering's most colorful band of adventurersThe Boys of Everest by Clint Willis tells the gripping story of 'Bonington's Boys,' a band of climbers who reinvented mountaineering during the three decades after Everest's first ascent. It is a story of tremendous courage, astonishing achievement, and heartbreaking loss. Chris Bonington's inner circle included a dozen of mountaineering's most legendary figures-Don Whillans, John Harlin, Dougal Haston, Doug Scott, Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker, and others-who together gave birth to a new brand of climbing. They took increasingly challenging risks on now-legendary expeditions to the world's most fearsome peaks-and they paid an enormous price. Most of them died in the mountains, leaving behind the hardest question of all: was it worth it?'Willis's classy style turns reportage into literature . . . Bonington's Boys come across as raw, anguished souls . . . As Willis describes in his artful prose, their suffering is not just a means to an end (the summit), it is an end.' -The New York Times'A gripping adventure saga . . .'-Publishers Weekly'A death-haunted saga of the scalers of heaven . . .' -Kirkus Reviews'Mr. Willis tells a story that is gripping and poignant and even appalling . . .' -The Wall Street Journal