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The quest for the world’s highest peaks

Daniel Light’s colourful account of early mountaineering across the globe takes in imperial surveyors, sporting alpinists and the first man to attempt Everest

31 August 2024

9:00 AM

31 August 2024

9:00 AM

The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering Daniel Light

Oneworld, pp.416, 25

What makes men and women climb high? Most commonly, according to Daniel Light, ‘the prosecution of science or the advancement of empire’. It might also be general flag-waving or just personal fulfilment, as in the case of ‘private traveller’ Godfrey Vigne, who opened his English eyes to the wonder of the Karakoram in the baleful 1930s.

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