The Call of Everest The History Science and Future of the Worlds Tallest Peak

Broughton Coburn

BROUGHTON COBURN, author or editor of seven books, including two national bestsellers, has worked in environmental conservation and development projects in the Himalaya for more than two of the past three decades. In addition he has directed projects for the World Bank, World Wildlife Fund, and American Himalayan Foundation.

Bernadette McDonald

Bernadette McDonald is the author of eight books on mountaineering and mountain culture. She has won numerous awards, including Grand Prize at the Banff Mountain Book Festival and the Boardman Tasker Prize for her most recent title, Freedom Climbers.

Conrad Anker

CONRAD ANKER is famous for succeeding at death-defying ascents in the Himalaya and Antarctica. In 1999 he discovered George Mallory's body, the legendary British climber who disappeared on Everest.

David Breashears

David Breashears is an accomplished filmmaker, explorer, author, mountaineer, and professional speaker. He is also the founder and Executive Director of GlacierWorks, a non-profit organization that uses art, science, and adventure to raise public awareness about the consequences of climate change in the Greater Himalayan Region. Since 1978, he has combined his skills in climbing and filmmaking to complete more than forty film projects.In 1983, Breashears transmitted the first live television pictures from the summit of Mount Everest, and in 1985 became the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice.

Thomas Hornbein

Thomas Hornbein is known for one of mountaineering's epic achievements: the 1963 climb of Mount Everest's West Ridge with Willi Unsoeld (1926-1979), in which the two men traversed the 29,028-foot summit of the earth and spent a night exposed at 27,900 feet. He wrote a celebrated book, Everest: The West Ridge, reissued in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the climb. But Hornbein never returned to the Khumbu region of Nepal, explaining simply, "It was a once in a lifetime event. Life goes forward" (Interview, April 24, 2013).