Imagine climbing Mt. Everest with no Sherpa assistance. Purposefully abstaining also from bottled oxygen, computers, and radios, while establishing an historic new route. In 1988, American climber Ed Webster's 4-man team achieved this ultimate Everest ascent, years before the Into Thin Air tragedy. Now delve into Webster's 5-Star reader-rated Everest classic, Snow in the Kingdom, illustrated by 100 pages of stunning color photographs. ( Or sneak preview "Everest The Really Hard Way" at youtube.com/watch?v=zjAHkTHn4fA ) Almost 30 years ago, in a climbing style never seen again on Everest, four partners from America, Canada, and England pioneered a super-dangerous new route (the Neverest Buttress) up the avalanche-blasted precipices of the remote, nearly forgotten Kangshung East Face of Mt. Everest in Tibet. Perhaps most remarkably, not wanting to endanger the lives of any Sherpas, the climbers carried every ounce of gear and food themselves. Only one person summited. This small team's indomitable willpower to succeed, their bravery, mutual trust, and teamwork have become legendary. But days without food plus severe frostbite were the painful prices of victory and survival. "...Webster's powerfully written Snow in the Kingdom escapes being swallowed in the [Everest] deluge ... is meticulously researched and emotionally charged." -- Rock & Ice Magazine , Feb/March, 2001 "Emotionally charged ... (the book is) an examination of Webster's soul, rather than a simple story of a great climb." -- Joe Simpson, High Mountain Sports, England, December 2001 "Engrossing and detailed writing, candid introspection, generous color photography ... It belongs on the shelf among the great annals of mountain literature." -- Don Mellor, GORP.com, May 10, 2001 "Much more than a climbing book, Snow In The Kingdom is about the making of a man. [Reading] the do-or-die summit push it was impossible to put the book down." -- Thom Pollard, EverestNews.com, May 17, 2001 " Snow in the Kingdom dazzles the eye as much as the imagination ... Heroic, upbeat, and powerful." -- Midwest Book Review , October 2001 "This miraculous account of struggle and survival rivets the reader to discover what the fate of these friends will be." -- Rain Taxi literary review, Autumn, 2001 "Webster's most intriguing claim is that seven-year-old Tenzing Norgay may have met George Mallory ... whose body was discovered last year." -- The Observe r, London, Dec. 24, 2000 "the strongest [book] of its sort since Touching the Void. Perhaps a closer comparison is Herzog s Annapurna ." -- SECOND PLACE Winner, 2001 Boardman-Tasker Mountain Literature Prize, London. FINALIST, Mountain Literature catagory -- 2001 Banff Mountain Book Festival, Banff, Canada Physical Description: 6 x 9.25 inches, hard back, color laminated dust jacket, 580 pages printed on high-quality coated paper. Also included are 150 pages of color photographs, 282 black and white photos, maps of Asia and the Tibetan Plateau, 3 climbing route maps of Everest’s three faces, and 8 Everest climbing route photo-diagrams. "Snow in the Kingdom is at last published. After 12 years of effort, here it is ! The finest accolade that my teammates, Robert Anderson, Stephen Venables, and Paul Teare and I received came from Reinhold Messner, the world’s greatest mountaineer, who unequivocally stated that our Everest Kangshung Face climb was "the best ascent of Everest in terms and style of pure adventure." It most certainly was the adventure of our lives — and fortunately we survived! Thank you and Namaste, Ed Webster Born on March 21, 1956, in Boston, Ed Webster grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts and obtained a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Colorado College in Colorado Springs in 1978. Married, he now lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is an acknowledged expert on the history of Mount Everest, George Mallory, and Tenzing Norgay. An author, lecturer, publisher, and photojournalist, Webster also has written two definitive guidebooks, Rock Climbs in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Climbing in the Magic Islands to the Lofoten Islands of Arctic Norway. He is the recipient of the American Mountain Foundation’s 1988 Seventh Grade Award for outstanding achievements in mountaineering; the American Alpine Club’s 1990 Literary Award; and American Alpine Club’s 1994 David H. Soules Award, for saving the life of a fellow climber. Webster is one of only three mountaineers cited in the board game, Trivial Pursuit — his Everest frostbite injuries being duly noted in the "Best of the 80s" edition! His photographs have been published worldwide, in publications ranging from Climbing Magazine and Rock & Ice, to Popular Mechanics, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times Sunday Magazine. SNOW IN THE KINGDOM