Smythe's Mountains. The Climbs of F.S.Smythe

Calvert, Harry

ISBN 10: 0575035501 / ISBN 13: 9780575035508

Published by Victor Gollancz Ltd, London, 1985

About this Item

F/F-. 8vo. original red cloth gilt in dustwrapper (trifling fade to red pigment spine lettering, as usual, trifling spots to rear flap); pp. 224, with 18 plates + 4 diagrams & maps. A fine copy. [Neate C01].

Seller Inventory # 008415

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Smythe's Mountains. The Climbs of F.S.Smythe
• Publisher: Victor Gollancz Ltd, London
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0575035501
• ISBN 13: 9780575035508
• Binding: Hard Cover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: F-
• Seller catalogs:
  • Climbing Biographies

About this title

Synopsis

Among mountaineers, Frank Smythe ranks as one of the greats. His achievements are legendary: the conquest of Kamet; the solo climb to within a thousand feet of Everest's summit; his triumphs in the Alps and the Rockies. He was born to be a mountaineer. He climbed his first peak at the age of seven, his only companion a sixteen-year-old 'guide'. He served his climbing apprentice-ship in the hills of North Wales, but soon moved on to the Alps. The Alpine chapters are, one might say, this book's flanks: the central position is held by the Himalayas. Even so, the most satisfying of his mountain experiences were not those on the mightiest ranges but adventures of lesser drama: not the Brenva Face climbs on Mont Blanc, the classic round at Zermatt or the innovations in the Bernese Oberland; his first love remained the Tyrol and the Alps of central Switzerland. And in the Himalayas it was the same: the "indispensable dimensions" he found in the Bhyundar Valley (a mountain valley, true), which he described uniquely in "The Valley of Flowers". However, for many readers it's the high drama of the major peaks that will have the greatest appeal. That means Kangchenjunga, Kamet, Everest. Harry Calvert does not mince words about the leader of the Kangchenjunga expedition: a leader who "believed that the will was everything, who demanded the impossible while neglecting the necessary". The result was failure, but for Smythe there were the consolations of Ramthang and Jonsong Peaks. And invaluable experience which, as leader of a privately organised expedition, took him to the top of Kamet. Then came Everest. Smythe was the obvious leader, but not to the climbing Establishment: he came from the wrong background, the wrong school... This is a grand book that will appeal strongly to mountaineers, and to armchair climbers too.

Reviews

His booksAn Alpine Journey, Kangchenjunga Adventure, The Valley of Flowers and othersinspired a generation of mountain climbers and popularized the sport; Frank Smythe conveyed not only adventure but pleasure at being in the mountains. For his time, the 1920s and '30s, he had an outstanding record of mountaineering achievement. Calvert, a professor of law in Wales and a climbing enthusiast, gives a brief biographical sketch, then takes the reader climbing. Smythe was a loner, a misfit; he was not a public-school type and, in an age of the amateur, was tainted with professionalism. He climbed throughout the Alps, where he had some narrow escapes (his account of being caught on the Schreckhorn in a thunderstorm is a classic); a member of two British expeditions to Everest, he came within 1000 feet of the summit; after World War II, he climbed in the Canadian Rockies. The book is a treat for armchair adventurers and those interested in mountaineering history. Photos.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.