SOUTH COL : One Man's Adventure on the Ascent of Everest, 1953

Melbourne, Australia: William Heinemann, 1954. First Edition, First Thus . Hardcover. Good/No Jacket. A.J. Veilhan (Line Drawings & End-Papers). Text/Bright & clean w/open hinge to pg 108. Blue linen boards/VG w/short lesions to lower spine edge, and showing discoloration to spine & surface. No Jacket. Upper text edge dyed blue. Memoir of Wilfrid Noyce, team member of the 1953 9th British Expedition, lead by Sir John Hunt (Foreword), in which Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing scale Everest. This is the memoir of Wilfrid Noyce in scaling South Col which lies between Mount Everest and Lhotse, the first and fourth highest mountains in the world. It is a final stepping stone for climbers approaching Everest from the southeast ridge in Nepal. Wilfrid Noyce and the Sherpa Annullu were the first climbers on the expedition to reach the Col. Sir John Hunt recorded: "It was 2.40 p.m. Wilfrid Noyce and his companion Annullu stood at that moment above the South Col of Everest, at about 26,000 feet. ...they were ... looking upwards to the final pyramid of Everest itself. It was a great moment ... shared by all of us who watched it. Their presence there was symbolic of our success in overcoming the most crucial problem of the whole climb; they had reached an objective which we had been striving to attain for twelve anxious days." Strong copy.