BARKER, Ralph. The Last Blue Mountain … With a Foreword by Sir John Hunt.

BARKER, Ralph. The Last Blue Mountain … With a Foreword by Sir John Hunt.BARKER, Ralph. The Last Blue Mountain With a Foreword by Sir John Hunt. London: Chatto & Windus. 1959. 8vo. Original boards with illustrated dust wrappers (price clipped and with fraying to margins); pp. 211; sketch maps and plates after photographs; a good association copy. First edition, together with a letter by the mother of one of the participating mountaineers, who was later killed during another climbing tour. "The Last Blue Mountain is the

BARKER, Ralph. The Last Blue Mountain … With a Foreword by Sir John Hunt. London: Chatto & Windus. 1959.

8vo. Original boards with illustrated dust-wrappers (price-clipped and with fraying to margins); pp. 211; sketch maps and plates after photographs; a good association copy.

First edition, together with a letter by the mother of one of the participating mountaineers, who was later killed during another climbing tour. "The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them. The group's efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave" (prospectus for a modern edition).

Later, "John Emery was killed in an accident while descending the Weisshorn on August 4, 1963, at the age of twenty-nine. With all the major difficulties of the Schalligrat and the North ridge behind them, he and his American companion, David Sowles, had nearly completed the traverse of the mountain, and were within close reach of easy ground, when they fell roped together" (Alpine Journal 1963, p. 347).

Provenance: Together with a letter by Emery's mother, thanking the recipient Ms Clucas for a letter of condolence. "It is difficult to believe that this terrible news is true". Obituary form the Daily Telegraph mounted onto front fly-leaf.

SKU: 2114945