Climbing Everest

Mount Everest, the most iconic mountain on earth, has been the scene of triumph and tragedy for almost a century. From the first attempt on the mountain in 1922, when George Mallory and Sandy Irvine died, to the first ascent by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, the world’s highest peak has represented chance and challenge, controversy and contradiction.
The first American ascent of Everest was made by Jim Whittaker and Sherpa Nawang Gombu in 1963. Three weeks later, four more Americans summited: Tom Hornbein, Willi Unsoeld, Lute Jerstad and National Geographic photographer Barry Bishop. They were forced to bivouac at high altitude, and between them they lost 19 toes and 2 fingers to frostbite.
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of Everest, National Geographic writer Mark Jenkins, along with a team from The North Face, spent two months in the spring of 2012 climbing Everest. Jenkins and his mountaineering partners  summited Everest, despite accidents, illness, bitter cold and ferocious winds. Tragically, ten people died on Everest during that  same season.
Mark Jenkins, an international alpinist and critically acclaimed author, is the writer-in-residence at the University of Wyoming and a field staff writer for National Geographic Magazine.  Jenkins covers the globe writing about adventure and geopolitical issues, from landmines in Cambodia to mountain gorillas in the Congo,  mountaineering in Pakistan to canyoneering in Australia. Jenkins is the author of four award-winning books and has appeared on Anderson Cooper 360, Good Morning America, CNN, PBS and countless radio programs.
Sponsored by the University of Wyoming Academic Affairs as part of the Global and Area Studies World to Wyoming Lecture Series, the visual presentation Climbing Everest: The Myths, the Macabre and the Madness is free to the public