The Race to the Top of the World

The epic true story of George Mallory and Edmund Hillary and the quest to be the first to conquer Everest. A captivating story of adventure, daring, despair and triumph from Australia's favourite storyteller.

Last century, two men, thirty years apart, set out to become the first to conquer the highest point in the world. Their names are synonymous with adventure - George Mallory and Edmund Hillary. One travelled from England, the other New Zealand, both seeking to test human endurance and defeat the most extreme elements on earth - blasting winds, vicious vertical ascents, lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures that could kill in minutes.

Mount Everest has long been an obsession for many, and the quest to stand at the top of the world still drives thousands every year to push themselves to the limit. But all are following in the footsteps of two great adventurers who, in a time very different to now, dared to try.

On 8 June 1924, George Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine, part of an eight-man British expedition, set off from their final camp at 28,000 feet above sea level to ascend the summit. They disappeared.

The question of whether Mallory died on the way up or while descending was still a mystery when, on 29 May 1953, Edmund Hillary, part of a thirteen-man Royal Geographical Society expedition, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, set off from their final camp for the summit. At 11.30 that morning, Hillary became the first person to stand at the top of the world. Norgay was a split second behind. They saw no evidence that Mallory and Irvine had been there before them.

In THE RACE TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD, Peter FitzSimons illuminates the lives of these two pioneering explorers, Mallory and Hillary, and those who were with them along the way - Tenzing, Irvine and George Finch, an Australian whose pioneering work on the use of oxygen was instrumental in climbing ever higher - and describes in compelling detail what brought them all to the mountain. Revealing the courageous men behind the names, their years of intense planning and preparation, and the ongoing mystery of Mallory's disappearance, this is an epic story of adventure, daring, despair and triumph.