The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest

"Why climb Mount Everest? As mountaineer George Mallory famously said, “Because it’s there” But Mallory’s 1924 expedition with Sandy Irvine ended in both of their deaths and an enduring mystery: Did Mallory and Irvine become the first to stand on the summit before they died? In 2019, author Mark Synnott joins an expedition to see if the answer is still up there, frozen on the mountain, and ends up struggling against both the elements and the Chinese Communist Party during one of Everest’s deadliest seasons, when hundreds of unprepared climbers are caught in a traffic jam near the summit. Why climb Mount Everest? With Synnott’s vivid, heart-pounding dispatch from the top of the world, you won’t need to … or want to."