I really enjoyed reading this book. It was well organized and well written. Coburn did a great job of making the large cast of participants human and memorable. The descriptions of the actual summiting up Everest were suspenseful. Highly readable and an interesting contrast to descriptions of later Everest climbs like Krakauer's "Into Thin Air".

I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. ( )

This is an excellent account of the first American expedition of Mt. Everest. Coburn tells a tightly wound story of the collection of great climbers and their journey to Base Camp, the many week climb of Everest and the successes and failures of all involved. Their are some amazing chapters describing summit attempts by various climbers which will keep you glued to the pages. I have read about five Everest books and this one ranks toward the top. ( )

Go America! Climb the tallest mountain!

But the Brits and Swiss have already made the summit?

Yeah, but we beat the Soviets to the top!

According to Broughton Coburn in his latest book, The Vast Unknown: America's First Ascent of Everest, that was the main motivation for the American expedition to Mount Everest in 1963. And if not the main motivation for the climbers, it was a motivation for many of the expedition's sponsors.

I used to dabble in mountaineering so I understand the motivation for climbing and facing the danger. In a complicated world, it's a simple goal. Go as high as you can, the summit if possible, and get back down safely.

By all pragmatic standards climbing mountains is "useless." That, indeed, is one of its glories: that it needs no end or justification beyond itself - like a sunset, a symphony, or like falling love.
- James Ramsey Ullman in Americans on Everest

Ullman already wrote a classic account of the massive American team assault on Mount Everest in 1963. In addition, Thomas Hornbein wrote about his assault on the mountain's West Ridge during that same expedition in Everest: The West Ridge.

I enjoy a good book on mountaineering. The Vast Unknown was not going to tell an untold story. So it would have to stand on its own quality of writing and illumination into the climbers.

When the publisher offered me a copy to review, I was sure it be worth reading. It was just a question of whether it was a good adventure story or a great one. It was merely good. It is a good celebration of the 50th anniversary of the expedition.

The climbers come across flat and it's difficult to distinguish one from the other as they attack the mountain with an army of Sherpas and tons of supplies. The storytelling does not create a heightened sense of danger that the great adventure books create. As a result the book falls a bit flat. ( )

In 1963, America was dazed: the Cold War was in full swing and America was falling behind. What to do to restore American pride? Why not try to beat Russia to Mt. Everest?

Thus the push was on to send Americans to the top of Mt. Everest.

What a trek! Rock. Ice. Snow. Cold. Lack of oxygen. Endless walking. The pressure of time.

Harrowing, yes, but, honestly, isn’t this the best way to travel to Mt. Everest? Through the pages of a great story? ( )

“The Vast Unknown” is a study in uncertainty and an insightful look back to era of collegial expeditionary mountaineering that has unfortunately passed. It is a great tribute to a team that that made decision together in a collaborative fashion. But there was no certainty of success for this team, Mt. Everest was not yet the guided peak of every-man it is today, in 1963 twice as many people died as had reached the summit.

It was the tail end of the age of exploration on the 8000 meter peaks and nations were still competing with one another for claiming “first ascent” by “my country”. The Cold War was at its height and the stakes for America were high. Yet somehow the Americans were strangely absent on this world stage of mountaineering as politics. In his proposal for funding, expedition leader Norman Dyhrenfurth expressed it like this, “The first American go at Everest will be an event. If we succeed it will be a feather in our cap, a booster to our prestige, a refutation beyond argument of our detractor’s taunt that we are a nation gone soft and gutless.” (p. 39).

Sweeping in scope Coburn tries to paint the historical context for this period of mountaineering history. Some will find the references to the Kennedy era, the Cold War, the Space race, Intelligence agencies spying efforts and the emerging geopolitics between China and India to be overreaching. If this is not your cup of tea just skip these chapters as there is more than enough meat on the actual ascent narrative.

There are great profiles of the climbers, what they were doing in the American climbing scene before they were recruited, and what became of them in the fifty years that followed. The attempt to understand the inner workings of the mind of Willi Unsoeld was particularly interesting.

Best single insight into this team were their discussions on which route they should take up the mountain. Consider these three facts (as of 1963)…
• Only two expeditions had every succeeded
• Only six people had summited
• But those groups had both taken the same route (the South Col)
…But the majority of this American team viewed the South Col as the “walk up” route! They wanted to do something new, something that had not been done before. This is a glimpse into the very sole of American mountaineering psyche.

Most American people recognize the name Jim Whittaker. Usually only serious mountaineers will recognize the names Willi Unsoeld or Tom Hornbein. Perhaps this book can help these two receive a bit more of the recognition they deserve, as they were the true pioneers in Himalayan climbing history. Their route on the West Ridge remains a true classic fifty years later, as it still has only been followed by another 12 people. If that is not telling enough, consider the morbidity rates. On Everest as a whole there have been 240 deaths for 6150 summits by 3750 people (or 1 death per 25 successful summits) – But on the West Ridge the toll is 16 deaths for a measly 14 summits (Afterword, pp. 246-247).

There were some notable “firsts” on this expedition:
• Overlaying scientific research on the climbing endeavor to sweeten the fundraising appeal [chapter 7]
• Extensive use of “local” (Solu Khumbu) Sherpas vs. “Darjeeling” (Indian) Sherpas
• Recognition that there was a role for lightweight mountaineering equipment for “trekkers” and the creation of the trekking industry by Colonel Jimmy Roberts (pp. 249-250)

Recommended for armchair adventurers who want to understand what transpired on the mountain and to get a historical sense of why these individuals went on the first American expedition to Mt. Everest. Highly recommended for serious national students of mountaineering who want to really dig in to understand the personal and national motivations in the context of history. ( )