The Third Pole: Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest tells the story of veteran climber Mark Synnott’s ascent to the summit of Mount Everest in 2019. Synnott made the trek up the mountain in search of the body of another climber who died on the mountain almost 100 years earlier – Sandy Irvine. In 1924, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine were last seen “going strong” just hundreds of feet from Everest’s summit. Unfortunately, the two never came down the mountain and Mallory’s body was discovered in 1999. It was rumored that Irvine carried a camera with him to record his and Mallory’s attempt at the summit, but it and his body have never been found. If Synnott could find his body, and possibly his camera, it might prove that the duo had reached the top of the world decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
This book tells a fascinating story. It combines a historical narrative of Mallory and Irvine’s ascent of Mount Everest with a retelling from the author’s point of view of his own climb of Mount Everest in the present day. It does a great job of telling the reader what it is like to attempt the summit. In fact, Synnott climbed Everest during the spring 2019 season which came to be known as “the year Everest broke”. If you’ve seen the photo of the traffic jam/conga line of climbers waiting to get to the summit, you know what I’m talking about and Synnott saw it all.
He takes us through what it is like training to climb Mount Everest and getting used to your body being at such a high elevation. He describes the camps on the mountain and the other climbers attempting to reach the summit. He tries to answer the question of why do people want to climb Mount Everest. He also talks about Mallory and Irvine and, using old journals and diaries as well as accounts from climbers who were with them, tells the story of their last climb.
I learned a lot of things about climbing Mount Everest – I didn’t realize that it’s better to ascend in the dark so that you can descend during daylight hours (I didn’t realize you did any climbing at all in the dark – it seems super dangerous!). I also didn’t realize how commercial it is – that there are ladders and you basically hook up to a line the entire way. The sherpas basically go out early before the climbing season begins and set up the routes for everyone to follow.
The author did a ton of research for this book and there are pages and pages of notes on sources at the end of the book. There are also plenty of photos of the author and everyone he meets and talks about on his trip up the mountain. I did read this book in ebook format so the photos I looked at are in black and white but I would hope they would be in color in the physical book. Fair warning, as with any publication about Mount Everest, there is plenty of discussion about people who have died on the mountain, and photos of dead bodies are included in the book.
This is the only book I’ve read about climbing Mount Everest and although it’s something that I will never do, I found this book enjoyable.
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