The Last Blue Mountain cover art

The Last Blue Mountain

The Great Karakoram Climbing Tragedy

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The Last Blue Mountain

By: Ralph Barker
Narrated by: Stewart Crank
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About this listen

"When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh".

The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them.

The group’s efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion, and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water, and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them.

An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker’s The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.

©2020 Ralph Barker (P)2020 Vertebrate Publishing
Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Climbing & Mountaineering Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science Heartfelt

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All stars
Most relevant
The story lets you know the day to day feelings of the writer. You share both the triumps and the tragedies. I really enjoyed this. The narrator is not the greatest and sometimes you don't know who is doing the talking

You feel as if you are doing this journey

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The book is superbly introduced by Ed Douglas and then the narrative unfolds slowly and precisely, we get to know mountaineering and we get to know mountaineers, then we get to know the mountain and the toll it extracts in the final remorseless, desperate and harrowing chapters. A classic of the genre.

The Last Chapters. Oh My God!

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Poorly written. Totally uningaging. A third listened to and am bored. Authors make it sound like a boy Scout trip. Perhaps it will improve..? Dated. Certainly not the classic it was marketed as. Just finished "Ascent into Hell" which was superb. If you love a true adventure, listen to that.

Boring

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