El Everest, Historia de una conquista. Conrad Blanch and Joan Massons. Ediciones Península, Barcelona. 1986. 236 pages, 174 color photographs.

This lovely, large-format book reports on the Spanish Catalan expeditions to Mount Everest, an unsuccessful attempt in 1983 and the climb to the summit on August 30, 1985. Both expeditions climbed during the monsoon period via the North Col and the Northeast Ridge. The text tells also of previous Catalan expeditions, of preparations, of China and more especially Tibet as well as the climbing activities.

The English-speaking reader will be immediately attracted to the book by the beautifully reproduced color photographs. Many are full page, a number are double-paged, measuring 11½ by 18 inches, and a few are even larger fold-outs. They illustrate this route on Everest extremely well. One which caught my eye in particular was a shot of the Second Step. There was one strange omission; in the diagram of routes on Everest there was no indication of the East-Face route climbed by Americans in 1983. This is certainly a book which will appeal to collectors of beautiful mountain books.

Adams Carter