Everest the Cruel Way

On 30 January 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west
ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some
crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed
impossible.

Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker’s story of an attempt to climb the highest
mountain on earth – an attempt which pushed a group of Britain’s finest
mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its
hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in
winter. Tasker’s epic account vividly describes experiences that no climber
had previously endured. Close up and personal, it is a gripping account of
day-to-day life on expedition and of the struggle to live at high altitude.

Joe Tasker was one of Britain’s best mountaineers. He was a pioneer of
lightweight, alpine-style climbing in the Greater Ranges and had a special
talent for writing. He died, along with his friend Peter Boardman, high on
Everest in 1982 while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were
superb mountaineers and talented writers.