My Father, Frank

Description

Published by Baton Wicks, Sheffield, 2013, 1st UK Edition, D/w, Mint.    Frank Smythe (1900-1949), English mountaineer, prolific author, photographer and botanist, became a part of mountaineering history by his exploits in the decade before the Second World War.  His intensive Alpine climbing, followed by two Himalayan expeditions, to Kangchenjunga in 1930 and a successful first ascent in 1931 on Kamet, the highest summit then reached, became the prelude to Everest. And in 1933 on Everest, climbing alone and without supplementary oxygen, he got to within 820 feet of the top, a record height at the time. As a superb Himalayan finale, he returned in 1937 to the Indian Garhwal to climb difficult peaks up to 24,000 feet in a rapid lightweight style.  He produced twenty-seven books, numerous articles, lectures, radio broadcasts and a film. This biography by his son Tony Smythe is the first to give a full and rounded picture of the extraordinary life, cut short by illness in India at the age of forty-eight, of a private and complex individual.  Illustrated with Winner of the 2015 Kekoo Naoroji Award for Mountain Literature and shortlisted for the 2014 Boardman Tasker Prize.