Red Peak

Description

Published by Coward-McCann, New York, 1964, 1st US Edition, D/w (slight nicks edges, a little worn), Nr. Fine.   Malcolm Slesser (1926-2007) was the deputy leader, to Sir John Hunt, on this, the first expedition comprising British and Russian Mountaineers.  For Western climbers to get permission to climb in the Pamirs, and on the 24,590 foot Peak Communism in particular, was significant.  That the expedition succeeded in making the ascent was no mean achievement – however, the ascent followed the deaths of Wilfrid Noyce and Robin Smith early in the expedition and John Hunt and others returning home. Slesser stayed as did most of the British team, and the successful summit team included Joe Brown, Ian McNaught-Davis, Graeme Nicol and Slesser.  Slesser provides a candid personal account of the expedition, including the tensions that inevitably emerged.  The first ascent of the peak, orginally called Peak Stalin in 1933, then in 1962 Peak Communism, and since 1998 Ismoil Somoni Peak, was by the Russians Abalakov and Gorbunov in 1933.