The Making of a Mountaineer

Description

Published by Arrowsmith, London, 1924, 1st Edition, staining to fore-edges of boards, spine nicked and some wear to edges of boards, gilt decorated front board, Bookplate of George Downing Hartley, Good.    George Ingle Finch (1888-1970) was a British-Australian chemist and mountaineer, whose obituary in The Times described him as “one of the two best alpinists of his time”, the other being George Mallory.  Finch was a member of the second British Everest Expedition in 1922, led by General Charles Bruce, and he developed the oxygen equipment used on the expedition – his pioneering work in this area was crucial to future expeditions.  Along with Geoffrey Bruce, Finch reached a height of 27,300 feet (8,320 metres) on the North Face, the highest anyone had ever reached at that time.  He was a founder member of the Alpine Ski Club, lifelong advocate of The Alpine Club and its president from 1959-1961, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1938 for his work in Chemical Physics and Electrochemistry.