South Col: One Man's Adventure on the Ascent of Everest, 1953

London: William Heinemann, 1954 Foreword by Sir John Hunt. Line drawings and endpapers by A. J. Veilhan. Illustrated with forty-eight b&w photo plates, four color photo plates, and five maps. First edition, first printing. Signed and inscribed by Wilfrid Noyce on title page: "Good wishes / Wilfrid Noyce / 11.12.[19]54." Publisher's navy cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, and pictorial endpapers; lacking the original dust jacket. Good or better book, with light rubbing to spine ends, bump to bottom edge of front board, light soiling to front board (possibly tape or glue residue), light spotting to text block edges, small tear to cloth at top edge of rear board, binding shaken with yellowed tape reinforcement to gutter between half-title page verso and frontispiece recto, cracks to pp. 10-11 and 268-269, and contemporary gift inscription to half-title page. With promotional World Books Broadsheet laid in. Overall, a decent copy of this important firsthand account of the famous 1953 Mount Everest expedition. In South Col, Wilfrid Noyce recounts his experience climbing Mount Everest as a part of the 1953 British expedition, and reaching the South Col - a plateau just below the mountain's summit. From the South Col, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay would continue up the mountain and become the first British expedition members to reach the summit of Everest. This unique book "gives what no official narrative can possibly give - a record of the thousand-and-one physical and mental sensations that crowded in upon one highly sensitive person, who is both a climber and a writer, in the course of the adventure" (dust jacket). . Inscribed by Author. First Edition. Hard Cover. Good.