More Info: Ed Webster's Story

Snow in the Kingdom

Snow in the Kingdom: My Storm Years on Everest (available from mtnimagery.com) is the firsthand account of Ed Webster's four times climbing Mount Everest. After Ed's girlfriend is killed during a rock climbing trip in Colorado, he questions his climbing ability and if he can keep climbing. His life changes dramatically after he is invited to Mount Everest and within a five year span climbs the legendary mountain four times. "Three times within the next four years, I would attempt to climb Mount Everest, and in 1988 I would almost lose my life climbing a new route up Everest's most perilous side, the Kangshung Face. The next four years would truly be the storm years of my strength, and of my youth – the days when I would be tested as never before."

Ed Webster and Geoffrey Tabin, also featured in this QUEST episode, are available to provide educational and inspirational talks. They can be reached through EverestSpeakersBureau.com.

Other notable books about survival and climbing expeditions:

A fascinating account of his climbing life and how he brings eye care to remote Himalayan villagers, by Dr. Geoffrey Tabin, featured in this QUEST program:

Blind Corners: Adventures on Everest and the World's Tallest Peaks, By Geoffrey Tabin

An excellent look at several extreme environments from undersea to space and the science involved in survival there:

Surviving the Extremes: A Doctor's Journey to the Limits of Human Endurance, By Dr. Kenneth Kamler

The psychology of surviving as the author searches for an explanation of survival:

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why, By Laurence Gonzales

One of Ed Webster's partners on his Everest climb, Stephen Venables, writes an account of his Everest experience:

Alone at the Top, By Stephen Venables

One of the first Americans to summit Everest, Dr. Hornbein writes about the early days on the mountain:

Everest: The West Ridge, By Thomas F. Hornbein

A more recent, popular book about a disastrous Everest expedition:

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster, By Jon Krakauer