During the three-month-long expedition, Hillary & his two companions skied 900 miles across the forbidding & beautiful expanse of Antarctica to the South Pole. Early on, the relationships in the little tent disintegrated to acrimony & distrust, & exploded on their return, damaging friendships & resulting in profound soul-searching. This is the story of that journey: a chronicle of profound isolation, of great stamina & skill, of the mental & emotional toll exacted by travel in extreme environments. It is also a meditation on a lifetime spent on the edge, a memory book of more than 30 expeditions in the Himalayas, the Andes, the Arctic & the Antarctic. It tells of triumphant adventures
- travelling with his father, Sir Edmund Hillary, & Neil Armstrong to the North Pole, climbing Everest twice
- & bitter tragedies, like the loss of his mother & sister in a plane crash in the Himalayas, & the shattering K2 climb where Peter was the only one of eight climbers (including Alison Hargreaves) to survive. In the Hillary Steps is a radical departure from the adventure genre, a literate & evocative tribute to the crafts of polar travel & mountaineering, a Shackleton-like tale of endurance, & a compelling contemplation on a life of adventure & accomplishment.