INVINCIBLE SPIRIT

Dan Bryant was the first New Zealander to climb on Everest. That’s nearly 100 years ago, and today many alpinists have never heard of him.

Dan Bryant with Rod Syme was the first to climb the Syme Ridge of Mt Tasman, and the first with Lud Mahan to climb the east ridge of Aoraki/Mt Cook, still a formidable task. There are records of all sorts. But these hark back to a spell-binding time when snows and ridges and glaciers and plateaus were virgin territory. Dan Bryant was there. For some of us, he still is.

Wherever he went in his comparatively short life, Dan was what we today would call an influencer, able to enthuse all around him. The favourable impression he left on Eric Shipton in 1935 led directly to Shipton's acceptance of New Zealanders on his 1951 Everest Reconnaissance, and thence to its sequel, the 1953 conquest.

Read all about him, and his incredible commitment before he lost his life at 52, not to a mountain or an avalanche or a crevasse, but to a ridiculously simple motor car accident.

ISBN: 9780473713508
Imprint: Lyn McKinnon
Publication Date: 30 June 2024
Dimensions: 245mm x 210mm
Weight: 670g
No. Of Pages: 250