The Last Blue Mountain: The great Karakoram climbing tragedy

Written by Ralph Barker

Narrated by Stewart Crank

‘When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh.’

The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them.

The group’s efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them.

An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker’s The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
• Release date: May 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781912560448

Reviews for The Last Blue Mountain

[john machera · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Exceptional writing and narration .
I will listen to this more than once

[Juliakasdorf · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Not exquisitely written and the reader isn’t the one I’d have chosen for a tale of men in the mountains, but this is a very important story about drive and passion and really really bad decisions. Heartbreaking and true.