Kramer - To The Top! -Step into Reading - Step 4

Photo credits: The Royal Geographical Society, ;
H. Armstrong Roberts, Inc., V. Clevenger,

Text copyright 1993, 2003 by S. A. Kramer
Cover art and interior illustrations copyright 1993, 2003 by Thomas La Padula

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Childrens Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kramer, Sydelle.
To the top! : climbing the worlds highest mountain / by S. A. Kramer ;
illustrated by Thomas La Padula. p. cm. (Step into reading. A step 5 book)
Summary: Describes how Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first
human beings to reach the top of the world by climbing Mount Everest.
ISBN 978-0-679-83885-2 (trade) ISBN 978-0-679-93885-9 (lib. bdg.)
1. MountaineeringEverest, Mount (China and Nepal)HistoryJuvenile literature.
2. Hillary, Edmund, SirJuvenile literature.
3. Tenzing Norkey, 1914 Juvenile literature.
4. MountaineersBiographyJuvenile literature.
5. Everest, Mount (China and Nepal)Juvenile literature. [1. Mountaineering. 2. Everest, Mount (China and Nepal). 3. Hillary, Edmund, Sir. 4. Tenzing Norkey, 1914 .
5. Mountaineers.]
I. La Padula, Tom, ill. II. Title. III. Step into reading. Step 5 book.
GV199.44.E85 R73 2003 796.522092dc21 2002012259

eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-37468-2

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v3.1

For my parents
S.K.

For Jean
T.L.P.

Two men stand at the bottom of a giant mountain. Snow is falling, and an angry wind roars all around. No matter where they look, they see only ice and rock. This is a place where nothing grows and no one lives.

But the men dont seem to notice what a lonely spot it is. They pay no attention to the bitter cold or the storm. Their eyes are fixed on the mountain, so tall they cant even see the top.

The mountain is Everest. It is the highest in the world. At 29,028 feet, its close to five and a half miles tallhigher even than the clouds.

And Mount Everest isnt just tallits one of the coldest places on earth. No matter what the time of year, snow and ice never melt there. It is part of a great mountain range in Asia called the Himalayas. Himalaya means the home of snow.

The two men at Everest are mountain climbers. Their names are Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. It is 1953, and they want to be the first to reach the very top of Everestthe summit.

No one has ever climbed Mount Everest all the way. Ten times before, men have tried and failed. Nineteen climbers have already died. Two of them vanished near the summit and were never seen again.

Tenzing and Hillary are part of a special group called an expedition that will try to reach the top. If they make it, they will be heroes throughout the world. Millions of people everywhere are waiting for news of their attempt. Will Everest finally be conquered?

Many people believe that its impossible to reach the summit. Parts of the mountain are so steep and dangerous that one false step can mean death. A climber can tumble thousands of feet down a slope. Or plunge close to two miles through the air.

Everest is so cold, the temperature can drop to forty degrees below zero even in summer. Without special clothes, a person would freeze to death in minutes.

The wind is very strongas strong as a hurricanes. It can hammer in at over a hundred miles per hour. Climbers can be blown right off their feet.

Terrible avalanchessliding ice, rock, and snowsweep down Everests slopes several times each day. Climbers get buried before they know what hit them. In 1922 seven people were killed in a single avalanche.

But the main reason no one has climbed the mountain is its incredible height. The higher you go, the less oxygen there is in the air. At Everests summit, theres only a third of whats on the ground. Without enough oxygen, a climbers body breaks down. Anyone who stays that high too long will die.

Hillary and Tenzing know how dangerous Everest is. But both are convinced they can make it to the summit. Theres no place on earth, they feel, that humans cannot reach. They see Everest as a challenge people cannot turn away from. It must be climbed because it is there.

Now the moment has come. The mountaintop hides somewhere in the clouds. To reach it, Hillary and Tenzing are about to risk everything.

Just a few months earlier, Hillary and Tenzing were strangers. Yet for many years they shared a dreamto be first on Everests summit.

Hillary is a beekeeper from faraway New Zealand. When he was young, no one expected him to amount to much. He was a small, shy boy who did poorly in school. His father sometimes beat him.

But he grew up tall and strong. He made climbing his hobby. He didnt see snow until he was sixteen, and he didnt make it up his first peak until he was twenty.

Tenzing has known mountains all his life. He was born into a mountain people called the Sherpas who live in the country of Nepal. Since Everest lies on Nepals border, he grew up in its shadow.

Tenzing works as a mountain guide, and people call him Tiger of the Snows. Over the years, he has tried to climb Everest several times. His family worries that hell keep trying until he makes itor until he dies.