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  • The Third Pole

  • Mystery, Obsession, and Death on Mount Everest
  • Written by: Mark Synnott
  • Narrated by: Steve Campbell
  • Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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The Third Pole

Written by: Mark Synnott
Narrated by: Steve Campbell
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Publisher's Summary

One of the 57 Most Anticipated Books of 2021 - Elle 

Shivering, exhausted, gasping for oxygen, beyond doubt...

A hundred-year mystery lured veteran climber Mark Synnott into an unlikely expedition up Mount Everest during the spring 2019 season that came to be known as “the Year Everest Broke”. What he found was a gripping human story of impassioned characters from around the globe and a mountain that will consume your soul - and your life - if you let it.

The mystery? On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine set out to stand on the roof of the world, where no one had stood before. They were last seen 800 feet shy of Everest’s summit still “going strong” for the top. Could they have succeeded decades before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? Irvine is believed to have carried a Kodak camera with him to record their attempt, but it, along with his body, had never been found. Did the frozen film in that camera have a photograph of Mallory and Irvine on the summit before they disappeared into the clouds, never to be seen again? Kodak says the film might still be viable....

Mark Synnott made his own ascent up the infamous North Face along with his friend Renan Ozturk, a filmmaker using drones higher than any had previously flown. Listeners witness first-hand how Synnott’s quest led him from oxygen-deprivation training to archives and museums in England, to Kathmandu, the Tibetan high plateau, and up the North Face into a massive storm. The infamous traffic jams of climbers at the very summit immediately resulted in tragic deaths. Sherpas revolted. Chinese officials turned on Synnott’s team. An Indian woman miraculously crawled her way to frostbitten survival. Synnott himself went off the safety rope - one slip and no one would have been able to save him - committed to solving the mystery.

Eleven climbers died on Everest that season, all of them mesmerized by an irresistible magic. The Third Pole is a rapidly accelerating ride to the limitless joy and horror of human obsession. 

*This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF containing maps, notes on sources, and acknowledgments from the printed book. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2021 Mark Synnott (P)2021 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

One of the 57 Most Anticipated Books of 2021 - Elle 

Summer's Most Transporting Books list - Newsweek

One of 5 Action-Packed New Nonfiction Books for Summer - AARP

Ultimate Summer Reading List Pick - E!

“Almost 70 years after my father Tenzing Norgay Sherpa climbed the summit of Chomolungma with the British 1953 Expedition, Western narratives about Mount Everest continue to be haunted by the question whether it was Mallory and Irvine who had been the first to stand on the summit. Mark Synnott’s The Third Pole pursues this mystery and brings us closer to closing this chapter of mountaineering history. I learned a lot from this book.” (Norbu Tenzing Norgay)

“[A] vivid, heart-pounding dispatch from the top of the world.” (Liz Baker, NPR) 

"This account of climbing Mt. Everest from the Tibetan side in search of a climber lost 97 years ago and a camera that might change everything is both a gripping adventure story and an engrossing historical mystery." (Maggie Shipstead, author of Great Circle

What listeners say about The Third Pole

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great

suspenseful, full of great knowledge and facts about the history of Everest. I learned so much. I'm a believer now.

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Broad and easy to listen to

Synnott takes many deviations off from the primary narrative, which makes for easy listening and interesting offshoots. He discusses topics events that you are likely familiar with from other mountain literature, but doesn’t dive too deeply into these, so most of the content is new (to me anyway). There are a number of interesting mini-biopics along the way.

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