You Bet Your Life

You Bet Your LifeBy most measurements of behavior within Western civilization, Maurice Wilson was a certifiable lunatic. Devotees of mountaineering lore and encyclopedic trivia buffs will recall him as the man who tried too climb Mount Everest alone--encumbered by no more than a tiny tent, a pocket mirror to be used to flash signals and a bag of rice. When he arrived at the foot of the peak in the spring of 1934, his climbing experience had been restricted to stairways and English hillocks, and...