His Everest ascent has been hailed as the last of the great Everest expeditions, and one of the most audacious mountaineering feats of all time. Many mountaineers dream of climbing Mount Everest or Chomolungma, the Goddess Mother of the World, as Tibetans and Sherpas call her. But American climber Ed Webster wanted to summit the world's tallest mountain in the absolute purest and best style that he could dream of up a never-before-attempted new route, with no bottled oxygen, without using radios, and with no Sherpa assistance. With a team of four. Up Mount Everest's hardest, most remote, and possibly its most dangerous side, up the 12,000-vertical-foot Kangshung Face in Tibet. Snow in the Kingdom is the poignant tale of Ed Webster's five storm years on and off of Everest. The story begins tragically, with the death of his girlfriend, Lauren Husted, in Ed's arms after a fatal fall from a weekend rock climb in Colorado.Only months after Lauren's death, still racked by guilt, questioning if he could ever climb again, Ed was invited to Mount Everest. And he went, bringing Lauren's spirit with him to Asia, and onto Everest's sacred, snowbound heights. After his first two Everest attempts on the West Ridge Direct in Nepal, and his solo new route up Changtse, Everest's North Peak in Tibet Ed joined Robert Anderson (also USA), Paul Teare from Canada, and British climber Stephen Venables to try a spectacular new route up Everest's East,or Kangshung, Face, also in Tibet. In stark contrast to today's Everest expeditions, the four climbers brought no radios, no fax machines, and no satellite telephones to Base Camp (or up on the mountain), but relied instead upon their years of hard-won mountain experience, climbing skills, friendship, and teamwork to achieve the adventure of a lifetime.
