Climb to the Lost World

<p>Over 9000 feet up on the top of <strong>Mount Roraima</strong> is a twenty-five mile square plateau at the point where Guyana’s border meets Venezuela and Brazil. In 1973 Scottish mountaineering legend <strong>Hamish MacInnes</strong> alongside climbing notoriety <strong>Don Whillans Mo Anthoine</strong> and <strong>Joe Brown</strong> trekked through dense rainforest and swamp and climbed the sheer overhanging sandstone wall of the great prow in order to conquer this Conan Doyle fantasy summit.</p><p>As one of the last unexplored corners of the world in order to reach the foot of the prow the motley yet vastly experienced expedition trudged through a saturated world of bizarre vegetation fantastically contorted slime-coated trees and deep white mud; a world dominated by bushmaster snakes scorpions and giant bird-eating spiders.</p><p>This wasn’t the end of it however. The stately prow itself posed extreme technical complications: the rock was streaming with water and the few-and-far-between ledges were teeming with scorpion-haunted bromeliads. This was not a challenge to be taken lightly. However if anyone was going to do it it was going to be this group of UK climbing pioneers backed by <em>The Observer</em> supported by the Guyanan Government and accompanied by a BBC camera team their mission was very much in the public eye.</p><p><em><strong>Climb to the Lost World</strong></em> is a story of discovering an alien world of tortured rock formations sunken gardens and magnificent waterfalls combined with the trials and tribulations of day-to-day expedition life. MacInnes’ dry humour and perceptive observations of his companions flora and fauna relay the story of this first ascent with passion and in true explorer style.</p>