WELD — The Webb Lake Association will host a program of stories and slides of the journey of a three-time Mt. Everest Climber Ed Webster, author of “Snow in the Kingdom: My Storm Years on Everest.” The presentation will take place at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6, at the Kawanhee Inn.

Hors d’oeuvres will be served at 4 p.m., compliments of the Webb Lake Association. The presentation will be followed by a book signing.

In 1988, Webster and three companions attempted to scale a new route up the East, or Kangshung, Face of Mt. Everest in Tibet with four climbers, no Sherpa support, no bottled oxygen and no radios. Reinhold Messner called their route too dangerous. At home, friends wondered how many would be killed. “Give me a call … if you get home,” said David Breashears, director of the IMAX Everest film.

That Webster and his companions succeeded in completing the climb, and that his partner, Stephen Venables, became the first Briton to ascend Everest without bottled oxygen is a testimony to the human spirit and team work. Webster reached the mountain’s South Summit — at 28,700 feet, it is only 300 feet shy of the main summit. The climbers then survived a stormy four-day descent off the mountain, without food, frostbitten and near death.

A resident of Topsham, Webster is 52. His articles and photographs have been published worldwide, in dozens of magazines, and by Sierra Club Books and National Geographic Books. He has won the American Mountain Foundation award for “Outstanding Achievements in Mountaineering,” and the American Alpine Club’s Literary Award.

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