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The Secret Carp
by Chris YatesThe Secret Carp is a fishing book with a difference. As The Independent comments, it is one of the few books that manages to capture the real joy of fishing in such a way that even a non-angler could be seduced. It tells the true story of the events of a single day and night beside an English carp lake in high summer. When he stumbled upon a long-neglected, overgrown lake holding some monster carp, Chris Yates knew that he had discovered the kind of place about which every carp angler dreams. He set about trying to catch the huge, elusive inhabitants with rod and line. It was a quest that was to reveal many insights into the secretive behaviour of this king of freshwater fish and bring him thrillingly into contact with his quarry. Waiting, watching and stalking, quite undeterred by the damp sleeping bag and the cold. Yates' enthralling story whispers adventure and promise. And it is punctuated by moments of great drama as monster fish disturb the tranquil world of the angler. Fishermen of all persuasions will enjoy this masterful angling chronicle.
Falling in Again: Tales of an Incorrigible Angler
by Chris YatesIn this rich collection of angling tales, Chris Yates has paired together his experiences of carp, barbel, pike, roach, gudgeon, chub, even bass. Within each pair of essays, the angling anecdotes mirror each other in strange and surprising ways. Falling in Again finds Chris in search of a 'lost' carp lake, being mugged on the River Mole, and dangling breadcrust for chub from an overhanging tree, but throughout he is exploring the patterns of angling, the links between angling in boyhood and middle age. These are tales of fishing in innocence and experience, in which the mysteries of angling remain greater than the man, whose destiny is to keep falling in again.
Trout in Dirty Places: 50 rivers to fly-fish for trout and grayling in the UK's towns and city centres
by Theo PikeHere is a guide to the most revolutionary development in British angling for many years: fly-fishing for trout and grayling in the very centre of towns and cities throughout the United Kingdom. From Sheffield to South London, from Merthyr Tydfil to Edinburgh, this is the cutting edge of 21st century fishing. Nothing is more surreal yet exhilarating than casting a fly for iconic clean-water species in the historic surroundings of our most damaged riverscapes – centres of post-industrial decay, but now also of rediscovery and regeneration. * fishing-focused profiles of 50 selected streams * interviews with local conservationists dedicated to restoring the urban rivers * local flies and emerging traditions, and * details of how to get involved and support this restoration work. This book guides readers towards relaxing, good-value fishing on their own doorsteps as a viable alternative to more costly (and carbon-intensive) destination angling: a positive lifestyle choice in challenging moral and economic times. No one author or publisher has yet attempted to bring this emerging trend of urban flyfishing into a single, epoch-making volume.
Cold Wars: Climbing the fine line between risk and reality
by Andy KirkpatrickI was aware that I was cold - beyond cold. I was a lump of meat left for too long in a freezer, a body trapped beneath the ice, sinking down into the dark. 'I was freezing to death.' In this brilliant sequel to his award-winning debut "Psychovertical", mountaineering stand-up Andy Kirkpatrick has achieved his life's ambition to become one of the world's leading climbers. Pushing himself to new extremes, he embarks on his toughest climbs yet - on big walls in the Alps and Patagonia - in the depths of winter. Kirkpatrick has more success, but the savagery and danger of these encounters comes at huge personal cost. Questioning his commitment to his chosen craft, Kirkpatrick is torn between family life and the dangerous path he has chosen. Written with his trademark wit and honesty, "Cold Wars" is a gripping account of modern adventure.
Troll Wall: The untold story of the British first ascent of Europe's tallest rock face
by Tony HowardNorway, 1965. A team of young climbers from the north of England camp at the bottom of the tallest vertical rock face in Europe - the Troll Wall. No one has dared attempt this gigantic challenge before. Some say it will never be climbed. This will be the adventure of a lifetime. Rain and snow soak them as they climb. Avalanches and loose rock threaten their lives. A Norwegian team arrives to compete for the glory as the world's media look on. Pushed to the limits of exhaustion, the team spends days on the wall, refusing to given in, even when failure seems certain. "Troll Wall" tells the gripping story of one of the most dramatic first ascents in British climbing history. Written days after their success, almost half a century ago, and newly rediscovered, Tony Howard's account is a fascinating insight into the challenges of climbing a big mountain wall.
Ron Fawcett - Rock Athlete: The Story of a Climbing Legend
by Ron FawcettRon Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix. Ten years later, Fawcett was the most famous rock climber in Britain and among the best in the world, part of a new wave whose dedication to training transformed the sport, pushing standards further and faster than ever before - or since. His legacy of new climbs ranks him alongside the very best in the history of the sport. He was also the first to style himself a professional rock climber, starring in the landmark television documentary "Rock Athlete", and appearing on the covers of magazines around the world. But far from enjoying the fame, Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him. Winner of the 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.
Jerry Moffatt - Revelations: Revelations
by Jerry MoffattWhen Jerry Moffatt burst onto the scene as a brash 17-year-old, rock climbing had never seen anyone like him before. Fiercely ambitious, even as a boy Moffatt was focused on one thing: being the best in the world. This is the story of his meteoric rise to stardom, and how he overcame injury to stay at the top for over two decades. Top sport climber, brilliant competitor and a pioneer in the new game of bouldering, Moffatt's story is that of climbing itself in the last thirty years. Yet Jerry Moffatt is more than a dedicated athlete. Travelling the world to fulfil his dreams, his story is a compelling and often hilarious account of the climbing community with all its glories, dangers and foibles, as well as the story of a true sporting legend. Grand Prize Winner - Banff Mountain Book Festival 2009.
The Wild Within: Climbing The World's Most Remote Mountains
by Simon YatesAll mountaineers develop differently. Some go higher, some try ever-steeper faces and others specialise in a particular range or region. I am increasingly drawn to remoteness - to places where few others have trod.' The Wild Within is the third book from Simon Yates, one of Britain's most accomplished and daring mountaineers. With his insatiable appetite for adventure and exploratory mountaineering, Yates leads unique expeditions to unclimbed peaks in the Cordillera Darwin in Tierra del Fuego, the Wrangell St-Elias ranges on the Alaskan-kon border, and Eastern Greenland. Laced with dry humour, he relates his own experience of the rapid commercialisation of mountain wilderness, while grappling with his new-found commitments as a family man. At the same time he must endure his role in the film adaptation of Joe Simpson's Touching The Void, having to relive the events of that trip to Peru for an award winning director. Yates' subsequent escape to the some of the world's most remote mountains isn't quite the experience it once was, as he witnesses first hand the advance of modern communications into the wilderness, signalled by the ubiquitous mobile phone masts appearing in once deserted mountain valleys. He is left to dwell on the remaining significance of mountain wilderness and begins a journey to rediscover his own notion of 'wild'.
Freedom Climbers
by Bernadette McDonaldFreedom Climbers is the multi award-winning book by Bernadette McDonald, now available in the UK and Ireland thanks to Vertebrate Publishing. Freedom Climbers tells the story of the extraordinary Polish adventurers who emerged from under the blanket of oppression following the Second World War to become the world's leading Himalayan climbers. Although they lived in a war-ravaged landscape, with seemingly no hope of creating a meaningful life, these curious, motivated and skilled mountaineers built their own free-market economy under the very noses of their Communist bosses and climbed their way to liberation. At a time when Polish citizens were locked behind the Iron Curtain, these intrepid explorers found a way to travel the world in search of extreme adventure - to Alaska, South America and Europe, but mostly to the highest and most inspiring mountains of the world. To this end, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Nepal became their second homes as they evolved into the toughest Himalayan climbers the world has ever known.
Adventures in the Northlands: Vertebrate Mountain Shorts
by Tony HowardLightning hit the cliff high above us, sending a dumper-load of rocks thrumming like jagged cannonballs out of the clouds to explode around us. Bill took a direct hit on his helmet, which was smashed. He hung limply and silently on the rope. His face, which was streaming with blood from a gash in his head, was a ghastly shade of white. For a horrible moment, we thought he was dead, but he came round slowly. We suggested bivouacking until he recovered but Bill, who always thrived in adversity, was having none of it. Having bandaged his head and reversed his helmet so that the hole in it wasn't over the hole in his head, and at his insistence bunged a fag in his mouth to keep him happy, we continued into the storm up the last 300 metres of the snow covered cliff. We emerged triumphantly over the cornice into the blizzard and whiteout, another first ascent in the bag.' Adventures in the Northlands is a collection of short stories written by British adventurer and mountaineer Tony Howard. From a life spent in the mountains and wilderness, Tony recalls epic tales of climbing, kayaking and adventure from Greenland, the kon and, his home-from-home, Norway. Journey with Tony into some of the most incredible wild places on earth. Vertebrate Mountain Shorts are collections of mountaineering, climbing, adventure and wilderness writing, published as ebooks and intended to be read in one go. Written by some of the world's leading outdoor adventure authors, they include rare, previously out of print and exciting new works. Vertebrate Mountain Shorts will always be inspirational, direct and to the point.
Echoes: One climber's hard road to freedom
by Nick Bullock"As I sat cradling the man's head, with his blood and brains sticking to my hands, I heard a voice - my own voice. It was asking me something. Asking how I had ended up like this, desperate and lost among people who thought nothing of caving in a man's head and then standing back to watch him die." Nick Bullock was a prison officer working in a maximum-security jail with some of Britain's most notorious criminals. Trapped in a world of aggression and fear, he felt frustrated and alone. Then he discovered the mountains. Making up for lost time, Bullock soon became one of Britain's best climbers, learning his trade in the mountains of Scotland and Wales, and travelling from Pakistan to Peru in his search for new routes and a new way of seeing the world - and ultimately an escape route from his life inside. Told that no one ever leaves the service - the security, the stability, the 'job for life' - Bullock focused his existence on a single goal: to walk free, with no shackles, into a mountain life. Echoes, his first book, is a powerful and compelling exploration of freedom - and what it means to live life on your own terms.
Deep Play: Climbing the world's most dangerous routes
by Paul PritchardWinner of the 1997 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, Paul Pritchard's Deep Play is a unique, stylish and timeless commentary reflecting the pressures and rewards of climbing some of the world's hardest and most challenging rock climbs. Pritchard started climbing in Lancashire before moving to join the vibrant Llanberis scene of the mid 1980s, at a time when the adventurous development of the Dinorwig slate quarries was in full swing. Many of the new slate routes were notable for their fierce technical difficulty and sparse protection, and Pritchard took a full part in this arcane sub-culture of climbing and at the same time deployed his skills on the Anglesey sea cliffs to produce a clutch of equally demanding wall climbs. Born with an adventurous soul, it was not long before Pritchard and his friends were planning exotic trips. In 1987, paired with Johnny Dawes, Pritchard made an epoch-making visit to Scotland's Sron Ulladale to free its famous aid route, The Scoop. Pritchard and Dawes, with no previous high altitude experience, then attempted the Catalan Pillar of Bhagirathi III in the Garwhal Himalaya in India, a precocious first expedition prematurely curtailed when Pritchard was hit by stonefall at the foot of the face. In 1992, Pritchard and Noel Craine teamed up with the alpinists Sean Smith and Simon Yates to climb a big wall route on the East Face of the Central Tower of Paine, Patagonia. Pritchard followed this with an equally fine first ascent of the West Face of Mt Asgard on Baffin Island. Other trips - to Yosemite, Pakistan and Nepal as well as returns to Patagonia - resulted in a clutch of notable repeats, first ascents and some failures. The failure list also included two life threatening falls (one on Gogarth, the other on Creag Meaghaidh), which prompted the author into thought-provoking personal re-assessments, in advance of his later near-terminal accident on The Totem Pole in Tasmania. A penetrating view of the adventures and preoccupations of a contemporary player, Deep Play stands alone as a unique first-hand account of what many consider to be the last great era in British climbing.
Beyond the Mountain
by Steve House"An exceptional book." - Winner - Boardman Tasker Prize 2009 Winner - Mountain Literature Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2009 Reinhold Messner calls Steve House the best high-altitude climber in the world today, an honour he declines. "Being called the 'best,'" says Steve, "makes me very uncomfortable. My intention is to be as good as I can be. Mountaineering is too complex to be squeezed into a competition. It is simply not something that lends itself to comparison. Climbing is about process, not achievement. The moment your mind wanders away from the task of the climbing at hand will be the moment you fail." Beyond the Mountain is the award-winning title from Steve House - arguably the world's leading high-altitude climber. Winner of the prestigious Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 2009, Beyond the Mountain is now available in the UK and Ireland thanks to Vertebrate Publishing. Steve House built his reputation on ascents throughout the Alps, Canada, Alaska, the Karakoram and the Himalaya that have expanded the possibilities of style, speed and difficulty. In 2005, Steve and fellow alpinist Vince Anderson pioneered a direct new route on the Rupal Face of 26,660-foot Nanga Parbat, which had never before been climbed in alpine style. It was the third ascent of the face and the achievement earned Steve and Vince the first Piolet d'Or (Golden Ice Axe) awarded to North Americans. Steve is an accomplished and spellbinding storyteller in the tradition of Maurice Herzog and Lionel Terray. Beyond the Mountain is a gripping read - already a mountain classic. It addresses many issues common to non-climbing life - mentorship, trust, failure, success, goal setting, heroes, partnership - as well as the mountaineer's heightened experience of risk and the deaths of friends. Beyond the Mountain is a window into the process of a man working to be the best he can be through an endeavour very few can begin to imagine.
No Place to Fall: Superalpinism in the High Himalaya
by Victor SaundersNo Place to Fall is Victor Saunder's follow up to his Boardman Tasker Prize winning debut book Elusive Summits. Covering three expeditions to familiar and unfamiliar ranges in Nepal, the Karakoram and the Kumaon, each shares the exhilaration of attempting new alpine-style routes on terrifyingly committing mountains. In 1989 Victor Saunders and Steve Sustad completed a difficult route on the West Face of Makalu II, only to be brought to a storm-bound halt above 7000 metres while descending. Without food or bivouac gear, they endured a tortuous descent after a night in the open. Two years later the pair were with a small team in the Hunza valley exploring elusive access to a giant hidden pillar on the unvisited South-East Face of Ultar, one of the highest and most shapely of the world's unclimbed peaks. Climbing at night to avoid being caught out by the torture of sun on ice, they were a few pitches from the summit ridge on soft snow and rotten ice before equipment failure committed them to a dire descent. In 1992 Victor Saunders was part of a joint Indian-British team climbing various peaks in the Panch Chuli range and exploring its approaches from the west. A happy and successful expedition narrowly avoided ending in tragedy when Stephen Venables broke both legs in a fall on the descent from Panch Chuli V and Chris Bonington survived another fall going to his aid. The dramatic evacuation of Venables, in which the author took a major part, forms an exciting climax to a book which describes at first hand what it is like on the cutting edge of contemporary alpine-style climbing in the world's highest mountains. As well as exciting climbing action, No Place to Fall offers enviable mountain exploration, enriched by sharing the lives of the mountain peoples along the way. Victor Saunders also casts a perceptive, if bemused, eye over his fellow climbers and reflects on the calculation of risk that drives them back year after year to chance their lives in high places.
Elusive Summits: Four expeditions in the Karakoram
by Victor SaundersElusive Summits is the award winning first book by British mountaineer Victor Saunders, winner of the 1990 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature. Documenting climbs in the 1980s, at a time when the greatest mountains in the greatest ranges had been climbed by numerous routes, collected like sets of stamps and written about extensively by the world's leading climbers, Saunders and his companions relished the exploration of the thousands of peaks in the 6000 and 7000 metre range. These slightly humbler, but often more aesthetically satisfying and no less testing summits of the Karakoram and the Himalaya, were ripe fruit for the committed alpinists of the day. Saunders describes four lightweight expeditions to the Karakoram, beginning with Uzum Brakk, or Conway's Ogre, which he visited in 1980. Along with his two climbing companions, neither of whom he knew at all well, he discovered the serious nature of Karakoram glaciers, and faced up to the violent weather that eventually beat them back on the summit ridge after they had nominally completed their route. The trio interrupted their attempt on Uzum to perform a dramatic rescue of two badly injured Japanese climbers on nearby Latok IV, and this contact led indirectly to Bojohaghur Duanasir, one of the highest unclimbed mountains in Pakistan, which became the object of the North London Mountaineering Club's attentions in 1982. Here, in the company of such friends and climbing partners as Mick Fowler, the joy of new route finding on an unclimbed 7000-metre peak outweighed the perilous bivoua and torture by lightening. 1983 offered a rare chance to join Indian climbers on the front line of the Indian-Pakistan border conflict across the Siachen Glacier. The pleasure of solving intricate technical problems with Stephen Venables high above the firing line was brought to an abrupt end by a dropped rucksack which caused an epic descent from just below the then unclimbed summit of Rimo. The fourth expedition was an attempt on the stunning peak of Spantik. First glimpsed from Bojohaghur, this a mountain whose awe-inspiring Golden Pillar, soaring 4000 feet to the summit ridge, demanded attention. Saunders' ascent in 1987 with Mick Fowler, and subsequent pitch-by-grunt account, proved to be one of the most exciting and difficult ascents of the decade by British alpinists. Saunders communicates the highs and lows of expedition life with relish, good humour, honest trepidation and a keen eye for the idiosyncratic among his companions. Elusive Summits is a wonderful celebration of the sheer exhilaration that comes from the hardest level of alpine-style exploration in the Karakoram.
Adventures in Mind: A personal obsession with the mountains
by Heather DaweThe last descent and I can't let myself think it's in the bag. Anything could happen, take it easy, take no risks. Just get to the finish and win. 'The challenge and anticipation that pushes me to try harder. The obsessive urge to achieve. It's not all about winning. Why do I do it?' Growing up in Bristol, Heather Dawe was 17 when she started running. Having fallen in to the teenage trap of smoking and drinking she resolved to do something about it, not knowing then where it would take her. A climber since her youth, an obsession with wild places and the mountains was engrained in her DNA. Moving to Leeds to study, she began to compete in fell races and mountain marathons, joking in the pub one night that she could race at the highest level. Being hit by a car doing over 40mph while cycling would have ended many athletes' dreams, but Dawe's drive pushed her even harder. Hard enough to make her pub joke a reality, hard enough to win Elite Mountain Marathons, to win the Three Peaks Cyclo-cross race and to complete the Bob Graham Round. Pushing harder still, she entered the Tour Divide - racing the 2745-mile route of the Continental Divide in North America as she to sought to discover her physical - and emotional - limits. Dawe writes of what it takes to compete in adventure races; the training, the sacrifice, the mistakes that must be made in order to learn and develop. An intensely deep and personal book, Adventures in Mind explores what drives a woman - living with her partner and their child, working 9-5 - to push so hard and so far; into herself, and into the wild.
On Thin Ice: Alpine Climbs in the Americas, Asia and the Himalaya
by Mick FowlerOn Thin Ice is Mick Fowler's second set of climbing memoirs, following Vertical Pleasure. Here, the celebrated mountaineer records his expeditions since 1990. Despite work and family commitments, he has maintained a regular series of 'big trips' to challenging objectives around the world with a sequence of major successes: Taweche (1995, with Pat Littlejohn), Changabang (1997, with Steve Sustad, Andy Cave and Brendan Murphy), Arwa Tower (1999, with Sustad), Mount Kennedy (2000, with Cave), Siguniang (2002, with Paul Ramsden). Siguniang's hard ice climbing on a fabulous face in deepest China was so admired by the international climbing community that it won the US 'Golden Piton' and the French 'Piolet d'Or', both awards given for the finest alpine achievements in the world during that year. The author describes his travels in the great traditions, with engaging modesty and wit, but the climbs themselves are frequently so dramatic that the anxiety and tension forces its way to the surface to be matched by a corresponding relief and triumph when success and safe descent is achieved. Mick Fowler has thus become Britain's most successful exponent of high-standard lightweight mountaineering in the greater ranges. At 48 he is already something of an elder statesman of a cadre of international activists. They are steadily ticking off the most challenging lines in the world - a 'golden age' of super-alpinism that is now in full swing. How this influences activities on the 8000m peaks where the dangers (rarefied air, weather severity and sheer scale) are greater is an open question. History suggests that as major challenges on the lower peaks are steadily mastered the focus will return to technical challenges offered at the higher altitudes. Whether the results will exceed achievements such as the Kurtyka/Schauer (Gasherbrum 4) and the Bohigas/Lucas (Annapurna 1) remains to be seen. The combination of exotic travel with major climbs provides the ultimate adrenalin-soaked holiday experience that Mick Fowler has mastered to the full. We are transported from the cliffs of Jordan, to remote peaks in deepest Asia, via Taweche and Changabang in the Himalaya, with jaunts to the Andes and Alaska thrown in for good measure. That Fowler has organised this routine for years, while holding down a conventional nine-to-five job with the Inland Revenue, has constantly amazed his peers. In this, his second book, he has also mastered the skills of amusing travel-writing to entertain us as a preliminary to the finale of a titanic struggle on each of his fiendishly demanding climbs.
Vertical Pleasure: Early climbs in Britain, the Alps, the Andes and the Himalaya/The secret life of a taxman
by Mick FowlerVertical Pleasure is the first set of climbing memoirs from Mick Fowler - Britain's hardest-climbing tax inspector, the 'Mountaineer's Mountaineer' and recipient of the Piolet d'Or. Vertical Pleasure begins with Fowler's early teenage years on easy British rock and Swiss 4000m peaks under the guidance of his father. A frenzied spell follows, with climbing worked in around jobs, discos and girlfriends before Fowler takes a job at the tax office and settles in London. Long-distance drives in clapped out mini-vans see him tackle new winter routes in the Scottish Highlands, always managing to return for work on Monday mornings. He dodges vomiting fulmars, sinking boats and over-enthusiastic policemen in the pursuit of first-ascents on remote sea-stacks and crumbling coastal cliffs, and tackles Alpine testpieces as he develops into one of Britain's finest mountaineers. Along the way, the sport of chalk-climbing is born on the White Cliffs of Dover and a burst and frozen water pipe allows the first winter ascent of St Pancras station in London. It is when he moves in to the Greater Ranges that Fowler really begins to shine. With climbers such as Victor Saunders and Steve Sustad he begins a run of first ascents on peaks like Taulliraju, Spantik and Cerro Kishtwar. Written with a dry sense of humour, Vertical Pleasure is a must read for the enthusiastic rock, winter and Alpine climber - a classic of the genre.
Everest the Cruel Way: Climbing Mount Everest at its hardest: the 1980 winter attempt on the infamous west ridge
by Joe TaskerOn 30 January 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible. Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker's story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth - an attempt which pushed a group of Britain's finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter. Tasker's epic account vividly describes experiences which no climber had previously endured. Close up and personal, it is a gripping account of day to day life on expedition and of the struggle to live at high altitude. Joe Tasker was one of Britain's best mountaineers. He was a pioneer of lightweight, Alpine-style climbing in the Greater Ranges and had a special talent for writing. He died, along with his friend Peter Boardman, high on Everest in 1982 while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers.
Savage Arena: K2, Changabang and the North Face of the Eiger
by Joe TaskerI could never again maintain that I was caught up in this game unwillingly. I knew now what I wanted to do. Willingly would I accept the hardship and fear, the discipline and the sacrifices, if only I could be given back the chance to climb that mountain.' Joe Tasker lies, struck down by a tooth abscess, in a damp, bug-infested room in the Himalaya, wondering if he will be well enough to climb Dunagiri, his first venture to the 'big' mountains. He is there with Dick Renshaw to attempt to make a two-man ascent of the Peak - one of the first true Alpine-style expeditions to the Greater Ranges; an attempt that forms part of this tale of adventure in the savage vertical arena of hostile mountains. Joe Tasker was one of Britain's foremost mountaineers. A pioneer of lightweight mountaineering and a superbly gifted writer, in Savage Arena he vividly describes his participation in the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger; his first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang with Peter Boardman - considered to be a preposterous plan by the established climbing world; the first ascent of the North Ridge of Kangchenjunga; and his two unsuccessful attempts to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. This is a story of single-minded determination, strength and courage in a pursuit which owes much of its value and compulsion to the risks entailed - risks which often stimulate superlative performances. It is also a story of the stresses, strains and tensions of living in constant anxiety, often with only one other person, for long periods in which one is never far from moments of terror, and of the close and vital human relationships which spring from those circumstances. It is a moving, exciting and inspirational book about the adventuring spirit which seeks endless new climbing challenges to face, alluring problems to solve and difficulties to overcome, for it is not reaching the summit which is important, but the journey to it. Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman died on Everest in 1982, while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Tasker's first book, Everest the Cruel Way, was first published in 1981. Savage Arena, his second book, was completed just before he left for Everest. Both books have become mountaineering classi. The literary legacy of Tasker and Boardman lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com 'The most riveting book on climbing that I have ever read.' Chris Bonington 'A gripping story of tremendous courage and unbelievable endurance.' Sir Edmund Hillary
The Shining Mountain: Two Men On Changabang's West Wall
by Peter Boardman'It's a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, I think it'll be the hardest thing that's been done in the Himalayas.' So spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unclimbed West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington's was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya and an ascent - particularly one in a lightweight style - would be more significant than anything done on Everest at the time. The idea had been Joe Tasker's. He had photographed the sheer, shining, white granite sweep of Changabang's West Wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year. Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman's story, which starts with acclimatisation, sleeping in a Salford frozen food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in forty days of isolation on a two-man expedition; as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds. First published in 1978, The Shining Mountain is Peter Boardman's first book. It is a very personal and honest story that is also amusing, lucidly descriptive, very exciting, and never anything but immensely readable. It was awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize for literature in 1979, winning wide acclaim. His second book, Sacred Summits, was published shortly after his death in 1982. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com
Sacred Summits: The Carstensz Pyramid, Kangchenjunga and Gauri Sankar
by Peter BoardmanMountaintops have long been seen as sacred places, home to gods and dreams. In one climbing year Peter Boardman visited three very different sacred mountains. He began on the South Face of the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea. This is the highest point between the Andes and the Himalaya, and one of the most inaccessible, rising above thick jungle inhabited by warring Stone Age tribes.During the spring Boardman made a four-man, oxygen-free attempt on the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga. Hurricane-force winds beat back their first two bids on the unclimbed North Ridge, but they eventually stood within feet of the summit – leaving the final few yards untrodden in deference to the inhabiting deity. In October, he climbed the mountain most sacred to the Sherpas: the twin-summited Gauri Sankar. Renowned for its technical difficulty and spectacular profile, it is aptly dubbed the Eiger of the Himalaya and Boardman's first ascent took a gruelling twenty-three days.Three sacred mountains, three very different expeditions, all superbly captured by Boardman in Sacred Summits, his second book, first published shortly after his death in 1982. Combining the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains, this is an amusing, dramatic, poignant and thought-provoking book.Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature.
Camp Six: The 1933 Everest Expedition
by Frank SmytheFrank Smythe's Camp Six is one of the greatest Everest accounts ever written. It is the story of the 1933 Everest Expedition, in which Smythe, climbing alone after his partner Eric Shipton had turned back ill, reached a point perhaps higher than any man had done before - and some twenty years before the eventual first ascent. Rope-less, oxygen free and in terrible snow conditions, his climb was one of the greatest endeavours in the history of Everest. Camp Six is a compelling read: a gripping adventure on the highest mountain in the world and a fascinating window into early mountaineering and Himalayan exploration - including an illuminating colonial view of early travels in Tibet. It is essential reading for all those interested in Everest and in the danger and drama of those early expeditions. Frank Smythe was one of the leading mountaineers of the twentieth century, an outstanding climber who, in his short life - he died aged forty-nine -was at the centre of high-altitude mountaineering development in its early years. Author of twenty-seven immensely popular books, he was an early example of the climber as celebrity.
The Kangchenjunga Adventure: The 1930 Expedition to the Third Highest Mountain in the World
by Frank SmytheWe went to Kangchenjunga in response not to the dictates of science, but in obedience to that indefinable urge men call adventure.' In 1930, an expedition set out to climb the world's third-highest mountain, Kangchenjunga. As yet unclimbed, a number of attempts had been made on the peak, including two in the previous year. The Kangchenjunga Adventure records Frank Smythe's attempts as part of an international team to reach the summit, how a deadly avalanche, which killed one of the sherpas, brought an end to their climb and how they turned their attentions instead to Jonsong Peak, which offered a more appealing alternative to risky assaults on the greatest peaks. Smythe's books from this period give compelling reads for anyone with an interest in mountaineering: riveting adventures on the highest peaks in the world, keen observations of the mountain landscape and a fascinating window into early mountaineering, colonial attitudes and Himalayan exploration. Smythe was one of the leading mountaineers of the twentieth century, an outstanding climber who, in his short life - he died aged forty-nine -was at the centre of high-altitude mountaineering development in its early years. He climbed extensively in the Alps, gained the summit of Kamet (the highest peak then climbed) in 1931 and, on the 1933 Everest Expedition, reached a point higher than ever before achieved. Author of twenty-seven immensely popular books, he was an early example of the climber as celebrity.
Everest 1951: The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition (Eric Shipton: The Mountain Travel Books #1)
by Eric ShiptonIn 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest. They climbed from the south, from Nepal, via the Khumbu Glacier - a route first pioneered in 1951 by a reconnaissance expedition led by Eric Shipton. Everest 1951 is the account of this expedition. It was the first to approach the mountain from the south side, it pioneered a route through the Khumbu icefall and it was the expedition on which Hillary set foot on Everest for the first time. Everest 1951 is a short but vitally important read for anybody with any interest in mountaineering or in Everest. The 1951 Everest Expedition marked the public highpoint of Shipton's mountaineering fame. Key information was discovered and the foundations laid for future success. Despite this, Shipton's critics felt he had a 'lack of trust' and thus failed to match the urgent mood of the period. Despite having been on more Everest expeditions than any man alive, he was 'eased' out of the crucial leadership role in 1953 and so missed the huge public acclaim given to Hillary, Tenzing Norgay and John Hunt after their historic success.