What starts with a trouble-free trek into the Nepalese highlands explodes into a gripping tale of hardship, peril, and adversity. Pushed beyond their physical and mental limits, climbers drop by the wayside. Their primal instincts for survival battle with their dogged resolve to drag themselves to the top of the world. But the focus remains: battle to the summit, and if successful, somehow get back down again. White plunges the reader into a land of subzero temperatures, asphyxiating air, and ever increasing danger. Base Camp life and the world above it come to life in this riveting, true novel. The inner workings of an Everest expedition team and what it takes to climb the highest mountain in the world are laid bare. Some return from the death zone injured. Some do not return at all. Success and failure vie for supremacy throughout. This personal, day-by-day chronicle takes the reader along every step of an Everest climb. A must for climbing enthusiasts, lovers of adventure, and adrenaline junkies; the closing chapters will leave you breathless.Alternate cover edition.ASIN: B07763H6D7

    A man who against expedition orders drove his tractor to the South Pole; a man honoured around the world for his pioneering climbs yet who collapsed on more than one occasion on a mountain, and a man who gave so much to Nepal yet lost his family to its mountains.The author, Michael Gill, was a close friend of Hillary’s for nearly 50 years, accompanying him on many expeditions and becoming heavily involved in Hillary’s aid work building schools and hospitals in the Himalaya. During the writing of this book, Gill was granted access to a large archive of private papers and photos that were deposited in the Auckland museum after Hillary’s death in 2008. Building on this unpublished material, as well as his extensive personal experience, Michael Gill profiles a man whose life was shaped by both triumph and tragedy.Gill describes the uncertainties of the first 33 years of Hillary’s life, during which time he served in the New Zealand air force during the Second World War, as well as the background to the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, when Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit – a feat that brought the pair instant worldwide fame. He reveals the loving relationship Hillary had with his wife Louise, in part through their touching letters to each other. Her importance to him during their 22 years of marriage only underlines the horror of her death, along with that of their youngest daughter, Belinda, in a plane crash in 1975. Hillary eventually pulled out of his subsequent depression to continue his life’s work in the Himalaya.Affectionate, but scrupulously fair, in Edmund Hillary – A Biography Michael Gill has gone further than anyone before to reveal the humanity of this remarkable man.

    Love of climbing mountains has lead Swenson to the summits of some of the highest and most dangerous peaks in the world. But over the years, he developed a deep respect for the rugged landscapes and local people found the remote Karakoram Range in South Asia. Readers join him on the trail for numerous attempts on these 8000-meter peaks, getting an intimate look at everything from expedition dynamics among his various climbing partners to the logistics of trip planning. Especially rewarding is the fond relationship that develops between Swenson and Rasool, one of the Balti porters that he becomes close to.

    The stage for adventure is set in Dean Rosnau's rambunctious youth, and the reader is soon launched headlong into a bracing string of first-hand narratives, detailing the risk and challenge of high-mountain search and rescue operations, known as SAR. In this exhilarating report from the heights of the eastern Sierra Nevada, Dean Rosnau exposes a pathway to life-saving decision, gripping rescue action and volatile emotional challenge, all emerging as part of the daily routine of high-mountain search and rescue: a routine like no other. Rosnau's faith is as natural as the air he breathes, the water he drinks, and the ground upon which he walks. And that ground is some of the most rugged terrain in the world. The Shortest Straw is a must read, eye-opening account for all who dream of high mountain ranges, and for all who have been there.” -- Roy McClenahan Expert Rock Climber & Mountain Guide

    There are profiles of two stars of the 1980s: the much-loved German Kurt Albert, the father of the ‘redpoint’, and the enigmatic rock star Patrick Edlinger, a national hero in his native France who lost his way.In Crazy Wisdom, Douglas offers fresh perspectives on the impact mountaineering has on local communities and the role climbers play in the developing world. The final essay explores the relationship between art and alpinism as a way of understanding why it is that people climb mountains.

    Flirting with natural forces of calamity was ambrosia, staring death in the eye on hellish mountains, lethal surf and uncharted rivers—surviving the longest fall ever recorded and a killer Himalayan avalanche. His innovations have saved countless lives. Few know how his wife Malinda converted his tinkering into Patagonia Clothing Company as well as an environmental force.” The author, William Stratton, was his only neighbor, and for almost 15 years the two shared waves and mountains in mutual determination to not let work interfere with life. Chouinard's wife, Malinda, goaded the author into writing this biography, convinced that no one knew Yvon better.

    The result is The Climbers, a collection of sixty black-and-white photographs that document these rugged individualists, including the likes of Royal Robbins, Reinhold Messner, and Yvon Chouinard. Between the 1930s and 1970s, determined men and women used primitive gear along with their considerable wits, talent, and fortitude to tackle un-scaled peaks around the world. In these images, Herrington has captured their humanity, obsession, intellect, and frailty. Includes an essay by Greg Child and a foreword by Alex Honnold.