The Ogre: Biography of a mountain and the dramatic story of the first ascent


Doug K. Scott - 2017
    Few are both.On the afternoon of 13 July 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse.Rising to over 7,000 metres in the centre of the Karakoram, the Ogre – Baintha Brakk – is notorious in mountaineering circles as one of the most difficult mountains to climb. First summited by Scott and Bonington in 1977 – on expedition with Paul ‘Tut’ Braithwaite, Nick Estcourt, Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine – it waited almost twenty-four years for a second ascent, and a further eleven years for a third. The Ogre, by legendary mountaineer Doug Scott, is a two-part biography of this enigmatic peak: in the first part, Scott has painstakingly researched the geography and history of the mountain; part two is the long overdue and very personal account of his and Bonington’s first ascent and their dramatic week-long descent on which Scott suffered two broken legs and Bonington smashed ribs. Using newly discovered diaries, letters and audio tapes, it tells of the heroic and selfless roles played by Clive Rowland and Mo Anthoine. When the desperate climbers finally made it back to base camp, they were to find it abandoned – and themselves still a long way from safety.The Ogre is undoubtedly one of the greatest adventure stories of all time.

Alone in the Fortress of the Bears: 70 Days Surviving Wilderness Alaska: Foraging, Fishing, Hunting


Bruce Buck Nelson - 2015
    He would return in September. For the next ten weeks my survival would depend on foraging, hunting and fishing on an island I would share with 1,600 brown bears. This is my story of hunger and solitude, salmon fishing and stormy seas, torrential rains and mountain sunsets, giant halibut and deer hunting, campfires and killer whales. Illustrated with nearly fifty photos and a map.

Dories, Ho!


Matt Smith - 2017
    In September 2016, they experienced the trip of a lifetime with 14 friends and a crew of 10 while traveling in wooden dories through the canyon. Dories, Ho! is a story of their adventure and discovery. Similar to their first travel memoir Dear Bob and Sue, this book is as much about their relationship as it is their fantastic trip. Matt and Karen’s quirky writing style is both humorous and irreverent. It’s fun, laugh out loud, and an easy read. While not intended to be a traditional guidebook, anyone contemplating a river trip through the Grand Canyon will benefit from this firsthand account. The reader will feel as if they’ve traveled with the authors on their journey to and through Grand Canyon National Park. If you are looking for a story that will make you laugh and inspire you to get out and see our incredible national parks, Dories, Ho! is for you.

Divided: A Walk on the Continental Divide Trail


Brian Cornell - 2019
    However, trail life is not always as rewarding and romantic as the pictures you see or second-hand stories you hear. "Divided" provides an accurate account of life on trail: what hikers ponder, eat, love, loathe, and the questions they tire of answering. Some moments are too short, some are painfully long while others are whisked away unceremoniously with the wind. Follow along on the journey as Brian navigates difficulties, successes and everything between while attempting to walk from Mexico to Canada. “The greatest challenge of being a long-distance backpacker is learning how to live fully on - and off - the trail. In 'Divided,' Brian shares the rugged beauty and grueling challenges of the Continental Divide Trail along with thought-provoking insights which encourage the reader to reassess his or her own path and consider new alternatives.” Jennifer Pharr Davis, "The Pursuit of Endurance" “If you’ve ever wondered what it is like to wander along the entire length of the multi-thousand mile Continental Divide Trail, Brian Cornell’s 'Divided' will take you on a journey from Mexico to Canada that just may have you planning your own hike of this magnificent trail!” Lawton Grinter, "I Hike Again" " 'Divided' is unlike any hiking memoir I've read. Cornell is undeniably talented and his unique prose vividly conveys the hypnotic nature of long-distance hiking without leaving the reader in a trance. A modern-day 'Desert Solitaire.' " Gary Sizer, "Where’s the Next Shelter?" "An honest look at what life on the Divide is truly like." Heather Anderson, "Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home"

Trudge: A Midlife Crisis on the John Muir Trail


Lori Oliver-Tierney - 2019
    She is fifty, asthmatic, overweight, with arthritic knees. And like so many married women with children, she’s lost herself.When she decides to hike the John Muir Trail, considered by many to be the most challenging and beautiful part of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, she’s sure it will help her reconnect with the adventurous girl inside.But by the end of the first day, Lori realizes she may have made a huge mistake.Monstrous bleeding blisters oozing with pus line the backs of her heels. It soon becomes painfully apparent her hiking partner, Debra, can hardly stand her. She can’t breathe and is using her asthma inhaler with alarming frequency. Trudging along, Lori walks most of the trail alone, and eventually loses her way.Lost on the trail Lori is forced to dig deep into her soul to find the strength to go on. But will inner strength be enough? Given her grim circumstances, she chooses to believe her husband’s words: even ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

This Water Goes North


Dennis Weidemann - 2008
    With leaky tents, little experience, and no TV cameras or big-time sponsors, the lads set out in 1979 to paddle 1,400 miles north to Hudson Bay. Why? Why not! Driven by a youthful sense of adventure, they took the chance of a lifetime just to see what lay around the next turn. Sit in their canoe as they glide through smooth waters and survive rushing rivers. Experience with them the desolation of true wilderness and go on humorous escapades with local characters. With graceful storytelling, Dennis Weidemann weaves this richly diverse tale of near disasters, splendid sunsets, bootleggers, Mounties, polar bears, and the indomitable spirit of youth. Share the dream that still lives, and that will surely inspire others.

The Trail Provides: A Boy's Memoir of Thru-Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail


David Smart - 2018
    Bradley, his older, more adventurous, and slightly-wreckless college fraternity brother presents an enticing offer. Just a few weeks later, the two inexperienced hopefuls abandon society and plunge into a soul-searching sojourn to thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile Mexico-to-Canada footpath--barefoot. At the trail’s mercy from day one, the two hikers face the endless pains of walking, rising tensions, and falling behind to the coming winter. The Trail Provides is a thru-hiking memoir filled with stories about companionship and lessons learned, dreams and reality, and leaving everything behind for the desire of transformation, insight, and self-discovery. Now, let’s begin the journey…

Hey Ranger! True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from America's National Parks


Jim Burnett - 2005
    In his thirty years with the National Park Service, Jim Burnett has seen it all: boat ramp mishaps that have sent cars into the water; skunks in the outhouse and bears at the dumpster; visitors looking for the bridge over the Grand Canyon.

Uncharted: A Couple's Epic Empty-Nest Adventure Sailing from One Life to Another


Kim Brown Seely - 2019
    This is an adventure story about a voyage from one life chapter to another that involves a too-big sailboat, a narrow and unknown sea, and an appetite to witness a mythical blonde bear that inhabits a remote rainforest.Kim Brown Seely and her husband had been damn good parents for more than 20 years. That was coming to an end as their youngest son was about to move across the country. The economy was in freefall and their jobs stagnant, so they impulsively decided to buy a big broken sailboat, learn how to sail it, and head up through the Salish Sea and the Inside Passage to an expanse of untamed wilderness in search of the elusive blonde Kermode bear that only lives in a secluded Northwest forest. Theirs was a voyage of discovery into who they were as individuals and as a couple at an axial moment in their lives. Wise and lyrical, this heartfelt memoir unfolds amid the stunningly wild archipelago on the far edge of the continent.

How the WILD EFFECT Turned Me into a Hiker at 69: An Appalachian Trail Adventure


Jane Congdon - 2018
    It was the Wild Effect! Record numbers of women were taking to the trails after reading Cheryl Strayed's best-selling memoir. Like many others, Jane had little hiking experience, yet she spent 17 weeks on the Appalachian Trail, logging in 1,200 miles hiking with partners, alone, and with a glass good-luck charm named Ms. Rabbit. This is her fascinating and humorous account of life in a land of bears, wild pigs, volatile weather, trail town stops, and the personalities she met along the way—and how a long-distance hike changed her perceptions of both Mother Nature and human nature.

The Tent Dwellers


Albert Bigelow Paine - 1908
    Paine wrote fiction, humor, verse and edited several magazines, but his outstanding work was a three-volume biography of Mark Twain, with whom he lived and traveled for four years. His travel books, all widely circulated, included The Car That Went Abroad; The Ship Dwellers; and this volume, The Tent Dwellers. In the Tent Dwellers, Paine describes the fishing/canoeing expedition on the waterways in southwest Nova Scotia, Canada, he made with his friend Eddie and their guides in 1908. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. Due to the age and scarcity of the original we reproduced, some pages may be spotty, faded or difficult to read.

Of Mice and Me


Mishka Shubaly - 2014
    He had a beautiful new girlfriend and sudden prosperity as an author. But when he adopts an orphaned infant mouse, his world is turned on its head. The mouse comes to symbolize everything left unresolved in his life — his relationship with his divorced parents, his fear of family and commitment, and his inability to feel true happiness and love. By turns hilarious and moving, Mishka Shubaly’s latest Kindle Single captures the journey we all take in life — from being loved, to giving love. Cover by Adil Dara.

Moments of Doubt and Other Mountaineering Writings


David Roberts - 1986
    The articles are composed of three types: Adventures (Roberts' own climbs and outings), Profiles (other adventurers), and Reflections (meditative essays about the meaning of the whole business). Roberts ranges the globe (Africa, Alaska, New Guinea) and introduces unique personalities (Reinhold Messner, John Roskelly, Don Sheldon). He also recounts how his own love of writing and the useless pastime of climbing combined to produce the bread and butter of his career today.Popular with audiences far beyond active mountaineers, Roberts sets himself this challenge: "For me, the abiding puzzle of adventure writing lies in keeping, on the one hand, a sense of proportion about the absurdity of most of our antics in the outdoors, while staying alert, on the other, to the majesty of spirit which at their best those antics demonstrate."RUNNING TIME ⇒ 10hrs. and 39mins.©1986 David Roberts (P)2020 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Desert Sojourn: A Woman's Forty Days and Nights Alone


Debi Holmes-Binney - 2000
    Armed with only basic supplies and her writing journals, she spent an extended sojourn in a place by turns physically terrifying, psychologically invigorating, and gloriously beautiful. Her moving account will appeal to both physical and spiritual adventurers.

Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains


Jon Krakauer - 1990
    In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb. In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world's most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred-foot drop. In France, a hip international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits of the possible.From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories. This is a stirring, vivid book about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.