His accomplishments are staggering. He has summited Everest twelve times. He is the first person in history to climb the three Everest peaks, the so-called Triple Crown, in one climb, a feat previously thought impossible. He was nominated for the prestigious piolet d'Or in 2004 for climbing a previously unclimbed route on Annapurna III. In 2012 he fulfilled the Olympic Games pledge of placing a 1924 gold medal on the Everest summit. He is the only Briton to have skied down two 8000-metre mountains, and in 2009 he guided Sir Ranulph Fiennes to the summit of Everest, helping to raise over £3 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care.His accomplishments are all the more extraordinary considering an incident in the summer of 1996 which tore Kenton's world apart. Whilst climbing in Wales, he broke a handhold on a route aptly called 'Major Headstress' and fell to the ground with such force that he shattered both his heel bones. Initially told he would never walk unaided again, Kenton spent four weeks in hospital, had three operations, three and a half months in a wheelchair and months of rehab. Today he is still in pain and after a long day in the mountains it's not uncommon to see him struggling to walk or moving around on his hands and knees. Yet he still climbs.'Why do you do it?' people ask him. This book tells why.

    This deeply personal and revealing memoir, Ueli Steck: My Life in Climbing, is the only one of his books to be published in English.In 2016, Ueli established a new speed record on Eiger's North Face--beating his own record! That same year he climbed all 82 four-thousand-meter peaks in the Alps within 62 days (traveling between the peaks by bicycle), and summited Annapurna's south face in 28 hours. But the dramatic events of the previous two years--the internationally reported conflict with Sherpas at Mount Everest, and the discovery of Alex Lowe's body on Shishapangma--changed him and made him rethink his approach to the mountains.After withdrawing from the sport for a period, Ueli rediscovered his love of climbing, and in this memoir he explains how his perspective changed. While his drive to achieve in the mountains hadn't diminished, an evaluation of his experiences helped him find a new way to process the emotional and mental challenges that shaped his athletic outlook. Structured around key climbs, Ueli Steck: My Life in Climbing provides the history of each mountain and route, Ueli's reasons for attempting it, what happened on each climb itself, and what he learned from the experience. It also includes some fascinating insights into his training regimen.Ueli infuses his story with the joy and freedom of climbing and running. He is honest, direct and, at times, exhibits the self-absorption common to many elite athletes. Ultimately, however, his experiences brought him to a place of self-awareness and he was no longer the same climber who first set the speed record on the Eiger's North Face. Ueli was determined that he would take only acceptable risks. Unfortunately, Ueli's bar for risk was still very high--he died while on a training climb on the Himalayan peak Nuptse on April 30, 2017.

    Spanning an extraordinary range of subjects and locations, these articles take us from a horrifying avalanche on Mt. Everest to a volcano poised to obliterate a big chunk of greater Seattle at any moment; from a wilderness teen-therapy program run by apparent sadists to an otherworldly cave in New Mexico, studied by NASA to better understand Mars; from the notebook of one Fred Beckey, who catalogued the greatest unclimbed mountaineering routes on the planet, to the last days of legendary surfer Mark Foo. Rigorously researched and vividly written, marked by an unerring instinct for storytelling and scoop, the pieces in Classic Krakauer are unified by the author’s ambivalent love affair with unruly landscapes and his relentless search for truth.

    Conversion is instant. Headshots just make them angry. And they’re getting smarter. Ken Strickland has made it through the first moments. But his family is still out there.Can he survive? Can he find them? And even if he does, what comes next? Will they survive? Will they, with the few other survivors they have found, find a way to stop this menace? Or will they simply become a fewmore of the creatures that now rule our world?

    But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.A preternaturally cautious climber who once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest but who would not shrink from a peak (Annapurna) known to claim the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit, Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” It is with this philosophy that he vividly describes fatal errors in judgment made by his fellow climbers as well as a few of his own close calls and gallant rescues. And, for the first time, he details his own pivotal and heroic role in the 1996 Everest disaster made famous in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air. In addition to the raw excitement of Viesturs’s odyssey, No Shortcuts to the Top is leavened with many funny moments revealing the camaraderie between climbers. It is more than the first full account of one of the staggering accomplishments of our time; it is a portrait of a brave and devoted family man and his beliefs that shaped this most perilous and magnificent pursuit.

    That's the only way he'll have a chance of making it to the pros someday.But his street smarts haven't prepared him for the pressures of tough classes, high-stakes college ball, and the temptation to fix games for local gamblers. Everyone plays by a whole new set of rules -- including Sherry, who's determined to be a track star. Her independence attracts Lonnie, but their on-again, off-again relationship is driving him crazy.Lonnie has one year to learn how to make it as a "college man." It's his outside shot at a bright future. Does he have what it takes?

    Everest in May1963 - published to coincide with the climb's 50th anniversary- - combinesriveting adventure, a perceptive analysis of its dark and terrifying historicalcontext, and revelations about a secret mission that followed. In the midst of the Cold War, against the backdrop of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the space race with the Soviet Union, and the quagmire of the Vietnam War, a band of iconoclastic, independent-minded American mountaineers set off for Mt. Everest, aiming to restore America's confidence and optimism. Their objective is to reach the summit while conducting scientific research, but which route will they take? Might the Chinese, in a public relations coup, have reached the top ahead of them? And what about another American team, led by the grandson of a President, that nearly bagged the peak in a bootleg attempt a year earlier? "The Vast Unknown "is, on one level, a harrowing, character-driven account of the climb itself and its legendary team of alternately inspiring, troubled, and tragic climbers who suffered injuries, a near mutiny, and death on the mountain. It is also an examination of the profound sway the expedition had over the American consciousness and sense of identity during a time when the country was floundering. And it is an investigation of the expedition's little-known outcome: the selection of a team to plant a CIA surveillance device on the Himalayan peak of Nanda Devi, to spy into China where Defense Intelligence learned that nuclear missile testing was underway.

    It started out as a simple hike in the Utah canyonlands on a warm Saturday afternoon. For Aron Ralston, a twenty-seven-year-old mountaineer and outdoorsman, a walk into the remote Blue John Canyon was a chance to get a break from a winter of solo climbing Colorado's highest and toughest peaks. He'd earned this weekend vacation, and though he met two charming women along the way, by early afternoon he finally found himself in his element: alone, with just the beauty of the natural world all around him. It was 2:41 P.M. Eight miles from his truck, in a deep and narrow slot canyon, Aron was climbing down off a wedged boulder when the rock suddenly, and terrifyingly, came loose. Before he could get out of the way, the falling stone pinned his right hand and wrist against the canyon wall. And so began six days of hell for Aron Ralston. With scant water and little food, no jacket for the painfully cold nights, and the terrible knowledge that he'd told no one where he was headed, he found himself facing a lingering death -- trapped by an 800-pound boulder 100 feet down in the bottom of a canyon. As he eliminated his escape options one by one through the days, Aron faced the full horror of his predicament: By the time any possible search and rescue effort would begin, he'd most probably have died of dehydration, if a flash flood didn't drown him before that. What does one do in the face of almost certain death? Using the video camera from his pack, Aron began recording his grateful good-byes to his family and friends all over the country, thinking back over a life filled with adventure, and documenting a last will and testament with the hope that someone would find it. (For their part, his family and friends had instigated a major search for Aron, the amazing details of which are also documented here for the first time.) The knowledge of their love kept Aron Ralston alive, until a divine inspiration on Thursday morning solved the riddle of the boulder. Aron then committed the most extreme act imaginable to save himself. Between a Rock and a Hard Place -- a brilliantly written, funny, honest, inspiring, and downright astonishing report from the line where death meets life -- will surely take its place in the annals of classic adventure stories.

    On a faraway planet, Jen, the last of the Gelflings, is given the mission of restoring a missing shard to the great Crystal and preventing the tragedy of a Skeksis triumph when the Three Suns merge.

    His first ascent of Annapurna’s South Face with Dougal Haston in 1970, remains one of the most impressive climbs ever made – a standard to which all contemporary Himalayan climbers aspire. But Perrin examines the tough reality behind Whillans’ formidable achievements – the character of the man himself. Despite his skill and daring, Whillans was a savage-tongued, hell-raising scrapper – turned down for a Queen’s Birthday honour, because of a violent fracas with the police. Coming out of a world miles away from the environment of the upper class climbers who dominated the sport, Whillans’ forceful, uncompromising personality gave him superstar status – the flawed heroism of a Best, a McEnroe, or an Ali.From the Hardcover edition.

    But the view from 8,848 meters isn't always so clear. Two men, seventy years apart, push for the top of Mount Everest, driven by forces beyond their control and something inside that says climb. After eight successful summits, Mount Everest guide Neil Quinn is confident he can handle anything the mountain throws his way. But then disaster strikes steps from the top, leaving him with a lot of questions and a very old swastika-embellished ice axe that should never have been so high on the mountain - not if Everest's meticulously documented history is accurate. But before Quinn can even catch his breath, the combined wrath of his vengeful employer and an angry client drives him out of the Himalayas and back to Europe, where the newly blackballed English guide struggles to make ends meet and discover the truth of what happened that fateful day. He soon uncovers the story of Josef Becker, a Nazi climber who sought the top of the world seventy years before, when Europe teetered on the brink of the Second World War.Quinn's innocent queries into Becker's expedition soon have neo-Nazis, assassins, and history buffs vying to take possession of the axe - proof of Nazi alpine superiority, and strong evidence that a German climber was the first to summit Mount Everest.Beautifully written and meticulously researched, Summit follows two climbers across two continents as their stories and movements intertwine across history, culminating in one final push for the top of the world.

    It starts with those basic steps and soon becomes the adventure of a lifetime. Now, in the Running Room's Book on Running, veteran runner/author John Stanton offers expert advice to help you get the most from your running. This wonderfully illustrated book answers all your questions about running, including:- Getting started and keeping it fun- Building a program that works with your lifestyle- Picking the right gear- Running form, posture and breathing- Heart rate training made clear- Types of running—what to do and how to do it- Nutrition for the runner- Strength and cross-training—easy to manage exercise routines- Women's issues related to running and running during pregnancy- Avoiding and dealing with injuries- Mental preperation and the psychology of running- Tips for race day

    Leonard Woolley observed that "Amongst the shadowy characters of ancient history, Abraham stands out as a living personality--whom we can know, and with whom we can sympathize...and now, alongside this living personality, we find Sarah--perhaps the most remarkable, yet mysterious woman of all time!"ABRAHAM AND SARAH is an epic love story, an engrossing page-turner for the ages, a must read for every person of faith.

    Everest, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was at his side. Indeed, for as long as Westerners have been climbing the Himalaya, Sherpas have been the unsung heroes in the background. In August 2008, when eleven climbers lost their lives on K2, the world’s most dangerous peak, two Sherpas survived. They had emerged from poverty and political turmoil to become two of the most skillful mountaineers on earth. Based on unprecedented access and interviews, Buried in the Sky reveals their astonishing story for the first time.Peter Zuckerman and Amanda Padoan explore the intersecting lives of Chhiring Dorje Sherpa and Pasang Lama, following them from their villages high in the Himalaya to the slums of Kathmandu, across the glaciers of Pakistan to K2 Base Camp. When disaster strikes in the Death Zone, Chhiring finds Pasang stranded on an ice wall, without an axe, waiting to die. The rescue that follows has become the stuff of mountaineering legend.At once a gripping, white-knuckled adventure and a rich exploration of Sherpa customs and culture, Buried in the Sky re-creates one of the most dramatic catastrophes in alpine history from a fascinating new perspective.

    Then, exciting clues were discovered - hatchets made of stone, paintings drawn in caves, an skeletons of prehistoric beasts and prehistoric man. Step by step the puzzling pieces were put together until finally the great mystery was solved.Here is a story that spans a million years - the story of the first men in the world.