Rigorous and thorough searches by some of the best climbers in the history of the range failed to locate him despite a number of promising clues. When all hope seemed gone and the last search party had left the Minarets, mountaineering legend Norman Clyde refused to give up. Climbing alone, he persevered in the face of failure, resolved that he would learn the fate of the lost man. Clyde’s discovery and the events that followed make for compelling reading. Recently reissued with a new afterword, this re-creation of a famous episode in the annals of the Sierra Nevada is mountaineering literature at its best.

    Already one of the most famous adventure athletes in the world, Honnold has now been hailed as "the greatest climber of all time" (Vertical magazine).Alone on the Wall recounts the most astonishing achievements of Honnold’s extraordinary life and career, brimming with lessons on living fearlessly, taking risks, and maintaining focus even in the face of extreme danger. Now Honnold tells, for the first time and in his own words, the story of his 3 hours and 56 minutes on the sheer face of El Cap, which Outside called "the moon landing of free soloing…a generation-defining climb. Bad ass and beyond words…one of the pinnacle sporting moments of all time."

    An Italian prisoner of war in equatorial East Africa recounts his escape from a British POW camp so that he might climb the 17,000-foot peak of Mount Kenya.

    For a generation of American climbers, The White Spider has been a formative book--yet it has long been out-of-print in America. This edition awaits discovery by Harrer's new legion of readers.

    Dick Bass had made his fortune as an energy and resort entrepreneur. In middle age, both men left behind home, family, and successful careers to share an impossible dream. Seven Unconquered Summits The challenge: be the first to climb the highest mountain on each of seven continents, from McKinley to Kilimanjaro to Everest. The obstacles: many and merciless, from ice storms to illness to a measurement question that threatened to make their record-breaking expedition a sham. The prize: the sheer, exhilarating triumph of standing at the top of every continent on earth.

    Macfarlane is both a mountaineer and a scholar. Consequently we get more than just a chronicle of climbs. He interweaves accounts of his own adventurous ascents with those of pioneers such as George Mallory, and in with an erudite discussion of how mountains became such a preoccupation for the modern western imagination. The book is organised around a series of features of mountaineering--glaciers, summits, unknown ranges--and each chapter explores the scientific, artistic and cultural discoveries and fashions that accompanied exploration. The contributions of assorted geologists, romantic poets, landscape artists, entrepreneurs, gallant amateurs and military cartographers are described with perceptive clarity. The book climaxes with an account of Mallory's fateful ascent on Everest in 1924, one of the most famous instances of an obsessive pursuit. Macfarlane is well-placed to describe it since it is one he shares. MacFarlane's own stories of perilous treks and assaults in the Alps, the Cairngorms and the Tian Shan mountains between China and Kazakhstan are compelling. Readers who enjoyed Francis Spufford's masterly I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination will enjoy Mountains of the Mind. This is a slighter volume than Spufford's and it loses in depth what it gains in range, but for an insight into the moody, male world of mountaineering past and present it is invaluable. --Miles Taylor

    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.

    These two names have been inextricably joined since the two climbers disappeared on Mount Everest more than 75 years ago. Could they have been the first to reach the summit of the world's highest mountains-some 30 years earlier than Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay? Mallory's story has been well chronicled, but Irvine has always been overshadowed by his more famous climbing partner and little has been written about him. Who was he? Why was he invited by the British Everest Committee to join the 1924 expedition despite his limited mountaineering experience? And why did Mallory, 16 years his senior, select Irvine as his partner for the final assault on the summit? Julie Summers, great niece of Sandy Irvine, has been fascinated since childhood by the story of Uncle Sandy. In May 2000, Julie made an astonishing discovery: a long forgotten and unopened trunk containing Irvine's letters and photographs from Everest. Drawing on these and other material, Julie writes a revealing story of a fearless young adventurer whose life and death linked him with one of the greatest mountaineering legends of all time.

    but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day.”

    Before his tragic death in 1996, mountaineer Scott Fischer scaled the highest and most treacherous peaks on Earth and became, for many, an iconic symbol of hubris, audacity and the limits of endurance.

    Thousands have had such dreams, but Richard Proenneke lived them. He found a place, built a cabin, and stayed to become part of the country. One Man's Wilderness is a simple account of the day-to-day explorations and activities he carried out alone, and the constant chain of nature's events that kept him company. From Proenneke's journals, and with first-hand knowledge of his subject and the setting, Sam Keith has woven a tribute to a man who carved his masterpiece out of the beyond.

    He climbed with an audacity and panache that epitomized the purest spirit of alpinism, and inspired an entire generation of climbers. Jon Krakauer calls him one of my heroes. He is not only a mountaineer of astonishing talent and vision, but one of the world's most engaging writers about mountaineering.Bonatti has also been dogged by controversy and often been at odds with the climbing community. The Mountains of My Life not only collects the best of Bonatti's writing telling of adventures in the Alps, the Himalayas, and little-known South American peaks it also tells Bonatti's version of what really happened on the Italian expedition that made the first ascent of K2 in 1954. Bonatti's selfless actions helped avert disaster, yet in the expedition's aftermath he found himself cast as a scapegoat. Part detective story, part hair-raising adventure, part meditation on his craft, The Mountains of My Life is as awe-inspiring and controversial as its author, and is beautifully illustrated with Bonatti's own photos.

    But when Colin Angus, Ben Kozel, and Scott Borthwick embarked on their fantastic voyage in September 1999, just climbing to the river’s source nearly killed them. Beginning with the dehydration that nearly did the adventurers in as they hiked the Andes to the river's source, Amazon Extreme is a breathtaking account of the daily challenges, dangers, and triumphs experienced over the course of this five-month expedition. With no money to speak of and inaccurate, fifty-year-old maps to guide them, this intrepid trio manages to persevere through violent rapids, guerilla gunfire, mosquito-infested drinking water, and numerous bouts of sickness. But in spite of several near-death experiences, including one particularly terrifying moment when their raft is toppled in the raging white water, Angus's crew finds a reverence for the compelling beauty that makes this region so renowned. Amidst the hardship are moments of pure pleasure, from graceful dolphins and lush forests to the intriguing, gracious people who’ve made their homes along the riverbank. An inspiring tale of courage and exploration, this is the story of three guys who truly went off the deep end, and one who came back to write a riveting recollection of it.From the Hardcover edition.

    Praised by Bear Grylls, Levison Wood has been called "the toughest man on TV" (The Times UK). Now, following in the footsteps of the great explorers, Levison recounts the beauty and danger he found along the Silk Road route of Afghanistan, the Line of Control between Pakistan and India, the disputed territories of Kashmir and the earth-quake ravaged lands of Nepal. Over the course of six months, Wood and his trusted guides trek 1,700 gruelling miles across the roof of the world.Packed with action and emotion, Walking the Himalayas is the story of one intrepid man's travels in a world poised on the edge of tremendous change.

    Everest, but her own personal crisis.For every three climbers who attempt to reach the elusive summit of Mt. Everest, one dies trying. But in 1988 Stacy Allison became the first American woman ever to climb the world's highest peak, having triumphed over not just the mountain—a treacherous and overwhelmingly male domain—but over a devastating home life filled with domestic abuse. With each step, she got closer not just to the summit, but to throwing off the ropes that held her in a marriage dangerous to both her physical and mental well-being.Allison's thrilling account of how she called upon the same strength and courage that took her to the top of the world to finally leave her abusive husband is a dramatic testimony to her never-say-die spirit. The power of her vision, and her quest to achieve her dreams and free herself from a life of despair, are an inspiration of the highest kind."Men climb mountains because they're there.' Allison...did it to see if she could measure up. And as she scales peak after peak...her self esteem soars. Braving the Himalayan death zone, the most violent blizzard in forty years, avalanches, white-outs, and being lost at 26,000 feet, Allison...conquers her own life as she conquers Everest."—Jan Goodwin, author of Caught in the Crossfire