Read Into The Wild and it made me cry/hanker for the outdoors
What else can anyone recommend that will make me want to climb more than the BMI scale?
[i]Touching the Void[/i], obviously and [i]The Six Mountain Books[/i] by Shipton will make you want to run into the wild blue yonder before there's nothing left to explore.
Not climbing, but as an adventure story, nothing beats Shackleton's Boat Journey.
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Stuck between a rock and a hard place, if only to see how not to do it and then what to do if it all goes wrong.
Sailing, not climbing but both [i]A Voyage For Madmen[/i] and [i]The Proving Ground[/i] are worth a read.
You read Into the Wild and it made you cry/ hanker for the great outdoors???
I must have read a different book - as the book left me feeling somewhat exposed and a tad low. To me the book epitomises everything that is somehow false about the whole 'out there' lifestyle.The hype and the virtues that we are force fed ...so often are not suited to the vast majority of the population.
Heinrich Harrer's books - the White Spider and 7 Years in Tibet.
Bonnington's books - climbing when it was the big adventure.
Eric Newby - a Short walk in the Hindu Kush and Love and War in the Apennines.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Breath-Peter-Stark/dp/0330486977/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283583347&sr=1-1 ]Last Breath[/url] - was a great read - good to know what happens when it goes a bit pear shaped.....
"This title explores what happens to our bodies and minds in the perilous last moments of life when an extreme adventure goes wrong. Peter Stark's book is a synthesis of adventure and science, anecdote and history, confronting, among other conditions, malaria, dehydration, scurvy, heat stroke and falling from a very great height."
Psychovertical - Andy Kirkpatrick
Simon Yates' books (he'll forever be known as the "guy who cut the rope" in Touching the Void, but he's had lots of adventures since then)
Feeding the Rat - Al Alverez (sp?)
The Ascent of Rum Doodle
Shadows on the Wasteland - Mike Stroud's book about his/Ranulph Fiennes unsupported walk across antartica. I found it a better right up than Fiennes' version.
Bit different in that the suffering and adventure is not self inflicted:
We Die Alone
its a bit WW2, but quite entertaining.
"Call of the Wild" - Guy Grieve
"The Philosophy of Risk" - Dougal Haston
"Creagh Dubh Climber" - biography of John Cunningham, can't remember who wrote it.
I liked Blood River by Tim Butcher. Again not climbing, but adventure along the River Congo retracing a famous historical expedition.
Good thread though, going to pick some of these up...
OK, this is a bit left field but try Wainwrights - A pennine journey.
No Picnic on Mount Kenya by Felice Bennuzzi (I think)
Three Italians escape from a Kenyan PoW camp just so they can experience freedom by climbing Mount Kenya, knowing fine well they'll have to come back as there's no chance of actual escape.
Great stuff, proper Boy's Own adventure
[i]Into thin air[/i] & [i]The Climb, tragic ambitions on Everest[/i] are both excellent books on the same disastrous season. The first is probably an easier read but the latter is still a great book and gives balance to an otherwise quite biased account of what happened.
There is some climbing in Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parado. An incredible story written by the man that decided to climb, instead of starve to death.
'Summit Fever' by Andrew Greig. Non-climbing Scottish poet gets co-opted onto an expedition to the Karakorum by Mal Duff. Beautifully written outsider's take on climbing and climbers.
'Kiss or Kill', Mark Twight. Bonkers collected articles by similarly deranged American alpinist. Kind of inspirational and repulsive at the same time.
'Learning to Breathe', Andy Cave. As much for the descriptions of working as a miner during the dark days of Thatcherite Britain as for the climbing stuff, which is also good.
'Conquistadors of the Useless', Lionel Terray. Genius and perspective, legendary French climber from 40s and 50s.
And all the classics - The White Spider, Void, and Psychovertical (not a classic, but mentioned already), some of Jim Perrin's stuff - 'The Villain', his biography of Don Whillans is good. Pretty much all the stuff in the Boardman-Tasker Omnibus.
And on and on... It's odd how mountaineering has such an incredibly rich literary tradition while mountain biking's culture seems to have been written (sic.) in ephemera like magazines and DVDs. It's an age thing I guess.
For more information on Shackleton and his Boat Journey and some of Frank Hurley's photos, take a look at, http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/home/index.shtml
If it was written as fiction, it would be dismissed as being too far fetched.
[i]"We are homeless and adrift"[/i]
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+1 white spider,fantastic.
Psychovertical - Andy Kirkpatrick+10
Most of Joe Simpson's stuff is very good. Everyone knows [i]Touching the Void[/i] but try [i]Dark Shadows Falling, The Beckoning Silence[/i] and [i]This Game of Ghosts[/i]
Not climbing but Alistair Humphreys 2-parter on his cycle ride round the world is well worth a read. [i]Mood of Future Joys[/i] and [i]Thunder & Sunshine[/i].
Hermann Buhl "Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage"
so it is war time and you are working full time, got a wife and kid and you still find time to get on your (pedal) bike ride over alpine passes and solo the hardest rock routes in the alps and get back to work in the morning
fantastic
Look for books by Sir Ranulph Fiennes-
Living Dangerously
Mad dogs and Englishman etc
That man has lead one hell of a life!
Andy Cave Learning to Breath
Andy Martin Walking on Water
Touching My Fathers's Soul - Jambling Tenzing Norgay
Quality book by the son of Tenzing Norgay talking about growing up in the shadow of his Father's fame and his own subsequent success on Everest during the nightmare 96 season. Fantastic insight to a sherpa's life and a strong point of view of that 96 season from the Sherpa's shoes
[i]Barrow's Boys[/i] by Fergus Fleming- about the naval expeditions in the 1800s looking for the northwest passage etc. Great stuff.
Kiss or Kill +1 definitely worth a read
Beyond the Mountain - Steve House
Solo Faces-James Salter
"Rand lives free; lean, pure and defiant, the world has little influence on him. His passion is climbing – the mountains, the huge vertical faces. There, where storms, snow, or rockfall can kill, he finds his happiness, sometimes climbing with others, sometimes alone. This is a novel of obsession and where it leads. Rand, not intending it, becomes suddenly famous for a daring rescue in the Alps. What happens when passion is spent and what becomes of heroes is revealed in this terse and powerfully written novel."
[i]For more information on Shackleton and his Boat Journey and some of Frank Hurley's photos, take a look at, http://www.kodak.com/US/en/corp/features/endurance/home/index.shtml [/i]
Or read the man's memoirs:
Literally awesome
I'm reading Feet in the Clouds, about british fell running, it's not bad - almost makes me want to give it a go.
