author, mountaineering writer – books, blog, opinion
I’ve recently finished reading Cho Oyu by Herbert Tichy, an account of the first ascent of Cho Oyu in 1954. The book is hard to get hold of, but it’s as good as Maurice Herzog’s Annapurna, regarded by many as one the best mountaineering books ever written.
Read more
I’ve been pretty lucky with my adventures so far. Although they don’t always go according to plan I’ve never experienced a major disaster. I had a chance to reflect on this while I was sheltering in a mountain hut in Patagonia reading John Quillen’s account of his attempt on Broad Peak last year.
Read more
In 1924 the mountaineering legend George Mallory vanished into mist on Everest’s Northeast Ridge, never to be seen again. In 2009 and the bestselling novelist Jeffery Archer wrote a novel about it called Paths of Glory, but was it historically accurate? Let’s have a look.
Read more
There has been a flurry of books about Everest published this year to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the first ascent. This one stands out because it challenges many widely held beliefs and provides a very different perspective of the 1953 expedition than most other accounts.
Read more
Pete Boardman was only 31 years old when he went missing with his climbing partner Joe Tasker on the Northeast Ridge of Everest in 1982, but already he was a climbing legend who had packed an enormous amount into his short life. He climbed Everest by a new route on the Southwest Face in 1975 at the age of only 24, and the world’s third highest mountain Kangchenjunga also by a new route in 1979.
Read more
Book review: Abode of Snow by Kenneth Mason and Fallen Giants by Isserman & Weaver. It’s always interesting to read two books which cover the same subject 50 years apart. It’s even more interesting when that subject is Himalayan mountaineering, one very close to my heart. In the last couple of months I’ve read an epic modern work and an old classic.
Read more
Book review: Dark Summit by Nick Heil and High Crimes by Michael Kodas “There’s three things that could happen: you could fail, you could get up it, or you could not come back. You’ll just have to make sure you
Read more
I’d like to pay tribute to a man called Graham Uney. I’ve never met him and I probably never will, but thanks to his Backpacker’s Britain walking guides I’ve had many an enjoyable weekend in the UK’s hills, in places
Read more“Every step was dogged by a presentiment of catastrophe, as if, out of the mists above, a white wave of death would engulf us.” Is it time for a mountaineer to begin questioning his sanity when he reads a book
Read more
If you like books about mountaineering, here are some of my favourites. I make no claims that these are the 5 best books about mountain exploration ever written, because I can’t claim to have read them all. They are simply
Read more