The author, a noted mountaineer and cinematographer, describes a lifetime of conquering the world's mountain peaks and discusses his 1996 expedition to Mount Everest to create his IMAX film "Everest.
In 1999, Conrad Anker found the body of George Mallory on Mount Everest, casting an entirely new light on the mystery of the lost explorer. On 8 June 1924, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine were last seen climbing towards the summit of Everest. The clouds closed around them and they were lost to history, leaving the world to wonder whether or not they actually reached the summit - some 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay. On 1 May 1999, Conrad Anker, one of the world's foremost mountaineers, made the momentous discovery - Mallory's body, lying frozen into the scree at 27,000 feet on Everest's north face. Recounting this day, the authors go on to assess the clues provided by the body, its position, and the possibility that Mallory had successfully climbed the Second Step, a 90-foot sheer cliff that is the single hardest obstacle on the north face. A remarkable story of a charming and immensely able man, told by an equally talented modern climber.
The Trek tells the story of David Schachne's adventure in November, 2004, attempting to summit Kala Patthar, a mountain which towers above Everest Base Camp in the Himalayas. At 18,192 feet above sea level, the summit of Kala Patthar offers successful climbers one of the most amazing views of Mount Everest (29,035 feet) without having to put your life at risk by entering the Khumbu Icefall, or by climbing Mount Lhotse or Mount Nuptse. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Schachne loved visiting the great outdoors as a teenager, going camping and hiking in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Throughout his early adult life, he had a burning desire to go trekking in the Himalayas. He believed going there would make his life more fulfilled. Schachne certainly didn't expect his trek to be a "walk in the park", but he was ill-prepared for what was in store for him. Climbing for hours and hours each day while mentally and physically exhausted; confronting sub-freezing temperatures; dealing with illness, high altitude sickness, piercing headaches, wretched odors, utter filth, bacterial infections, dysentery and more, he endured two weeks of pure, nightmarish misery. In this riveting account of his gut-wrenching trek over fourteen sleepless days and nights, while malnourished, Schachne takes you along on each and every step of his journey. You'll experience the ups and downs of the hills and valleys, and the highs and lows of his personal triumphs and chaotic travails. He flies from Kathmandu in Nepal to the most dangerous airport in the world (Tenzing Hillary Airport), in a town called Lukla, then hikes to Phadking and Namche Bazaar, a virtual flea market at 11,000 feet, then Thyangboche Monastery and then Dingboche, Dzugla, Lobuche and Gorak Shep, before finally attempting the summit. Schachne reveals what originally led him to fall in love with nature, why he was so determined to go to the Himalayas, and why he persevered despite the brutal bodily punishment he experienced. Join Schachne for the most entertaining adventure of your life, as he takes you along on this thrilling, harrowing and laugh and cry-out-loud journey.
An Enduring Passion For Everest And Other Unforgiving Places With A Foreword By Jon Krakauer For Generations Of Adventurers, From Mallory To Hilary, Norgay To Krakauer, Mount Everest And The World S Greatest Peaks Have Provided The Ultimate Testing Ground. But As The Public S Fascination With Mountaineering Reaches An All Time High, The Question Remains Why Climb? In High Exposure, Legendary Rock Climber, Mountaineer And Film-Maker, David Breashears, Answers With A Captivating And Intimate Look At His Life.
Up on the world's highest mountain, the sky is as black as space and the air is almost too thin to breathe How did Ed, a shy boy from a tiny town in New Zealand, grow up to become the world's most famous mountaineer and adventurer? How did he climb Everest and do many other astonishing things? This exceptional picture book, written by internationally acclaimed children's author David Hill and illustrated by Phoebe Morris, tells the story of Sir Edmund Hillary and his climb to the top of Mount Everest. It's a story of courage, skill and determination, and an inspiration to anyone who dreams of reaching the top.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This gripping and triumphant memoir from the author of The Mountain follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time. “From the drama of the peaks, to the struggle of making a living as a professional climber, to the basic how-tos of life at 26,000 feet, No Shortcuts to the Top is fascinating reading.”—Aron Ralston, author of Between a Rock and a Hard Place and subject of the film 127 Hours For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. 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.
The longest journey begins with a single step. During August 1999, David Lien climbed his first 14er (14,000-foot peak) in Colorados rugged Rocky Mountains. Almost seven years later, during May 2006, he went on to tackle the worlds highest peak, Mount Everest. Eleven climbers died on the mountain that year (the second highest-ever Everest death total), including two of Liens fellow climbers. But David made the difficult decision to turn back at over 25,200 feet during the teams summit push, a decision that saved his life. Davids quest began as an attempt to climb forty-four fourteeners in four years, but it turned out to be about much more than climbing mountains.
What David Irvine posits is that Everest is not unattainable. Integrity, sensitivity and discipline are some of the qualities that lead us to the peak.
An interactive adventure like no other! On this epic climb up Mount Everest, readers are part of the youngest team ever to climb the world's tallest peak. Only YOU can make the right choice about your own survival and then experience the consequences of those choices. Will you summit Mount Everest and return to base camp safely? Will you be forced to turn back earlyor worse? Only you can determine your own fate! Highly illustrated in comic book style, and based on real, true-life facts about mountain climbing, Mount Everest, and Himalayan culture, this book will be a surefire hit with anyone craving adventure and a fun, visual reading experience.
Lennie is an orphan. His father, James L. Lenhart, served as a Navy chaplain aboard the USS Cumberland. The frigate was struck broadside by a Confederate ironclad on March 8, 1862. The next year, influenza swept through Aquidneck Island, and Lennie's devout Quaker mother was one of its victims. Lennie is nearly ten when he is sent from his native Rhode Island to live with his Aunt Millie in Sunfish, Ohio. His family is convinced he'll be safe in Ohio from the uncertainties of war, yet along the way, Lennie would face many dangers. As Lennie begins his journey, he crosses the estuary of Narragansett Bay aboard the little schooner, the Blue Heron. There he is befriended by a barefooted Jamaican cabin boy. As a huge wave crashes over the prow of the ship, the boy turns to Lennie and, in a serious tone, speaks a prophetic word over him: "Listen! Lennie Star, the Lord makes a way out of no way! The dolphins will remember!" Much later, Lennie discovers that the Jamaican boy had not been seen by any of the others on board ship that day! Was the boy merely a figment of Lennie's imagination or had he encountered a ghost or even an angelic messenger? In Ohio, Lennie encounters another refugee of war, Tomochichi, a mixed-race Seminole, the son of the great Osceola. Lennie had no way of knowing when he began his journey, just how much his friendship with Tomochichi would influence his own path and the destinies of others around him. Tomochichi would pass on many gifts to Lennie, like the wisdom of Standing Bear the Osage guardian of the Misty Waterfall: "Some use a silver-plated compass to find their way, yet we have been given a golden compass. Our dreams are golden, given by the Great Spirit they point to our true north." This is a story of loss and recovery where ultimately love has the last word. In the end, walls that separate are dismantled, just as the sandcastle fortresses of children are dissolved by the steady rhythm of an incoming sea tide.
Discover the powerful story of one woman's lifelong dedication to adventure and determination to succeed, as featured in the brand new BBC2 documentary The Last Mountain 'I shed a tear as I read this . . . I'll admit that I did not do so when I originally heard of her death. The difference? This book' INDEPENDENT ______ Alison Hargeaves was one of the finest climbers of her generation. But in 1995, she died during a violent storm on K2. On her death she was vilified by media outrage that a wife and mother would take such extreme risks. This is the story of a woman with an astonishing determination to be the best that she could. A woman driven to succeed just to secure a future for herself and her family. ______ 'A riveting and incredibly moving story' Irish News 'Few realized the extent of her inner turmoil - and her courage. A very moving biography of an extraordinary woman with an extraordinary talent and determination' Daily Telegraph 'A sensitive and intelligent book . . . Rose and Douglas recuse Hargreaves from the crude distortions of those who wanted to vilify or venerate her' Sunday Telegraph
In 1999, Conrad Anker found the body of George Mallory on Mount Everest, casting an entirely new light on the mystery of the lost explorer. On 8 June 1924, George Leigh Mallory and Andrew 'Sandy' Irvine were last seen climbing towards the summit of Everest. The clouds closed around them and they were lost to history, leaving the world to wonder whether or not they actually reached the summit - some 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay. On 1 May 1999, Conrad Anker, one of the world's foremost mountaineers, made the momentous discovery - Mallory's body, lying frozen into the scree at 27,000 feet on Everest's north face. Recounting this day, the authors go on to assess the clues provided by the body, its position, and the possibility that Mallory had successfully climbed the Second Step, a 90-foot sheer cliff that is the single hardest obstacle on the north face. A remarkable story of a charming and immensely able man, told by an equally talented modern climber.
“If you’ve run out of Saint-Exupéry and miss the eloquent power of his work, then you are ready to read David Roberts.” —Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies and Why David Roberts has spent his career documenting voyages to the most extreme landscapes on earth. In Limits of the Known, he reflects on humanity’s—and his own—relationship to exploration and extreme risk. Part memoir and part history, this book tries to make sense of why so many have committed their lives to the desperate pursuit of adventure. What compelled Eric Shipton to return, five times, to the ridges of Mt. Everest, plotting the mountain’s most treacherous territory years before Hillary and Tenzing’s famous ascent? What drove Bill Stone to dive 3,000 feet underground into North America’s deepest cave? And what is the future of adventure in a world we have mapped and trodden from end to end? In the wake of his diagnosis with throat cancer, Roberts seeks answers with new urgency and “penetrating self-analysis” (Booklist).
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This gripping and triumphant memoir from the author of The Mountain follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time. “From the drama of the peaks, to the struggle of making a living as a professional climber, to the basic how-tos of life at 26,000 feet, No Shortcuts to the Top is fascinating reading.”—Aron Ralston, author of Between a Rock and a Hard Place and subject of the film 127 Hours For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. 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.
Gripping and superb. This book will steal the night from you." —Laurence Gonzales, author of Deep Survival On January 17, 1913, alone and near starvation, Douglas Mawson, leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, was hauling a sledge to get back to base camp. The dogs were gone. Now Mawson himself plunged through a snow bridge, dangling over an abyss by the sledge harness. A line of poetry gave him the will to haul himself back to the surface. Mawson was sometimes reduced to crawling, and one night he discovered that the soles of his feet had completely detached from the flesh beneath. On February 8, when he staggered back to base, his features unrecognizably skeletal, the first teammate to reach him blurted out, "Which one are you?" This thrilling and almost unbelievable account establishes Mawson in his rightful place as one of the greatest polar explorers and expedition leaders. It is illustrated by a trove of Frank Hurley’s famous Antarctic photographs, many never before published in the United States.
* Cutting-edge information on how to prevent, diagnose, and treat altitude illness and hypoxia in everyday life * Interweaves fascinating research discoveries with dramatic first-person accounts * Authored by a celebrated mountaineer and physician who pioneered research in the field From the time of his historic expedition to Nanda Devi in the high Himalaya, Charles Houston, M.D., was fascinated by the effects of altitude on the human body. Why do people get sick in the mountains? What are the symptoms of hypoxia -- lack of sufficient oxygen -- that also occurs in everyday life, sometimes chronically due to disease? How can we decrease the incidence of illness and death? This edition incorporates current research on the effects of altitude on humans, and Houston (now deceased) joined forces with an educator and a medical writer in a text made even more accessible for the average reader while retaining the depth of material of particular use to the medical community. This edition of this seminal text added chapters on vision and the eye at altitude, chronic and subacute altitude illness, and the limits to work at altitude (with implications for athletic training). It presents information on genetics and gender differences and more on flight and space travel, on understanding and treating sea-level hypoxic illnesses, and on who can (or should not) go to high altitude, and much more. With an expanded glossary of terms.
Is your spiritual imagination up to the task of following Jesus’s vision for healing our broken world? “Gradually, very gradually, we saw the great mountain sides and glaciers . . . until far higher in the sky than imagination had dared suggest the white summit of Everest appeared.” —George Mallory, 1924 Everest climbing expedition leader The Jesus Climb crafts George Mallory’s quest to climb the world’s tallest mountain into a parable illustrating how Jesus trained his first students to summit the world’s greatest commandment. Like Mallory peering too low on the horizon to see Everest’s peak towering above him, the lack of Christlikeness in modern Christianity stems from our inability to imagine the impossible heights to which Jesus calls us. The Jesus Climb draws upon the life and teachings of Jesus and the experiences of some of history’s greatest spiritual and physical mountaineers to map out eight “expedition camps” through which Jesus guides every student seeking to follow him. We will never be able to join Jesus in his mission to heal our broken world until he transformed us into the kind of people who can love God and neighbor as he did—the kind of people he called “disciples.”
An award-winning author and veteran mountain climber takes us deep into the Southwest backcountry to uncover secrets of its ancient inhabitants. In this thrilling story of intellectual and archaeological discovery, David Roberts recounts his last twenty years of far-flung exploits in search of spectacular prehistoric ruins and rock art panels known to very few modern travelers. His adventures range across Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado, and illuminate the mysteries of the Ancestral Puebloans and their contemporary neighbors the Mogollon and Fremont, as well as of the more recent Navajo and Comanche.
Above 8,000 metres in the death zone, life begins to die. Step by arduous step, mountaineer David B Bethell is determined to summit the Himalayan peak, Mt Manaslu, known as the Mountain of the Soul. He’s driven not only by his love of mountains, but also the memory of a childhood friend—and the mission to help other suffering children. Drawn from the daily logs Bethell kept of his mountaineering adventures, Suffering Up Manaslu begins in the Canadian Rockies, where he falls in love with the technical challenges of mountaineering, mixed climbing, rock climbing and ice climbing. But a greater purpose emerges: to help at-risk children and youth by giving them the chance to experience the Rocky Mountains. To raise support, Bethell sets his sights on scaling Everest. But first, as training, he must tackle another Himalayan giant: Manaslu. Bethell’s adventures are, by turns, harrowing and hilarious. His tales take you from frozen waterfalls to the streets up Kathmandu, all the way up into the death zone where air is dangerously thin. He’s joined by a cast of sherpas, climbers, monks, village children, and more than a few dogs. These memoirs are rife with breath-taking landscapes, climbing techniques, Nepali culture, and some goofy anecdotes sure to make you chuckle. Grab your crampons and clip into your climbing rope for this entertaining saga. A portion of the proceeds from this book will support children and youth charities through the Canadian Rockies Youth Society.
For centuries it was suspected that there must be an undiscovered continent in the southern hemisphere. But explorers failed to find one. On his second voyage to the Pacific, Captain Cook sailed further south than any of his rivals but still failed to sight land. It was not until 1820 that the continent's frozen coast was finally sighted. Territorial rivalry intensified in the 1840s when British, American, and French expeditions sailed south to chart further portions of the continent that had come to be called Antarctica. For the nearly two centuries since, the race to claim exclusive possession of Antarctica has gripped the imagination of the world. Antarctica: A Biography is the first ever major international history of this forbidding continent - from the eighteenth century voyages of discovery to the fierce rivalries of today, as governments, scientists, environmentalists, and oil companies compete for control. On one level it is the story of explorers battling the elements in the most hostile place on earth as they strive for personal triumph, commercial gain, and national glory. On a deeper level, it is the story of nations seeking to incorporate the Antarctic into their own national stories - and to claim its frozen wastes as their own.
Mehera-Meher is the story of an intimate, Divine Romance between the Beloved and his closest disciple. The three-volume hardbound set draws deeply from Mehera's firsthand narrative gathered from over 200 hours of tape recordings made by the author, David Fenster, from the years 1974 to 1982. To this he painstakingly researched and added other historical material from Mehera and those close to her to create an epic, 1700–page biography of Avatar Meher Baba's foremost woman disciple. This is the latest, revised edition, and contains numerous corrections and additions to previous editions.
What does it take for a regular guy to climb some of the highest mountains in the world? Five Big Mountains takes you there, instantly placing the reader and the author on a steep glacier on Pico de Orizaba with equipment trouble and the tough decision any high altitude climber inevitably faces-should he turn back or keep going to the summit? The central theme of the book is that with proper preparation, careful planning, persistent training, and the best guides, even an amateur with little mountaineering experience can climb and reach the summits of some of the most famous mountains in the world, though there are risks involved that need to be minimized. Written in the first person, Five Big Mountains takes the reader into the mind of a regular guy trying to reach the summit of four of the famous Seven Summits, as well as his first high-altitude climb of a steep, glaciated Mexican volcano. The book tells what climbing is really like, the struggles and the triumphs, the emotions and the dangers, moment by moment. The reader is taken to Russia, Africa, Antarctica, South America, and Mexico. Along the way, the reader is able to travel with and discover the local flavor of each exotic or not so exotic venue. Color photos help the reader to visualize the glorious majesty of the peaks, but the narrative provides the nitty-gritty of the author's daily challenges on the mountains.
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