Mountaineering Stories

[KaskadskyjKozak]

I'd like some recommendations on good mountaineering narratives out there. Sure, I can browse Amazon and read the reviews, but would like to see what others on the forum have read and liked. I'm looking for interesting epics in the vein of "Into Thin Air" or "Touching the Void".

[Gary_Yngve]

Alpinist articles

[KaskadskyjKozak]

 

Their subscription is pricey. is it worth it?

[olyclimber]

Check out this thread. There are a lot of good recommendations contained within.

[olyclimber]

Their subscription is pricey. is it worth it?

 

Dood, it says ""The best climbing magazine in the world today." –Reinhold Messner, Italian Climbing Legend" on their right on their website! What more could you ask for!

[dberdinka]

There is actually a book called "EPICS: Stories of Survival from the worlds highest peaks"

 

It's quite good, and for $12 is cheaper than a single copy of Alpinist and has about 20 times the content.

 

Amazon Link

[griz]

"No Picnic on Mt. Kenya" by Felice Benuzzi is a fun read. it's about some italian POWs who escape from prison to climb mt. kenya in wwII and try to sneak back in unnoticed. Cool true story.

[John Frieh]

Endurance. Alfred Lansing.

 

Will put things into perspective about what is and isn't an epic.

 

Has anyone visited Sir Ernest's grave? Or touched the James Caird in London?

[Camilo]

Endurance. Alfred Lansing.

 

Will put things into perspective about what is and isn't an epic.

 

Has anyone visited Sir Ernest's grave? Or touched the James Caird in London?

Nope, but I saw a sweet documentary on this a couple of years ago. I think it's also called "Endurance". Definitely the most amazing survival story I've ever heard.

[Ireneo_Funes]

I just finished "K2: The Savage Mountain." It was very good.

 

And it was cheap too. I checked it out from the liberry!

[forrest_m]

Nope, but I saw a sweet documentary on this a couple of years ago. I think it's also called "Endurance". Definitely the most amazing survival story I've ever heard.

 

A somewhat grimmer footnote to this story is the fact that after making it through this grueling ordeal and returning to england, many of the men ended up in the military (WWI was in full swing by this point). something like half the survivors of shackleton's epic were dead by the end of the war. maybe they'd used up all their luck?

 

as for book recommendations, i recently found in the used bookstore Everest: The West Ridge and The White Spider . The first is a counterpoint to the "official" book from the first american ascent of everest - tom hornbien and willie unsoeld did their dutiful part on that traditional expedition, and then after the flag was raised, ran off and made the first ascent of the west ridge, a much more difficult objective, along the way achieving the first traverse of everest and the world's highest open bivy. The white spider is an account of the history of the north face of the eiger. A little stiff - translated from german - but pretty gripping stuff.

[cj001f]

Any issue of Ascent. Available cheap(library or eBay), best climbing reading around.

[snoboy]

_Canadian Mountaineering Anthology_

[Skeezix]

Joe Tasker's books.

[Dru]

 

Has anyone visited Sir Ernest's grave? Or touched the James Caird in London?

 

I touched her void the other night

[olyclimber]

I tounged the Blarney Stone.

[griz]

The caretakers at the blarney stone get drunk in the evenings and piss on it at night from above. How did it taste?

 

I'm not joking,btw.

[olyclimber]

Well, actually was sort of salty with an ammonia odor, if you must know.

 

Actually, I've never been to Ireland, but now that you mention this I'll try to resist sticking my face down there. A friend of mine went there last year, I can't wait to break the news to him.

[OldManRock]

"The Last Blue Moutain" - Excellent