Favorite Books on Climbing

[CatsClaw]

Touching the Void

[selkirk]

Will second "The White Spider" by harrer, but I'm a bit obsessed with the Eiger, "The Climb up to Hell" (famous rescue on the Eiger)

 

"Ascent" biography of Willi Unsoeld (teton guide, FA west ridge of Everest with Hornbein, teacher, very cool inspiring book)

 

"Feeding the Rat", Antonio Alvarez.

[jlamo]

"Ascent of Rum Doodle"

and Dave Robert's Moments of Doubt" as it was the first climbing book I read (over and over...)

[JohnGo]

A strong second to Savage Arena, by the late Joe Tasker.

(IMHO, British writers generally have superior writing skills compared to us Yanks.)

 

For nonfiction how-to, I am a new big fan of The Mountaineering Handbook, by Craig Connally. I see it as an opinionated, well researched and more advanced version of Freedom of the Hills. No, you will not agree with everything in it, but you sure will learn a few new cool tricks, I guarantee it.

[Weekend_Climberz]

Touching the Void

 

If you liked these, then try "This Game of Ghosts", "The Beckoning Silence", and "Storms of Silence". Joey is a great writer and a very accident prone climber.

[niyol]

Thanks for the suggestions for a newbie.

 

Into Thin Air by Krakauer

Touch the Top of the World by Weinmeyer

 

If you absolutely have to read Krakauer's book then you kind of owe it to yourself to read "Climb High" by Lene Gammelgaard, "High Exposure" By David Breashears and "The Climb" by Anatoly Boukreev to perhaps get a little different perspective on Everest "96". After reading all four accounts I came away with the feeling that if I was ever on a climb that went bad I would seriously hope that Krakauer wasn't the one who was there to write about it.

[dt_3pin]

IMHO, British writers generally have superior writing skills compared to us Yanks

 

Savage Arena is fantastic. The Burgess bros., on the other hand, can't write for shit. The Burgess Brothers Book of Lies is pretty craptacular.

[cj001f]

Mont Analogue - R. Daumal

[rmncwrtr]

Any recommendations for a book(s) that focus on SAR? Thanks.

[niyol]

Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Andy Selters is pretty decent. Also Wilderness Search and Rescue by Tim Setnicka is excellent (if you can still find it... the one I have is from 1980)

Edited December 22, 2006 by niyol

[dan_forester]

K2 the savage mountain, by houston & bates, is a heckuva book.

 

I liked enduring patagonia also, can't remember the author

[sk]

My favorite book on climbing is

 

"How to Rock Climb"

 

by the god of all things rock climbable and my personal hugest crush in the whole universe...

John Long

 

*sigh*

 

for reals he has written a bunch of stuff and everything i have read has his unique flavor of story telling and gritty sense of humor. LOVE HIM!!!

[SFDukie]

Between a rock and a hard place-Aron Ralston

Ok, so its about canyoneering, rather than mountaineering or climbing-but the guy's a climber-and he writes pretty well.

 

Also on the written by, but not about list-rick ridgeway's "The Shadow of Kilimanjaro" and Krakauer's "Into the Wild"

[gary_hehn]

Has anyone mentioned Angels Four by David Nott?

Old school, trad, epic!

One incident involved running out of gear to rappel with. They resorted to using shoe laces. At the bottom of one rappel they went to pull the rope and it broke right through the lace!

When they finally completed their descent from the climb exhausted and starved, they lay on the bank of a river waiting to die.

Edited December 22, 2006 by gary_hehn

[gary_hehn]

Mountaineering First Aid - Jan D. Carline, Martha J. Lentz, Steven C. Macdonald

 

Self-Rescue - David J. Fasulo

 

Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain - Bruce Tremper ( I used to ski race with Bruce back in one of my previous lives, great guy )

[sprocket]

Anything by Greg Child.

Thin Air is my favorite but Mixed Emotions is good too.

In the Throne Room of the Gods by Galen Rowell. Great read about a failed attmept on K2 and what can go wrong on with personality conflicts on large expeditions.

Two books by John Roskelly are good reads, Stories Off the Wall and Nanda Devi. He's somewhat contraversial but climbed some hard stuff and lived to tell about it.

Mountains of My Life by Bonnati, frickin serious hardman.

Sherman Exposed by John Sherman is funny, spoof on Twight is hilarious, and serious at times.

Eiger Dreams by Krakauer has some good short stories.

30 Years of Climbing Magazine has a lot of good short stories.

John Long is usually pretty funny.

[foraker]

Minus 148 by Art Davidson (only because it was the first climbing book I ever read as a lad back in AK in 70's)

The Mountain of My Fear by David Roberts (also written a fine book on the Anasazi)

K2, The Savage Mountain

All the afore mentioned Joe Simpson books

The Climb, Anatoly Boukreev

[sk]

The Climb, Anatoly Boukreev

 

that was a fantastic book. I read Into Thin Air as well and i was sorely and sadly disappointed.

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Boukreev's book was may favorite of the bunch that I read too (krauauer, Boukreev, Gammelgard). I for one believed his story and think he was a real hero.

 

Oddly, there aren't and climbing books I've read yet that I didn't enjoy (Gammelgards (sp?) was the worst so far).

 

Some stand outs:

 

The White Spider

The Climb Up To Hell (Another Eiger bit)

Brashear's Book

Burgess Book of Lies

Most of Simpson's stuff I've read

[TREETOAD]

Mountains of My Life by Walter

Anything on the Eiger

Risking Adventure by Jim Haberl

Dark Shadows Falling by Joe Simpson

Just started The Boys of Everest which is about Bonington,Haston,Whillans,etc, pretty interesting so far

 

[niyol]

Boukreev's book was may favorite of the bunch that I read too (krauauer, Boukreev, Gammelgard). I for one believed his story and think he was a real hero.

 

Oddly, there aren't and climbing books I've read yet that I didn't enjoy (Gammelgards (sp?) was the worst so far).

 

Some stand outs:

 

The White Spider

The Climb Up To Hell (Another Eiger bit)

Brashear's Book

Burgess Book of Lies

Most of Simpson's stuff I've read

I did think that Gammelgaard did a good job of supporting Boukreeves side of the story. I thought Krakauer tended to try to scapegoat Boukreeve in his "Thin Air" book. Most accounts that I have read support that Boukreeve was a hero on that climb.

[rmncwrtr]

Thanks for the SAR-related book recommendations!

[CatsClaw]

There was an older classic I read about 15 years ago something like

In the throne of the hall of the mountian king or something similar to that.

Does that or similar name ring a bell for anyone.

I do remember it was a moving book.

[joblo7]

'master climber' (how to be a) by pat ament.

[Geek_the_Greek]

Seriously redundant thread. Still, my faves are two collections, ultra-classic articles, mostly from pre-1980s British and other Euro mags:

 

Games Climbers Play

Mirrors in the Cliffs.