In August, 2005, Tomaz Humar was trapped on a narrow ledge at 5900 metres on the formidable Rupal Face of Nanga Parbat. He had been attempting a new route, directly up the middle of the highest mountain face in the world - solo. After six days he was out of food, almost out of fuel and frequently buried by avalanches. Three helicopters were poised for a brief break in the weather to pluck him off the mountain. Because of the audacity of the climb, the fame of the climber, the high risk associated with the rescue, and the hourly reports posted on his base-camp website, the world was watching. Would this be the most spectacular rescue in climbing history? Or a tragic - and very public - death in the mountains? Years before, as communism was collapsing and the Balkans slid into chaos, Humar was unceremoniously conscripted into a dirty war that he despised, where he observed brutal and inhumane atrocities that disgusted him. Finally he did the unthinkable: he left and finally arrived home in what had become a new country - Slovenia. He returned to climbing, and within very few years, he was among the best in the world. Reinhold Messner, among others, called him the most remarkable mountain climber of his generation. His routes are seldom repeated; most consider them to be suicidal; yet he often climbs them solo. As this book was being written, he achieved the first-ever solo ascent of the east summit of Annapurna. Tomaz Humar has cooperated with Bernadette McDonald, the distinguished former director of the Banff Festival and author of several books on mountaineering, to tell his utterly remarkable story.

Games Climbers Play is a collection of essays, tales and stories that plugs into the frenetic world of rock climbers and mountaineers. Written by a diverse band of writers who range from Frank Smythe, Dougal Haston and Pete Boardman to Martin Boysen, Ed Drummond and Yvon Chouinard, the book captures the joie de vivre that attends genuinely adventurous climbing, while never losing sight of the deadly serious game that it can become. The collection of essays articles, poems and short stories was first printed in 1978 and has been reprinted a whopping six times - a testament to its popularity and position as a classic of climbing literature. Many of the entries are drawn from magazines and journals, which gives Games an immediacy not found in other collections. It is spiced with light-hearted and humorous items, tempered with some polemical and philosophical tracts and illustrated by Sheridan Anderson's cartoons, which punctuate any hint of pomposity with their scathing caricatures and observations, to complete a truly irreverent picture of the climbing game. This latest edition contains commentaries to each article. Despite the passage of time, the thoughts and ideas of the band of voices collected here are instantly recognizable as belonging to that breed of beings that gravitate towards vertical challenges. Climbers have always played, and always will, the very many varieties of their game, and this wonderful anthology is a wonderful reflection of that fact, a resource for the next generation; you are not alone, many have spent lifetimes enslaved to a playing the climbers game, and many more will follow, incensed by the mandate of this kaleidoscopic anthology.

Everything changed for Sophie Cairns when she was thirty and a party-loving journalist in China. Her father died so suddenly that she arrived at his bedside two hours too late. In her grief, she defied her chronic asthma and climbed the world's seven highest volcanoes to raise funds for charity in his memory. This is a story of redemption through mountain climbing, from Papua New Guinea to Russia by way of Antarctica. As an amateur climber the author does not gloss over her limitations and (sometimes hilarious) mistakes. She encounters the snobbery of the professional climbing world. 'I was smothered in a purple goose down onesie as thick as a duvet. Under the plush expedition suit, I wore two pairs of climbing pants, a soft-shell jacket, a fleece top, a pair of inner gloves, a pair of outer gloves, and plastic boots. Not to mention thermal underwear. My plastic climbing boots barely closed around my ankles, which were adorned with three layers of socks.' Only to be told by those lounging around in T-shirts and shorts: 'You don't need to wear your Antarctica clothes yet. Everyone changes on the plane.' She suffers altitude sickness - so much more dangerous for an asthmatic - but she makes it. Sophie somehow finally said goodbye to her father in that enormous ring of fire.

"The authors bring extreme climbing to life. . . . Perhaps no author can rationalize why some choose to risk their lives . . . for the thrill of conquering a mountain. "The Ledge" comes perilously close and tells a ripping true story at the same time."--"The Denver Post"
In June 1992, best friends Jim Davidson and Mike Price stood atop Washington's Mount Rainier, celebrating what they hoped would be the first of many milestones in their lives as passionate mountaineers. Then their triumph turned tragic when a cave-in plunged them deep inside a glacial crevasse--the pitch-black, ice-walled hell of every climber's nightmares.
An avid adventurer since youth, Davidson was a seasoned climber at the time of the Rainier ascent. But the harrowing free fall left him challenged by nature's grandeur at its most unforgiving. Trapped on a narrow frozen shelf, deep below daylight, he desperately battled crumbling ice, snow that threatened to bury him alive, and crippling fear of the inescapable chasm below--all the while struggling to save his fatally injured friend. Finally, alone, with little equipment and rapidly dwindling hope, he confronted a fateful choice: the certainty of a slow, lonely death or the near impossibility of an agonizing climb for life. A story of heart-stopping adventure, heartfelt friendship, fleeting mortality, and implacable nature, "The Ledge" chronicles the elation and grief, dizzying heights and punishing depths, of a journey to hard-won wisdom.
"Plunges readers into a dark, icy chasm from which escape seems impossible. Then it reveals the strength it takes to look up, and to start climbing."--Jim Sheeler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of the National Book Award finalist "Final Salute"
"How Davidson] rescued himself is the core of "The Ledge, "and its most gripping part. The physical effort and will involved are astonishing.""--The Plain Dealer"
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"A moving portrait of friendship and loss.""--The Wall Street Journal"

In 1989, while attempting a new route on a difficult overhanging rock face, climber Dan Osman fell. Again and again, protected by the rope, he fell. He decided then that it would not be in climbing but in falling that he would embrace his fear--bathe in it, as he says, and move beyond it.

A captivating exploration of the daredevil world of rock climbing, as well as a thoughtful meditation on the role of risk and fear in the author's own life.

In the tradition of the wildly popular man-versus-nature genre that has launched several bestsellers, Andrew Todhunter follows the lives of world-class climber Dan Osman and his coterie of friends as he explores the extremes of risk on the unyielding surface of the rock.

Climbing sheer rock faces of hundreds or thousands of feet is more a religion than a sport, demanding dedication, patience, mental and physical strength, grace, and a kind of obsession with detail that is crucial just to survive. Its artists are modern-day ascetics who often sacrifice nine-to-five jobs, material goods, and the safety of everyday life to pit themselves and their moral resoluteness against an utterly unforgiving opponent.

In the course of the two years chronicled in Fall of the Phantom Lord, the author also undertakes a journey of his own as he begins to weigh the relative value of extreme sports and the risk of sudden death. By the end of the book, as he ponders joining Osman on a dangerous fall from a high bridge to feel what Osman experiences, Todhunter comes to a new understanding of risk taking and the role it has in his life, and in the lives of these climbers.

Beautifully written, Fall of the Phantom Lord offers a fascinating look at a world few people know. It will surely take its place alongside Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm as a classic of adventure literature.


From the Hardcover edition.

When Trish Herr became pregnant with her first daughter, Alex, she and her husband, Hugh, vowed to instill a bond with nature in their children. By the time Alex was five, her over-the-top energy levels led Trish to believe that her very young daughter might be capable of hiking adult-sized mountains.
In" Up, " Trish recounts their always exhilarating--and sometimes harrowing--adventures climbing all forty-eight of New Hampshire's highest mountains. Readers will delight in the expansive views and fresh air that only peakbaggers are afforded, and will laugh out loud as Trish urges herself to "mother up" when she and Alex meet an ornery--and alarmingly bold--spruce grouse on the trail. This is, at heart, a resonant, emotionally honest account of a mother's determination to foster independence and fearlessness in her daughter, to teach her "that small doesn't necessarily mean weak; that girls can be strong; and that big, bold things are possible."

"A dramatic story, ably and convincingly told . . . A chilling look at the precarious line between success and tragedy."--"Kirkus Reviews"

On May 15, 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dying near the top of Mount Everest while forty other climbers walked past him on their way to the summit. A week later, Lincoln Hall, a seasoned Australian climber, was left for dead near the same spot. Hall's death was reported around the world, but the next day he was found alive after spending the night on the upper mountain with no food and no shelter.

If David Sharp's death was shocking, it was hardly singular: ten others died attempting to reach the summit that year. In this meticulous inquiry into what went wrong, Nick Heil tells the full story of the deadliest year on Everest since the infamous season of 1996. As more climbers attempt the summit each year, Heil shows how increasingly risky expeditions and unscrupulous outfitters threaten to turn Everest into a deadly circus.

Written by an experienced climber, "Dark Summit" is both a riveting account of a notorious climbing season and a troubling investigation into whether the pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize has spiraled out of control.

A legendary Alpine guide tells of his ascent of the treacherous north faces of six of Europe's greatest peaks: the Grand Jorasses, the Piz Badile, the Drus, the Matterhorn, the Cima Grande di Lavaredo, and the Eiger.

In 1939 the Savage Mountain claimed its first victim. Born into vast wealth yet uneasy with a life of leisure, Dudley Wolfe, of Boston and Rockport, Maine, set out to become the first man to climb K2, the world s second-highest mountain and, in the opinion of mountaineers, an even more formidable challenge than Mt. Everest. Although close to middle age and inexperienced at high altitude, Wolfe, with the team leader, made it higher than any other members of the expedition, but he couldn t get back down. Suffering from altitude sickness and severe dehydration, he was abandoned at nearly 25,000 feet; it would be another sixty-three years before Jennifer Jordan discovered his remains. In a story where The Great Gatsby meets Into Thin Air, readers follow Wolfe from the salons of Europe to the most forbidding landscape on earth. Wolfe went to K2 to find his own strength, only to encounter his teammates lethal weaknesses in a place called the Death Zone."

The elite sport of rock climbing continues to evolve at lightning speed as techniques and technology improve, opening up hundreds of new routes each year. In this thoughtful overview, Don Mellor reveals how the sport has developed in a dozen climbing hotspots across the country in direct response to the characteristics of local rock and the eccentricities of regional culture: Shawangunk conglomerate provides hundreds of climbs marked by positive handholds and a busy climbing scene built upon rich and raucous traditions The fragile red sandstone towers of the Southwest desert remind climbers of a changing earth and challenge them to tread gently Climbers spend days on slings and port-a-ledges while ascending stark white walls of Sierra granite, immersing themselves in a lonely encounter with the mountain wilderness And in the Rockies, Tetons, and Cascades, technical rock climbing merges with cold weather alpinism in perhaps the ultimate expression of mountaineering Mellor also explores the meanings behind ongoing debates in the climbing community over techniques and equipment. Climbers of all levels will appreciate his knowledgeable history of the sport, as well as his insider's tips on where to go, what to take, and how to climb the local rock. 35 black and white photographs, 1 map, index. A history and cultural guide to a red-hot sport Mellor's traditional viewpoint is sure to spark discussion in the climbing community Will appeal to both serious rock climbers and armchair athletes.

The beautiful granite of Tahquitz and Suicide Rocks in Southern California is well known to climbers the world over. The development of technical climbing in the United States is intertwined with the climbing history of these areas, and many of the sport's greatest innovators have cut their teeth at Tahquitz and Suicide. The superb climbing and beautiful alpine environment attract climbers from Los Angeles and San Diego, while visitors to nearby Joshua Tree would be remiss if they did not spend at least a few days exploring Tahquitz and Suicide, climbing some of the most famous (and infamous ) routes in the country. Completely updated and revised, this new edition provides climbers with all the information they need through the use of topos, photos, and written descriptions.

Completely revised and updated, this book describes routes at one of the premier limestone sport areas in the country.

Fragile sandstone towers pierce the sky amid endless miles of vertical cliffs sometimes more than a half mile high; wondrous canyon walls of cobblestone and limestone overhang at dizzying angles; and granite domes and slabs recline on sunny mountain slopes. "Rock Climbing Utah" is the only guide available that covers all the major climbing areas in the state. Traditional and sport climbers from the beginner to expert will find a superb sampling of hundreds of routes in the 24 areas covered. This guide offers first-hand information including area overviews and climbing histories, route betas and topos, detailed locations maps and photos, equipment recommendations, approach and descent information, and listings for shops, gyms, and guide services.

Largely short routes up Incredible accesible cacks including Wall Street, Long Canyon and the Potash Road near Moab, Utah.

Five Miles High is the epic account of the 1938 American Karakoram expedition to the summit of K2 - a climb considered more treacherous and difficult than Everest. Equipped with the most "modern" gear available to them - wool mittens, canvas tents, and buckle-up, leather-strapped crampons - this group of young men set out to surmount the insurmountable. A four-month-long journey would take them to one of the most inhospitable climes on the face of the Earth, nearly 27,000 feet above sea level and many miles from any sign of human settlement. The party walked 350 miles form Kashmir to K2, through Baltistan. They attempted to find routes on three sides of that huge mountain, finally reaching 26,000 feet on what has since become the standard route - now known as the Abruzzi Ridge. With a shrewd wit and a survivalist's sense of determination, Robert H. Bates and Charles S. Houston provide an intimate and gripping account of their adventures, evoking all the terror, excitement, and pure exaltation a person feels when standing, five miles high, on a part of the globe where no person has stood before. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 402 pages, b&w photos, illustrations)

About 1400 routes in the foothills west of Denver.

Santa Barbara and Ventura counties have long been known as sublime tourist areas, but the rock climbing and bouldering along the California's south-central coast are just beginning to attract the attention they richly deserve. From the sweeping walls of the Echo Cliffs to the awesome overhangs at the Owl Tor, from classic problems at Painted Cave to the vast boulderfields atop Pine Mountain, the many routes and boulder problems described in this book will appeal to a wide range of tastes and abilities. Written by one of the area's leading activists, "Rock Climbing Santa Barbara and Ventura" provides first-hand information to more than 50 scenic and uncrowded climbing areas not to be left off your tick-list.