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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Active outdoor pursuits > Climbing & mountaineering
Guidebook on Scandinavians most spectacular mountain region with maps, photos and description of various walks, scrambles climbs and ski tours.
North Wales Trail Running is a comprehensive guide to off-road running across North Wales, including Snowdonia, Anglesey and into the Llyn Peninsula and the Clwyds. With 20 runs from 4km to 20.4km in length, this book is suitable for runners of all abilities. North Wales has some of the most diverse terrain in the UK, from rocky outcrops and large cwms to steep-sided valleys and magical llyns. It is a Mecca for the adventurous runner, and home to the 104km Paddy Buckley Round. In this book, author Steve Franklin has collected together many of his favourite runs, from low-lying loops around idyllic llyns and reservoirs, to serious hands-on-knees fell runs on some of Snowdonia's biggest mountains. Summit Snowdon, Cadair Idris and Conwy Mountain, and discover quieter corners of the country around Cnicht, the Northern Carneddau and the Crafnant valley. Each route features clear and easy-to-use Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 maps, easy-to-follow directions, details of distance and timings, and refreshment stops and local knowledge.
'I believe we so far forgot ourselves as to shake hands on it.' - H. W. Tilman, on reaching the summit of Nanda Devi.In 1934, after fifty years of trying, mountaineers finally gained access to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary in the Garhwal Himalaya. Two years later an expedition led by H.W. Tilman reached the summit of Nanda Devi. At over 25,000 feet, it was the highest mountain to be climbed until 1950.The Ascent of Nanda Devi, Tilman's account of the climb, has been widely hailed as a classic. Keenly observed, well informed and at times hilariously funny, it is as close to a 'conventional' mountaineering account as Tilman could manage.Beginning with the history of the mountain ('there was none') and the expedition's arrival in India, Tilman recounts the build-up and approach to the climb. Writing in his characteristic dry style, he tells how Sherpas are hired, provisions are gathered (including 'a mouth-blistering sauce containing 100 per cent chillies') and the climbers head into the hills, towards Nanda Devi.Superbly parodied in The Ascent of Rum Doodle by W.E. Bowman, The Ascent of Nanda Devi was among the earliest accounts of a climbing expedition to be published.Much imitated but rarely matched, it remains one of the best.
`You fall you're dead,' the voice inside my head told me. I was balancing on a knife-edge ridge, sheer drops either side of me. The cold was chilling me to my core. But I could not give up. I had to focus, The summit was within reach. Everest: the highest mountain in the world and also one of the most dangerous. On May 24 2007, Tori James made history when she became the first Welsh woman, and youngest British woman, to climb to the summit of Everest. It was an amazing achievement for the petite farmer's daughter from Pembrokeshire. In Peak Performance Tori shares the inspiration and drive that helped her to succeed in reaching the `rooftop of the world'.
**THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER** 'An inspirational study in leadership and a powerful testament to the human spirit at its very best.' - Mail on Sunday 'The energy of the book gives it pace and you whip through, rather as Purja nips up verticals... Whether or not you are a lover of the mountains, you will marvel at his tenacity, his fearlessness. No one can fail to be inspired by what he achieved.' - The Times 'Not only does Nims have exceptional physical stamina, he's also a leader with great skills in financial management and logistics.' - Reinhold Messner, the first person to climb all fourteen highest mountains in the world 'The magnitude of his achievement is astonishing.' Soldier Magazine 'A Living Legend.' Trail Magazine *** Welcome to The Death Zone. Fourteen mountains on Earth tower over 8,000 metres above sea level, an altitude where the brain and body withers and dies. Until recently, the world record for climbing them all stood at nearly eight years. So I announced I was summiting them in under seven months. People laughed. They told me I was crazy, even though I'd sharpened my climbing skills on the brutal Himalayan peaks of Everest and Dhaulagiri. But I possessed more than enough belief, strength and resilience to nail the job, having taken down enemy gunmen and terrorist bomb makers while serving with the Gurkhas and the UK Special Forces. Throughout 2019, I came alive in the death zone. Soon after, I was showing the world a new truth: that with bravery and enough heart and drive, the impossible was possible...
'Only a man in the devil of a hurry would wish to fly to his mountains, forgoing the lingering pleasure and mounting excitement of a slow, arduous approach under his own exertions.' H.W. 'Bill' Tilman's mountain travel philosophy, rooted in Africa and the Himalaya and further developed in his early sailing adventures in the southern hemisphere, was honed to perfection with his discovery of Greenland as the perfect sailing destination. His Arctic voyages in the pilot cutter Mischief proved no less challenging than his earlier southern voyages. The shorter elapsed time made it rather easier to find a crew but the absence of warm tropical passages meant that similar levels of hardship were simply compressed into a shorter timescale. First published fifty years before political correctness became an accepted rule, Mischief in Greenland is a treasure trove of Tilman's observational wit. In this account of his first two West Greenland voyages, he pulls no punches with regard to the occasional failings, leaving the reader to seek out and discover the numerous achievements of these voyages. The highlight of the second voyage was the identification, surveying and successful first ascent of Mount Raleigh, first observed on the eastern coast of Baffin Island by the Elizabethan explorer John Davis in 1585. For the many sailors and climbers who have since followed his lead and ventured north into those waters, Tilman provides much practical advice, whether from his own observations or those of Davis and the inimitable Captain Lecky. Tilman's typical gift of understatement belies his position as one of the greatest explorers and adventurers of the twentieth century.
Dreams of a Refugee is the extraordinary story of Mostafa Salameh, born in Kuwait to Palestinian refugees. After a childhood in the camps and a series of low-paid jobs, Mostafa was given a rare opportunity to travel to London, working in hospitality at the Jordanian Embassy. From there he moved to Edinburgh, where he took up a life of parties and nightclubbing. Religion played no part in his thinking. All this was to change. One night, Mostafa awoke having dreamt that he was standing at the top of the world reciting the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer. He took this as a sign that he needed to accomplish something previously unimaginable for a person in his position - to climb Everest. Despite having no prior mountaineering experience, Mostafa sought help from friends and sponsors and, having failed twice, finally summited Everest on Jordanian Independence Day, May 25th 2008. He went on to become the first Jordanian to climb all 'Seven Summits' and reach the North Pole. In early 2016 he skied to the South Pole, via a new route, completing the elite 'Explorer's Grand Slam' and joining a club of only thirteen adventurers ever to have achieved this feat. Yet exploring is only part of the story. Now a devout Muslim, Mostafa is committed to spreading the message of tolerant Islam, working with refugees and young people to help them further their goals. Through climbing he has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity. His future projects include leading an all-female attempt on Everest, as well as numerous charitable climbs and leadership programmes. Mostafa is also a regular public speaker both in the UK, Middle East and further afield. This new paperback edition of Dreams of a Refugee includes a foreword by His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan, as well as photographs of Mostafa's climbs and his charitable work. Entertaining, inspiring, and often surprising, Mostafa is honest about both the positive aspects of his life and its past excesses, and discusses his discovery of Muslim faith. His message ultimately is a simple one: 'Each of us has an Everest inside us, which we each can summit, if only we dare to dream'.
H.W. Tilman's Two Mountains and a River picks up where Mount Everest 1938 left off. In this instalment of adventures, Tilman and two Swiss mountaineers set off for the Gilgit region of the Himalaya with the formidable objective of an attempt on the giant Rakaposhi (25,550 feet). However, this project was not to be fulfilled. Not one to be dispirited, Tilman and his various accomplices - including pioneering mountaineer and regular partner Eric Shipton - continue to trek and climb in locations across China, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other areas of Asia, including the Kukuay Glacier, Muztagh Ata, the source of the Oxus river, and Ishkashim, where the author was arrested on suspicion of being a spy ... Two Mountains and a River brims with the definitive Tilman qualities - detailed observations and ever-present humour - that convey a strong appreciation of the adventures and mishaps he experiences along the way. With a new foreword from prominent trekker, climber and lecturer, Gerda Pauler, this classic mountaineering text maintains Tilman's name as a unique and inquisitive explorer and raconteur.
WINNER: Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature 1997 Paul Pritchard's Deep Play is a unique, stylish and timeless commentary reflecting the pressures and rewards of climbing some of the world's hardest and most challenging rock climbs. Pritchard started climbing in Lancashire before moving to join the vibrant Llanberis scene of the mid-1980s, at a time when the adventurous development of the Dinorwig slate quarries was in full swing. Many of the new slate routes were notable for their fierce technical difficulty and sparse protection, and Pritchard took a full part in this arcane sub-culture of climbing and at the same time deployed his skills on the Anglesey sea cliffs to produce a clutch of equally demanding wall climbs. Born with an adventurous soul, it was not long before Pritchard and his friends were planning exotic trips. In 1987, paired with Johnny Dawes, Pritchard made an epoch-making visit to Scotland's Sron Ulladale to free its famous aid route, The Scoop. Pritchard and Dawes, with no previous high altitude experience, then attempted the Catalan Pillar of Bhagirathi III in the Garhwal Himalaya in India, a precocious first expedition prematurely curtailed when Pritchard was hit by stonefall at the foot of the face. In 1992, Pritchard and Noel Craine teamed up with the alpinists Sean Smith and Simon Yates to climb a big wall route on the East Face of the Central Tower of Paine, Patagonia. Pritchard followed this with an equally fine first ascent of the West Face of Mount Asgard on Baffin Island. Other trips - to Yosemite, Pakistan and Nepal as well as returns to Patagonia - resulted in a clutch of notable repeats, first ascents and some failures. The failure list also included two life-threatening falls (one on Gogarth, the other on Creag Meaghaidh), which prompted the author into thought-provoking personal re-assessments, in advance of his later near-terminal accident on The Totem Pole in Tasmania. A penetrating view of the adventures and preoccupations of a contemporary player, Deep Play stands alone as a unique first-hand account of what many consider to be the last great era in British climbing.
This is the definitive gritstone rock-climbing and bouldering guide from the British Mountaineering Council, covering every crag in the Burbage, Rivelin, Millstone, Bamford and Wharncliffe areas. Continuing on the popular and successful format of the "Staffordshire Roaches Guide" (2004, 0-903908-67-0), it features: over 2,200 routes from Diff to E10 and over 750 boulder problems from V0 to V11; over 120 full-colour action shots and over 290 full-colour photo-topos. This definitive history of climbing in the area includes: comprehensive guides and suggestions for beginners and intermediate climbers; and, tick lists, guides, anecdotes, quotes and suggestions to all sorts of weird and wonderful routes.
Selected Climbs: Mont Blanc & the Aiguilles Rouges presents the best rock climbs in the Mont Blanc range and on the Aiguilles Rouges, from F4 to F6a+. The selection is based on purely hedonistic criteria, including the beauty of the cliff, the variety of the climbing and the quality of the rock. The emphasis is on enjoyable climbs with easy access and descents. The routes cover a variety of rock types, climbing styles and protection (natural and fixed). All the routes are of moderate difficulty and can be done comfortably in a day without the need to carry heavy or bulky gear. Written by local climbers Jean-Louis Laroche and Florence Lelong, this selection of sixty climbs on forty summits in seventeen areas around the Chamonix valley features established classics and recent additions. Included are Marchand de Sable on the Tour Rouge, the Rebuffat Route on the Aiguille du Midi, and the Frison-Roche route of the south-east face of the Brevent, plus many more. Each route features technical notes, a detailed topo and route description, and photos illustrating the climb's unique character.
In early 1978, an extraordinary new invention for rock climbers was featured on the BBC television science show Tomorrow's World. It was called the 'Friend', and it not only made the sport safer, it helped push the limits of the possible. The company that made them was called Wild Country, the brainchild of Mark Vallance. Within six months, Vallance was selling Friends in sixteen countries. Wild Country would go on to develop much of the gear that transformed climbing in the 1980s. Mark Vallance's influence on the outdoor world extends far beyond the company he founded. He owned and opened the influential retailer Outside in the Peak District and was part of the team that built The Foundry, Sheffield's premier climbing wall - the first modern climbing gym in Britain. He worked for the Peak District National Park and served on its board. He even found time to climb eight-thousand-metre peaks and the Nose on El Capitan. Diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his mid fifties and robbed of his plans for retirement, Vallance found a new sense of purpose as a reforming president of the British Mountaineering Council. In Wild Country, Vallance traces his story, from childhood influences like Robin Hodgkin and Sir Jack Longland, to two years in Antarctica, where he was base commander of the UK's largest and most southerly scientific station at Halley Bay, before his fateful meeting with Ray Jardine, the man who invented Friends, in Yosemite. Trenchant, provocative and challenging, Wild Country is a remarkable personal story and a fresh perspective on the role of the outdoors in British life and the development of climbing in its most revolutionary phase. Mark Vallance (1945-2018), the man who made Friends.
'The mountains are crystal under the blue sky, as we climb up our untouched peak. This is why we climb.' In this fast-paced, refreshingly honest account, Stephen Venables invites you on an adventure like no other. Delving deeply into the unknown, the unclimbed and the undiscovered, Painted Mountains details the stories of two very different expeditions: the first ascent of 6,000-metre Kishtwar-Shivling in the Indian Himalaya alongside Dick Renshaw, before embarking on an Indo-British Expedition led by Harish Kapadia to Rimo: the Painted Mountain. 'Most of us are content to settle for some sort of compromise between the desire to survive and the desire to retain an element of uncertainty.' Venables - the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen - does not shy away from the obvious challenges that come hand-in-hand with tackling expeditions such as these; this account details the highs and the lows, the dropped equipment, the toll of extreme conditions and the shining successes of reaching a summit - all while retaining a sense of humour and an unwavering enthusiasm for the thrill of the climb. Venables' get-up-and-go attitude makes this a delightful read; he is never one to shy away from an opportunity, be it arisen from a year-long dream or a spontaneous invite. Painted Mountains is an invaluable education for anyone who is interested in the greater mountain ranges explored in this book, as well as an inspirational tale of the commitment to a dream, the birth of new friendships and the innumerable rewards of time spent in the mountains.
In May 1996 a number of expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route. Each group contained world class climbers and relative novices, some of whom had paid tens of thousands of pounds for the climb. As they neared the summit twenty-three men and women, including the expedition leaders, were caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disorientated, out of oxygen and depleted of supplied, the climbers struggled to find their way to safety. Experienced high-altitude guide Anatoli Boukreev led an exhausted and terrified group of climbers back to safety before going back out into the blizzard to help others stranded on the mountain. Rescuing a number of people from certain death, he emerged a hero. The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev is an honest and gripping account of true endurance and contains interviews with most of the surviving climbers, medical personnel, Sherpa guides, and families of the dead who experienced the tragedy. This edition also includes the transcript of the Mountain Madness debriefing, recorded five days after the tragedy, as well as G. Weston de Walt's response to Jon Krakauer.
One Man's Legacy chronicles the brief but brilliant life of Dr Tom Patey: bard, musician, and one of Scotland's foremost climbers and mountaineers. His story is one of pioneering ascents and boundless enthusiasm, and his spontaneity, carefree approach and ability to burn the candle at both ends remain legendary, several decades after his untimely death. Meticulously researched over several years, this definitive biography covers every aspect of Patey's life in rich detail. Youthful endeavours with the Scouts and early forays on the Aberdeen sea cliffs were the foundation for Patey's university years, where he established - often solo - many classic summer and winter lines in the Cairngorms, cementing his reputation as a tough, fearless mountaineer with exceptional endurance. A stalwart of 1950s bothy culture, his natural gifts as a musician and raconteur garnered him friends far and wide, and enabled him to transcend social and cultural boundaries with ease. Later, as a Royal Marine and then a highly respected GP, he maintained an insatiable appetite for exploring new terrain both in his native Scotland and further afield, in the Alps, Norway and the Karakoram. By drawing on Patey's essays and verses, published collectively in the celebrated One Man's Mountains, the narrative is imbued with dry wit and gentle satire, and brought to life by unseen images from renowned photographer John Cleare and the Patey family archive. Supported by a foreword from Mick Fowler and first-hand insights from some of the leading climbers of the last century, including Sir Chris Bonington, Joe Brown and Paul Nunn, One Man's Legacy celebrates a complex, larger-than-life character who rightly deserves his place in mountaineering history.
Recent years have witnessed a surge in the number of via ferrata routes set up in the iconic mountains of the French Alps. With routes set on or near many classics including the massifs of Mont Blanc, the Vanoise and the Queyras, this guide shows the best of what is now available. The 66 routes in this guidebook are grouped by area - Geneva and the Northern Alps, Chambery, the Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys, Grenoble and Briancon - and run the full gamut of challenge, from very easy, protected routes suitable for children, through to extremely exposed and technical routes for experienced ferrataists only. Everything you need to know to take up this exciting sport is covered here, including techniques and equipment required and glossary of specialist terminology, and all the routes are graded for difficulty, exposure and seriousness. Routes are illustrated by topo diagrams on colour photographs, and simple sketch maps. Those used to the older Italian routes will find these French routes quite different, closer to scrambling or rock climbing and often seeking out the most vertigo-inducing terrain. But most routes should be within the reach of any strong hillwalker and protection is high and well maintained."
Voytek Kurtyka is one of the greatest alpinists of all time. Born in 1947, he was one of the leading lights of the Polish golden age of mountaineering that redefined Himalayan climbing in the 1970s and 1980s. His visionary approach to climbing resulted in many renowned ascents, such as the complete Broad Peak traverse, the 'night-naked' speed climbs of Cho Oyu and Shishapangma and, above all, the alpine-style first ascent of the west face of Gasherbrum IV. Dubbed the 'climb of the century', his route on GIV with the Austrian Robert Schauer is - as of 2017 - unrepeated. His most frequent climbing partners were alpine legends of their time: Polish Himalayan giant Jerzy Kukuczka, Swiss mountain guide Erhard Loretan and British alpinist Alex MacIntyre. After repeated requests to accept the Piolets d'Or lifetime achievement award (the Oscars of the climbing world), Kurtyka finally accepted the honour in the spring of 2016. A fiercely private individual, he has declined countless invitations for interviews, lectures and festival appearances, but he has agreed to collaborate with internationally renowned and award-winning author Bernadette McDonald on this long-awaited biography. Art of Freedom is a profound and moving profile of one of the international climbing world's most respected, complex and reclusive mountaineers.
Northern Limestone : Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire from Rockfax covers the premier limestone sport crags of the UK with the big three of Malham, Kilnsey and Gordale and their world class climbing. Alongside these titans are numerous other destinations that offer both sport and trad climbing throughout the grades, ranging from the intimidating walls of Blue Scar and Trow Gill to the long lines of newly developed low to mid-grade sport crags such as Moughton Nab and Giggleswick South. Low to mid-grade trad climbing is also well catered for on the walls and escarpments at the likes of Trowbarrow Quarry, Twistleton Scar, Attermire Scar and Witches Quarry.Virtually all of the crags in the book are set in beautiful countryside and are close to fabulous pubs, villages, camping and bunkhouse accommodation.Twistleton Scars, Trow Gill, Robin Proctor's Scar, Crummackdale, Panorama Crag, Moughton Nab, Pot Scar, Giggleswick North, Giggleswick South, Langcliffe, Castleberg Crag, Attermire Scar, Malham Cove, Gordale, Stony Bank, Yew Cogar Scar, Blue Scar, Kilnsey, Dib Scar, Loup Scar, Troller's Gill, Scout Scar, Mill Side Scar, Chapel Head Scar, Humphrey Head, Trowbarrow Quarry, Witches' Quarry.
Winner, Mountain Literature (Non-Fiction) Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018 Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick's second book, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut Echoes. Now retired from the strain of work as a prison officer, Nick is free to climb. A lot. Tides is a treasury of his antics and adventures with some of the world's leading climbers, including Steve House, Kenton Cool, Nico Favresse, Andy Houseman and James McHaffie. Follow Nick and his partners as they push the limits on some of the world's most serious routes: The Bells! The Bells! and The Hollow Man on Gogarth's North Stack Wall; the Slovak Direct on Denali; Guerdon Grooves on Buachaille Etive Mor; and the north faces of Chang Himal and Mount Alberta, among countless others. Nick's life can be equated to the rhythm of the sea. At high tide, he climbs, he loves it, he is good at it; he laughs and jokes, scares himself, falls, gets back up and climbs some more. Then the tide goes out and he finds himself alone, exposed, all questions and no answers. Self-doubt, grieving for friends or family, fearful, sometimes opinionated, occasionally angry - his writing more honest and exposed than in any account of a climb. Only when the tide turns is he able to forget once more. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one's life to climbing.
Many of us who participate in adventure sports have wondered: "What if the worst really happened? What if everything I have held so dear were to be taken away in the blink of an eye: my way of living, my job, my social life ... everything!?" An inspiring tale of a remarkable recovery from a hugely challenging, life-threatening accident. In 2013 he was caught in an avalanche which swept him over a cliff. Despite falling 140 metres and suffering serious brain injuries he survived. His prognosis was that in time he might be able to communicate by blinking. Nine years later he has made a remarkable recovery and though sheer determination recovered his fitness levels. Pete does have speech problems and an odd gait but he has gone on to find new challenges. He has recently cycled the equivalent distance to once around the equator and continues to live life to the full.
I personally have always been quite comfortable either halfway up or halfway down a steep, snowy mountainside. Ascents and Descents is the autobiography of Peter Allison: civil engineer, rock climber, ski-mountaineer and mountain guide. Starting out on the crags of north-east England as a young boy, Peter soon became immersed in the emerging climbing scene of the 1950s, when harnesses were a thing of the future, and hemp ropes and plimsolls were the staple climbing gear. He soon began to explore ice climbing and mixed climbing, progressing to crags in the Lake District and then the Alps, and claiming several first British ascents. Over the course of an impressive sixty-five-year climbing career, he climbed hard lines on the high mountains, including the North Face of the Eiger and the Hoernli Ridge on the Matterhorn. Having initially juggled climbing with a thriving and extremely busy quarrying business, Peter decided it was time to dedicate more time to his love of the hills, and qualified as a mountain guide, subsequently specialising in routes on the Chamonix Aiguilles, the Aiguille du Chardonnet and the Aiguille d'Argentiere. He built an excellent reputation, balancing fun and risk with safety and prudence, and always putting his clients first. Ascents and Descents tells of the highs and lows of climbing, from standing on a summit in perfect conditions to the frustration of years of rehabilitation from a broken pelvis. Peter Allison recounts his colourful story with honesty, humour and frank detail, leaving you in no doubt about his true passion for the mountains.
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