'What a wonderful, honest, refreshing book, full of free-spirited adventure, humour and profound thoughts to provide inspiration to anyone who simply dreams of getting out and doing their own thing' SIR CHRIS BONINGTON 'Ernest Shackleton listed those qualities an explorer should possess over a century ago: optimism, patience, idealism with imagination, and courage. Vanessa's qualities are truly akin to these' ALEXANDRA SHACKLETON When Vanessa O'Brien was made redundant in 2008 as part of the recession, she moved to Hong Kong with her husband for his career and resigned herself to being 'just the wife'. There she was, aged 46, bored, uninspired, unemployed. Was this going to be how she was going to live the rest of her life? One night in the infamous Kee Club, over shots of tequila, a friend suggested O'Brien climb Everest, and that was the start of an epic journey she never looked back from as she climbed Everest, K2 and many other mountains. This is her inspirational story. As O'Brien says, she couldn't explain to her readers how she got to the top of K2 at the age of 52 without being honest about what came before. In To the Greatest Heights, she reveals the trials and tribulations of her difficult childhood, and the result is a life-affirming book that shows how she achieved these climbs in spite of and because of her past. To read To the Greatest Heights is to know that there is a path to overcoming the worst of what happens to us, a path that helps us reach the summit of our lives too, whatever our age.

For those who would like to climb mountains, and for those who merely like to contemplate the possibility, Ruth and John Mendenhall have written as entertaining and completely instructive a book as have ever been tucked into a rucksack. Since ascending a peak inevitably beings at the bottom, the Mendenhalls first advice neophytes on where to find proper instruction, how much will be expected of them as beginners, and what to bring on early climbs. Sorted out here is the gear and clothing really needed to get started, and safe ways to get the experience and learn techniques needed to confidently approach later climbs on rock, snow, glaciers, and peaks. Explicit, authoritative information on what climbers really do on diverse terrain introduced the proper use of rope, belaying the climber below and the leader above, learning to lead, and using pitons in rock or ice. In this step-by-step progression the beginner is introduced to rappels, how to choose sound rappel points, and how to set safe rappels. Details on the functions of ice axe and crampons, and the complex conditions encountered on glaciers, arm the progressing climber with further basic information that builds mountaineering skill. This uniquely complete coverage advanced from the beginning through intermediate climbing, and includes discussions of advanced and controversial techniques that the less experienced will be curious about. Through it all comes an awareness of what mountaineering really is...the high spirits, good humor, pleasures, and philosophies of those who climb.

Mountaineering in the Ecrins Massif showcases the Ecrins' most beautiful summits through a selection of the area's best lower grade snow, rock and mixed climbs. Authors Frederic Chevaillot, Paul Grobel and Jean-Rene Minelli have chosen 25 classic Ecrins routes - graded between F and AD - that have come to be regarded as classics due to their quality, their altitude or, simply, their easy access. These routes provide the essential pleasures of mountaineering: getting off the beaten track, enjoying the pure mountain air and delighting in the charms of the high mountains. Most of these routes are at the boundary between hiking and technical alpinism and should be within the capabilities of any fit hiker-mountaineer. Routes and peaks featured include: the Aiguille du Goleon; the north ridge of the Aiguille Dibona; the south ridge of Pic Coolidge; the north-east face of the Meije Orientale; and the traverse of the Barre des Ecrins ridge, plus many more. Each route features a detailed and comprehensive route description, a sketch map and a route summary detailing the start point, difficulty, timings, height gain, best time of year and the gear required. A conscious decision was made to limit the selection to relatively easy climbs, and so the routes described in this book - a mere fraction of the climbs in the magnificent Ecrins Massif - should be within the capabilities of almost all mountaineers.

Dorset has emerged as a major bouldering area in recent years thanks to the hard work of a bunch of diligent locals who have combed the coastline seeking out every block, problem and traverse. In addition to the well known areas of the Cuttings, the Boulderfield and the Neddyfields, the book has extensive information on the West Coast of Portland, many more areas on the East Coast, plus Swanage and Lulworth. It describes nearly 2000 boulder problems on around 400 pages.This Rockfax book is the first one to cover the bouldering in any depth. It completes the coverage adding a wealth of new information and is presented in the standard now demanded by today's climbers. It includes all the usual Rockfax features.

However many times it has been done, the act of casting off the warps and letting go one's last hold of the shore at the start of a voyage has about it something solemn and irrevocable, like marriage, for better or for worse. Mostly Mischief's ordinary title belies four more extraordinary voyages made by H.W. 'Bill' Tilman covering almost 25,000 miles in both Arctic and Antarctic waters. The first sees the pilot cutter Mischief retracing the steps of Elizabethan explorer John Davis to the eastern entrance to the Northwest Passage. Tilman and a companion land on the north coast and make the hazardous crossing of Bylot Island while the remainder of the crew make the eventful passage to the southern shore to recover the climbing party. Back in England, Tilman refuses to accept the condemnation of Mischief's surveyor, undertaking costly repairs before heading back to sea for a first encounter with the East Greenland ice. Between June 1964 and September 1965, Tilman is at sea almost without a break. Two eventful voyages to East Greenland in Mischief provide the entertaining bookends to his account of the five-month voyage in the Southern Ocean as skipper of the schooner Patanela. Tilman had been hand-picked by the expedition leader as the navigator best able to land a team of Australian and New Zealand climbers and scientists on Heard Island, a tiny volcanic speck in the Furious Fifties devoid of safe anchorages and capped by an unclimbed glaciated peak. In a separate account of this successful voyage, Colin Putt describes the expedition as unique - the first ascent of a mountain to start below sea level.

`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'.

'We had climbed a mountain and crossed a pass; been wet, cold, hungry, frightened, and withal happy. One more Himalayan season was over. It was time to begin thinking of the next. "Strenuousness is the immortal path, sloth is the way of death".' First published in 1946, the scope of H.W. 'Bill' Tilman's When Men & Mountains Meet is broad, covering his disastrous expedition to the Assam Himalaya, a small exploratory trip into Sikkim, and then his wartime heroics. In the thirties, Assam was largely unknown and unexplored. It proved a challenging environment for Tilman's party, the jungle leaving the men mosquito-bitten and suffering with tropical diseases, and thwarting their mountaineering success. Sikkim proved altogether more successful. Tilman, who is once again happy and healthy, enjoys some exploratory ice climbing and discovers Abominable Snowman tracks, particularly remarkable as the creature appeared to be wearing boots - 'there is no reason why he should not have picked up a discarded pair at the German Base Camp and put them to their obvious use'. And then, in 1939, war breaks out. With good humour and characteristic understatement we hear about Tilman's remarkable Second World War. After digging gun pits on the Belgian border and in Iraq, he was dropped by parachute behind enemy lines to fight alongside Albanian and Italian partisans. Tilman was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his efforts - and the keys to the city of Belluno, which he helped save from occupation and destruction. Tilman's comments on the German approach to Himalayan climbing could equally be applied to his guerrilla warfare ethos. 'They spent a lot of time and money and lost a lot of climbers and porters, through bad luck and more often through bad judgement.' While elsewhere the war machine rumbled on, Tilman's war was fast, exciting, lightweight and foolhardy - and makes for gripping reading.

'When an accident occurs, something may emerge of lasting value, for the human spirit may rise to its greatest heights. This happened on Haramosh.' The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Miraculously, they both survive the fall. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them. The group's efforts to return to safety are increasingly desperate, hampered by injury, exhaustion and the loss of vital climbing gear. Against the odds, Jillott and Emery manage to climb out of the snow basin and head for camp, hoping to reach food, water and assistance in time to save themselves and their companions from an icy grave. But another cruel twist of fate awaits them. An acclaimed mountaineering classic in the same genre as Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, Ralph Barker's The Last Blue Mountain is an epic tale of friendship and fortitude in the face of tragedy.

Follow along in the footsteps of renowned climbers Fred Beckey, Jim Bridwell, Riccardo Cassin, Art Davidson, Royal Robbins, David Roberts, Bradford Washburn, Jon Waterman, and others as they scale Alaska's great peaks in Alaska Ascents by Bill Sherwonit. This collection of seventeen riveting first-person accounts reveals the stories of mountains, among the most inaccessible and difficult to climb in all of North America, and the remarkable individuals who have climbed them. In their stories, we learn about people who are drawn to scale such alien peaks, and who experience triumph of the spirit and sometimes tragedy and loss. Editor Bill Sherwonit, who lives in Anchorage, is also the author of several books, including To the Top of Denali: Climbing Adventures on North America's Highest Peak, Alaska's Accessible Wilderness: A Traveler's Guide to Alaska's State Parks, and Denali: The Complete Guide. "A riveting anthology . . . Each piece effectively captures the intensity of the undertaking and the emotions and challenges relating to each climb . . . A fine compendium of mountain literature highlights." -Library Journal "A terrific read." -Small Press "Alaska Ascents is packed with tales of -148 degrees F temperatures, 150-mile-per-hour winds, and all those splendid privations associated with making first ascents in the Great Land." -ROCK & ICE "Captivating." -Climbing Magazine "Climbers, would-be climbers, and nonclimbers alike will find this book good reading." -Alaska magazine WINNER: Special Jury Mention, Banff Mountain Festival: "an important book . . . one that climbers around the world will want to own." Fred Beckey, Jim Bridwell, Riccardo Cassin, Art Davidson, Royal Robbins, David Roberts, Bradford Washburn, Jon Waterman, and more have made highly acclaimed ascents in Alaska and have written enthralling accounts of their adventures. This anthology of Alaska climbing stories gives voice to Alaska's great peaks and to the people who have climbed them. Alaska Ascents takes readers to all of Alaska's major mountain systems-the St. Elias, Wrangell, Coast, Chugach, Alaska, and Brooks Ranges-and to many of its grandest peaks-Denali, St. Elias, Fairweather, Foraker, Hunter, Moose's Tooth, Devil's Thumb, and the Kichatna Spires. The storytellers in this collection reveal the challenges of Alaska's mountains, among the most inaccessible and difficult to climb in all of North America. These mountaineers have pushed the limits of what's possible in the sport of climbing, surmounting long, dangerous approaches, incredible cold, severe subarctic snowstorms, huge ice fields, and heavily crevassed glaciers. In their stories, we learn about people who are drawn to scale such alien peaks, and who experience triumph of the spirit and sometimes tragedy and loss.

*** 'Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a warrior. I'm in awe of her strength and courage' - Selena Gomez 'An incredibly powerful story' Sunday Independent 'In the Shadow of the Mountain has all the elements a great memoir requires - a strong voice, cinematic prose, a hero to root for - in essence, an extraordinary story about an extraordinary woman's life' - San Francisco Chronicle 'Silvia Vasquez-Lavado is a woman possessed of uncommon strength, rare compassion, and a ferocious stubbornness to not allow the trauma of her childhood to destroy her life' - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love 'Powerful' - New York Times YOU DON'T CONQUER A MOUNTAIN. YOU SURRENDER TO IT ONE STEP AT A TIME. Despite a high-flying career, Silvia Vasquez-Lavado knew she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, and hiding her sexuality from her family, she was repressing the abuse she'd suffered as a child. When her mother called her home to Peru, she knew something finally had to change. It did. Silvia began to climb. Something about the sheer size of the mountains, the vast emptiness and the nearness of death, woke her up. And then, she took her biggest pain to the biggest mountain: Everest. The 'Mother of the World' allows few to reach her summit, but Silvia didn't go alone. Trekking with her to Base Camp, were five troubled young women on an odyssey that helped each confront their personal trauma, and whose strength and community propelled Silvia forward... Beautifully written and deeply moving, In the Shadow of the Mountain is a remarkable story of compassion, humility, and strength, inspiring us all to find have faith in our own heroism and resilience.

Throughout 1949 and 1950 H.W. 'Bill' Tilman mounted pioneering expeditions to Nepal and its Himalayan mountains, taking advantage of some of the first access to the country for Western travellers in the 20th century. Tilman and his party-including a certain Sherpa Tenzing Norgay-trekked into the Kathmandu Valley and on to the Langtang region, where the highs and lows began. They first explored the Ganesh Himal, before moving on to the Jugal Himal and the following season embarking on an ambitious trip to Annapurna and Everest. Manaslu was their first objective, but left to 'better men', and Annapurna IV very nearly climbed instead but for bad weather which dogged the whole expedition. Needless to say, Tilman was leading some very lightweight expeditions into some seriously heavyweight mountains. After the Annapurna adventure Tilman headed to Everest with-among others-Dr Charles Houston. Approaching from the delights of Namche Bazaar, the party made progress up the flanks of Pumori to gaze as best they could into the Western Cwm, and at the South Col and South-East Ridge approach to the summit of Everest. His observations were both optimistic and pessimistic: 'One cannot write off the south side as impossible until the approach from the head of the West Cwm to this remarkably airy col has been seen.' But then of the West Cwm: 'A trench overhung by these two tremendous walls might easily become a grave for any party which pitched its camp there.' Nepal Himalaya presents Tilman's favourite sketches, encounters with endless yetis, trouble with the porters, his obsessive relationship with alcohol and issues with the food. And so Tilman departs Nepal for the last time proper with these retiring words: 'If a man feels he is failing to achieve this stern standard he should perhaps withdraw from a field of such high endeavour as the Himalaya.'

Here at last is the thrilling memoir of the legendary mountaineer Bradford Washburn, one of the last explorers and adventurers of the twentieth century. Drawing from decades of memories, journals, and an exquisite photographic collection, Washburn completes the self-portrait of a man drawn to altitude, from his first great climb of Mount Washington at age eleven, through numerous first ascents of peaks all over the world, to handily scaling a climbing wall at eighty-eight.       Indeed, Washburn also became renowned for his pioneering work in aerial photography, his dedication to science and cartography, his decades of leading Boston’s Museum of Science, and his close association with the National Geographic Society.       This mountaineering icon candidly offers an intimate look at a life devoted to the world’s highest places, to the friends who challenged the mountains with him, and to wife Barbara, who shared his adventures for nearly sixty-five years.

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.

Bob Shepton is an ordained minister in the Church of England in his late 70s, but spends most of his time sailing into the Arctic and making first ascents of inaccessible mountains. No tea parties for this vicar. Opening with the disastrous fire that destroyed his yacht whilst he was ice-bound in Greenland, the book travels back to his childhood growing up on the rubber plantation his father managed in Malaysia, moving back to England after his father was shot by the Japanese during the war, boarding school, the Royal Marines, and the church. We then follow Bob as he sails around the world with a group of schoolboys, is dismasted off the Falklands, trapped in ice, and climbs mountains accessible only from iceberg-strewn water and with only sketchy maps available. Bob Shepton, winner of the 2013 Yachtsman of the Year Award, is an old-school adventurer, and this compelling book is in the spirit of sailing mountaineer HW Tilman, explorer Ranulph Fiennes, climber Chris Bonington and yachtsman Robin Knox-Johnston, all of whom have been either friends of Bob's or an inspiration for his own exploits. Derring do in a dog collar! Ranulph Fiennes: 'A wonderful true tale of adventure.' Bear Grylls: 'You are going to enjoy this...as a Commando, Bob is clearly made of the right stuff!'

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.

Climb to Fitness shows anyone who visits the climbing gym, from beginners to veteran climbers, how best to use the various parts of the gym for their own customized workout. It explores all the features modern climbing gyms offer-bouldering walls, toprope areas, lead climbing, hangboards, weight rooms, and more-and how to use these not only to enhance your climbing ability, but also to build overall fitness and strength. Whether you want a step-by-step workout or a buffet of workouts to create your own unique training regime, Climb to Fitness will get you there.

This book is about the rise of a new ethos in British mountaineering during the late nineteenth century. It traces how British attitudes to mountains were transformed by developments both within the new sport of mountaineering and in the wider fin-de-siècle culture. The emergence of the new genre of mountaineering literature, which helped to create a self-conscious community of climbers with broadly shared values, coincided with a range of cultural and scientific trends that also influenced the direction of mountaineering. The author discusses the growing preoccupation with the physical basis of aesthetic sensations, and with physicality and materiality in general; the new interest in the physiology of effort and fatigue; and the characteristically Victorian drive to enumerate, codify, and classify. Examining a wide range of texts, from memoirs and climbing club journals to hotel visitors’ books, he argues that the figure known as the ‘New Mountaineer’ was seen to embody a distinctly modern approach to mountain climbing and mountain aesthetics.  

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.

New England is one of the country's most spectacular rock climbing arenas. The 66,608-square-mile region is studded with intimate crags, sweeping walls, compact sea cliffs, towering ledges, and spectacular overhangs. This full-color, revised edition of Rock Climbing New England describes fifteen of the region's best climbing areas in detail. Your choices of rocks and routes include two of the country's premier traditional crags, Cathedral and Whitehorse Ledges in New Hampshire; New England's biggest rock face, Cannon Cliff in New Hampshire; and stunning sea cliff routes at Maine's Acadia National Park and at Rhode Island's Fort Wetherill State Park. Other superb selections include urban cragging at Crow Hill near Boston, the traprock cliffs of Ragged Mountain in Connecticut, and the granite slabs of Wheeler Mountain in Vermont. Inside you will also discover: climbing history of each site, pitch-by-pitch written descriptions, detailed topos and clear overview photos, and insider tips to remote climbing areas waiting to be explored. Rock Climbing New England, 2nd edition is an indispensable resource for anyone seeking adventure in this remarkable region.

Geographically comprehensive, it surveys over 130 classic and new bouldering venues and features the top problems across the grades in each area. Loaded with essential 'bloc notes', approach maps, detailed topos, and feature photography, it provides the travelling boulderer with the keys to help unlock the finest bouldering amongst Scotland's geologically stunning landscapes. Edited by John Watson who has been bouldering and exploring Scottish stones for over 20 years.

Peak District Gritstone is a comprehensive guide to traditional gritstone climbing and covers the whole of the national park. Written by local climber Graham Hoey, it features over 2,000 carefully selected trad routes graded from Mod to E10. Graham has been an active grit climber for nearly 50 years. He was a member of the British Mountaineering Council's guidebook committee for 20 years and since 1979 has been a major contributor to the iconic Peak District climbing guidebook series. Over his grit career and during the course of his research for this guidebook he has climbed 95% of the routes in this book (many more than once!) and has checked the rest closely. No other guidebook author has climbed as extensively on Peak District gritstone; his passion for the genre, knowledge of the routes and his attention to detail are evident throughout the text. This guide is split into three sections: Eastern Gritstone - extending from Wharncliffe Crags down to Black Rocks; Staffordshire Gritstone- including The Roaches; and Moorland Gritstone- from the Chew Valley to Kinder. Alongside nationally significant crags such as Stanage and The Roaches, there are smaller and equally brilliant venues with their own unique features, such as the wild moorland edges of Wimberry and Ravenstones, or the urban quarried grit at New Mills Torrs. Each crag features detailed access and approach information, including GPS coordinates for parking and crag grid references, together with conditions information and local knowledge. Alongside superb action photography from Mike Hutton, Adam Long, Keith Sharples and more, there are over 400 colour photo topos, plus overview and topo maps. A detailed introduction includes everything you need to plan a visit: tourist information centres, cafes and pubs, campsites and accommodation, gear shops, climbing walls and useful websites.

'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.

A guide to reaching the summit of every country in Europe - driving, walking and climbing routes to the tops of 50 countries in Europe. Detailed route descriptions, sketch maps - advice on transport, seasons, grading and gear. Heading to the highest point of any European country is an experience not to be missed. The continent has a wealth of adventure and a huge variety of dazzling scenery awaiting the walker and climber. And each of Europe's 50 countries celebrates its national high point in a different way. This guide brings together detailed route descriptions for those seeking to get to the highest peaks in countries from Liechtenstein to Latvia and Germany to Greece. Whether attempting to climb individual high points or complete all 50 ascents, these routes are crammed with some of the most stunning landscapes and exciting terrain that Europe has to offer. From the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle to the arid plains of the Sierra Nevada, this book contains something for everyone with routes ranging from afternoon strolls in Malta and Moldova to three-day mountaineering ascents on classic Alpine routes such as Mont Blanc and Dufourspitze.