As he teetered on a narrow rock ledge a yak's bellow short of the stratosphere, with a rubber mask strapped to his face, a pair of mittens the size of a sealion's flippers, and a drop of two kilometres below him, it's fair to say Mark Horrell wasn't entirely happy with the situation he found himself in. He had been an ordinary hiker who had only read books about mountaineering. When he signed up for an organised trek in Nepal with a group of elderly ladies, little did he know that ten years later he would be attempting to climb the world's highest mountain. But as he travelled across the Himalayas, Andes, Alps and East Africa, following in the footsteps of the pioneers, he dreamed up a seven-point plan to gain the skills and experience which could turn a wild idea into reality. Funny, incisive and heartfelt, his journey provides a refreshingly honest portrait of the joys and torments of a modern-day Everest climber.

In April 2012 Mark Horrell travelled to Tibet hoping to become, if not the first person to climb Mount Everest, at least the first Karl Pilkington lookalike to do so. He joined a mountaineering expedition which included an Australian sexagenarian, two Brits whose idea of hydration meant a box of red wine, and a New Zealander who enjoyed reminding his teammates of the perils of altitude sickness and the number of ways they might die on summit day. The media often write about Mount Everest deaths and how easy the world's highest mountain has become to climb, but how accurately does this reflect reality? The Chomolungma Diaries is a true story of ordinary people climbing Mount Everest with a commercial expedition, and preparing for the biggest day of their lives. Imagine your life clipped into a narrow line of cord five miles above the earth, on the world's most terrifying ridge walk. This book will bring you just a little bit closer to that experience.

In April 2014 Mark Horrell went on a mountaineering expedition to Nepal, hoping to climb Lhotse, the fourth-highest mountain in the world, which shares a base camp and climbing route with Mount Everest. He dreamed of following in the footsteps of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, by climbing through the infamous ice maze of the Khumbu Icefall, and he yearned to sleep in the grand amphitheatre of Everest Base Camp, surrounded by towering peaks. He was also intrigued by the media publicity surrounding commercial expeditions to Everest. He wanted to discover for himself whether it had become the circus that everybody described. But when a devastating avalanche swept across the Khumbu Icefall, he got more than he bargained for. Suddenly he found himself witnessing the greatest natural disaster Everest had ever seen. And that was just the start. Everest Sherpas came out in protest, issuing a list of demands to the Government of Nepal. What happened next left his team shocked, bewildered and fearing for their safety.

In the annuals of Indian Mountaineering Colonel Narinder Kumar, affectionately called 'Bull' by his friends due to his physical prowess, has played a highly significant role. Without him the history of Indian mountaineering would have been quite different. The author Colonel N N Bhatia along with inputs from Col Bull himself has endeavored to put across a compelling and absorbing account of the life and times of Narinder Kumar who took Indian mountaineering and mountaineering in the army to sublime heights. The appeal of 'Soldier Mountaineer' will surely stretch beyond the Army libraries to all adventure lovers in India and abroad.

- Loretan is often credited with bringing fast-and-light style to the highest mountains - New foreword by bestselling writer David Roberts On October 5, 1995, Erhard Loretan became the third person to climb all fourteen 8000-meter peaks, and the second to climb them without supplemental oxygen. He also became one of only a handful of individuals to climb Everest via the Hornbein Couloir; he and Jean Troillet completed the roundtrip climb in only 43 hours. An influential climber, Loretan's story has never before been told in English. He writes with humor, often deprecating his own accomplishments, and he is shockingly honest: On Cho Oyu, for instance, his climbing partner, Pierre-Alain Steiner, fell hundreds of meters. Loretan called out to what he assumed would be a corpse. Unexpectedly, Steiner called back. Loretan writes, knowing that what he is about to share is terrible, that he felt no joy on hearing his friend's voice because rescue was impossible in so remote a place. This title is part of our LEGENDS AND LORE series. Click here > to learn more.

Have you ever wondered what it's like to scale a mountain? Meet 29 women like you and me who are passionate about rock climbing. Over 100 photos showcase our adventures in the outdoors on rock and ice and snow. Our personal profiles tell you how we got into climbing, what we do in "real life," and how the mountains give us vitality. We hope that Women on the Rocks will inspire you to take up the exhilarating sport of rock climbing yourself. What others say: Ginette Walker Vinski shares, "I just got my "Women on the Rocks" book in the mail. It's great As soon as I opened it I was totally absorbed. What a great collection of female climbers, photos, and stories Awesome women. Great job "

When the Wells sisters from the tiny English hamlet of Denton, near Ilkley, Yorkshire, took up mountaineering at the start of the twentieth century, little did they know that they were to become pioneers in women's climbing in the UK. At the time of the growing strength of the Women's Suffragette movement, women-only mountaineering began to increase in popularity. This story describes the adventures of Paddy, Trilby and Biddy Wells, through Wharfedale, the Lake District, North Wales, Scotland and the Alps, including the first all-female traverse of the Skye ridge, the first female descent of Gaping Ghyll pothole, and the first female to successfully climb all the Scottish Munros. There were links in the lives of the three sisters to the Church of St. John in Ben Rhydding; to the local ladies Hockey Club; to the founding of England's first women only climbing club; to Bradford Diocesan Council meetings; to innovative ideas in Special Needs education in Bradford; to local amateur operatic and Gilbert and Sullivan Societies; and to many leading and famous British mountaineers of the period. This story will be of interest to the local people in Ilkley and Wharfedale, to mountaineer's around the world and to all those interested in discovering more about some remarkable, independently minded women to whom we should all be in awe.

Though the Alps may appear to be a peaceful place, the famed mountains once provided the backdrop for a political, environmental, and cultural battle as Germany and Austria struggled to modernize. Tait Keller examines the mountains' threefold role in transforming the two countries, as people sought respite in the mountains, transformed and shaped them according to their needs, and over time began to view them as national symbols and icons of individualism. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Alps were regarded as a place of solace from industrial development and the stresses of urban life. Soon, however, mountaineers, or the so-called "apostles of the Alps", began carving the crags to suit their whims, altering the natural landscape with trails and lodges, and seeking to modernize and nationalize the high frontier. Disagreements over the meaning of modernization opened the mountains to competing agendas and hostile ambitions. Keller examines the ways in which these opposing approaches corresponded to the political battles, social conflicts, culture wars, and environmental crusades that shaped modern Germany and Austria, placing the Alpine borderlands at the heart of the German question of nationhood.