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'He appeared, without a word, in the tent's entrance, covered in
ice. He looked like anyone would after spending over twenty-four
hours in a hurricane at over 8,000 metres. In winter. In the
Karakoram. He was so exhausted he couldn't speak.' Of all the games
mountaineers play on the world's high mountains, the hardest - and
cruellest - is climbing the fourteen peaks over 8,000 metres in the
bitter cold of winter. Ferocious winds that can pick you up and
throw you down, freezing temperatures that burn your lungs and numb
your bones, weeks of psychological torment in dark isolation: these
are adventures for those with an iron will and a ruthless
determination. For the first time, award-winning author Bernadette
McDonald tells the story of how Poland's ice warriors made winter
their own, perfecting what they dubbed 'the art of suffering' as
they fought their way to the summit of Everest in the winter of
1980 - the first 8,000-metre peak they climbed this way but by no
means their last. She reveals what it was that inspired the Poles
to take up this brutal game, how increasing numbers of climbers
from other nations were inspired to enter the arena, and how
competition intensified as each remaining peak finally submitted to
leave just one awaiting a winter ascent, the meanest of them all:
K2. Winter 8000 is the story of true adventure at its most
demanding.
Freedom Climbers is the multi award-winning book by Bernadette
McDonald, now available in the UK and Ireland thanks to Vertebrate
Publishing. Freedom Climbers tells the story of the extraordinary
Polish adventurers who emerged from under the blanket of oppression
following the Second World War to become the world's leading
Himalayan climbers. Although they lived in a war-ravaged landscape,
with seemingly no hope of creating a meaningful life, these
curious, motivated and skilled mountaineers built their own
free-market economy under the very noses of their Communist bosses
and climbed their way to liberation. At a time when Polish citizens
were locked behind the Iron Curtain, these intrepid explorers found
a way to travel the world in search of extreme adventure - to
Alaska, South America and Europe, but mostly to the highest and
most inspiring mountains of the world. To this end, Afghanistan,
India, Pakistan and Nepal became their second homes as they evolved
into the toughest Himalayan climbers the world has ever known. In
her most engaging book to date, renowned and award-winning author
Bernadette McDonald weaves a passionate and literary tale of
adventure, politics, suffering, death and - ultimately -
inspiration.
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.
Is it not better to take risks than die within from rot? Is it not
better to change one's life completely than to wait for the brain
to set firmly and irreversibly in a way of life and one
environment? I think it is ... taking risks, not for the sake of
danger alone, but for the sake of growth, is more important than
any security one can buy or inherit. - Charles Houston It was the
failed summit attempt and a failed rescue in the Himalaya that
brought Charles Houston MD fame and adulation in the mountaineering
world. His leadership of the American K2 expedition of 1953 is
still celebrated as the embodiment of all that is right and good in
the mountains. Houston, a doctor from New England, became a leading
authority in high altitude ailments and artificial heart research,
advising the US government, military and academia. He made an
unparalleled contribution to mountain medicine, building some of
the first artificial heart prototypes in his garage and playing a
key part in Kennedy's 1960s Peace Corps initiatives in India. In
Brotherhood of the Rope, Boardman Tasker Prize winning author
Bernadette McDonald traces the development of an American hero.
This is the biography of a well-heeled New England medical man who
excelled at expedition leadership and whose experience in the
mountains helped his research into high altitude medical matters
during his long and varied career as a doctor. Houstons's mountain
adventures, the ups and downs of his varied medical career and the
associated challenges of family life are related in a candid
biography that touches on many aspects of twentieth-century
affairs.
Beginning in 1946, Elizabeth Hawley worked for Fortune magazine as
a researcher. Shortly thereafter, she left both her job and the
United States itself to travel the world, and thus began her
lifelong attraction to the exotic and remote sovereign state of
Nepal. In the years that followed, she began reporting on the
political and cultural events taking place in her adopted homeland
for the likes of Reuters and Time Inc., letting the world in on the
strange community of mountaineers, pilgrims and politicians who
were descending on Kathmandu, whether in search of adventure,
enlightenment or prestige. Despite the fact that Elizabeth Hawley
has never climbed a mountain or visited the hallowed grounds of
Everest base camp, she has become the most important record keeper
and inspirational authority figure regarding the expeditions,
stories, feats, scandals and disasters in the Nepal Himalaya. Now
90 years of age, she has commanded the respect of such legendary
personalities as Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner, Chris Bonington,
Toma Humar and Ed Viesturs. With production under way on a film
examining her life and legacy, it is likely that Hawley will
continue to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of all
visitors looking to experience the legend and grandeur of the
world's most celebrated mountain landscape.
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.
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