What's your favorite mountaineering books?

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justiner
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by justiner »

The Tower by Kelly Cordes is worth a read.

Danger on Peaks by Gary Snyder for something completely different.
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by Jaro »

I’m currently reading The Calling by Barry Blanchard & I’d recommend it so far. I’d also recommend:

The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti
Voices from The Summit
Extreme Alpinism by Mark Twight
PSYCOVERTICAL by Andy Kirkpatrick
The Dance of The Woo-Li Masters by Jim Bridwell
&
As Above, So Below by Chris Kalman

I’d also give a +1 for:
The White Spider & Eiger Dreams

In the queue:
Conquistadors of the Useless
Starlight & Storm
-148
In the Shadow of Denali
The Big Walls
The Burgess Book of Lies
&
The Tower

Cheers,

Jaro
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by ltlFish99 »

Anatoli's The climb
All 14 Eight-thousanders by Reinhold Messner - Wonderful photographs.
A slender thread by steven venables
A life on the edge by jim Whittaker
Stories off the wall by John Roskelly
Ascent by Chris Bonnington
The endless knot by kurt Diemberger
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by highpilgrim »

Jorts wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:27 pm
highpilgrim wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:04 pm Krakauer: Into Thin Air and Eiger Dreams

I know peeps take issue with his agenda, but from sheer storytelling, he’s great.
I'm reading Eiger Dreams right now. Don't know how I missed it for over a decade. What's his agenda?
He was accused by some, including Anatoli Boukreev, of misrepresenting the facts in the Everest debacle. At least partly to put himself in better light, but more specifically for calling out some of the choices Anatoli had made, in lieu of his responsibility to his guided patrons. I lean into Krakauer's camp, but opinions vary.
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by pvnisher »

No mentions for Kiss or Kill by Twight?

Just having Twitching with Twight makes it worth the read.
I challenge you to read the essay and not be inspired.

https://www.nonprophet.media/twitching
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by JChitwood »

Highly recommend Below Another Sky by Rick Ridgeway. I never see it in these discussions but keep coming back to it every few years. Ridgeway is one my favorite American adventurers. He was on the 2nd American expedition to summit Everest and the first to summit K2 and is now VP of Environmental Affairs for Patagonia.
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by d_baker »

RobbS wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 10:10 am
d_baker wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 6:46 pm David Roberts.
"Mountain of my Fear"
And,
"Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative"
I'll put in another mention for Roberts. These two are must reads.
These two books always come to mind in large part because they were some of the first mountaineering books I read and had a lasting impact on me. And yes, Roberts is a good writer.

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson is also a good book.
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by Wildernessjane »

“A Bolt from the Blue” by Jennifer Woodlief (about a complicated rescue on the Grand Teton and development of the short haul helicopter rescue technique)

“Explorers of the Infinite” and “Where the Mountains Cast Its Shadow” by Maria Coffey

“The Climb Up to Hell” by Jack Olson

And of course, “Touching the Void” by Joe Simpson (timeless). “The Beckoning Silence” was also good.
“Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” -David McCullough?
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by nyker »

Maybe I'm too academic, but I like reading editions of Accidents in North American Mountaineering...also:
Into Thin Air was the classic...
At the Mercy of the Mountains: True Stories Of Survival And Tragedy In New York's Adirondacks
Not Without Peril: 150 Years Of Misadventure On The Presidential Range Of New Hampshire
Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite's Half Dome
Halfway to Heaven, by Mark and a nice read
Colorado 14er Disasters
Minus 148 Degrees: The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley
Touching the Void
The Last Season
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by CoHi591 »

Jorts wrote: Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:27 pm
highpilgrim wrote: Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:04 pm Krakauer: Into Thin Air and Eiger Dreams

I know peeps take issue with his agenda, but from sheer storytelling, he’s great.
I'm reading Eiger Dreams right now. Don't know how I missed it for over a decade. What's his agenda?
I'm among the "not a fan of Krakauer" crowd, but that's a tired debate. I will say he wrote one of my favorite mountaineering quotes, and that is something to the effect of "I didn't want to climb the Eiger, I only wanted to have climbed it"

Gives me a chuckle. I love climbing and 99.9% of the time I want to climb them, but there are some I'd like to just fast-forward to the point when I'm rolling up back to the TH after finishing the climb.
The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by highpilgrim »

CoHi591 wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 6:29 am "I didn't want to climb the Eiger, I only wanted to have climbed it"
It’s funny how dangerous and risky the Eiger has been historically and took days to climb as well. And now the current speed record last I looked is about 2 1/3 hours! Amazing how far climbers have progressed.

RIP Ueli.

Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
Hunter S Thompson

Walk away from the droning and leave the hive behind.
Dick Derkase
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Re: What's your favorite mountaineering books?

Post by greenonion »

highpilgrim wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 1:32 pm
CoHi591 wrote: Sun Jan 24, 2021 6:29 am "I didn't want to climb the Eiger, I only wanted to have climbed it"
It’s funny how dangerous and risky the Eiger has been historically and took days to climb as well. And now the current speed record last I looked is about 2 1/3 hours! Amazing how far climbers have progressed.

RIP Ueli.

I still can’t believe he’s gone.
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