Download or read book The Eiger Obsession written by John Harlin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A historic memoir by the noted Alpine climber and journalist who undertakes an epic climb of The Eiger in Switzerland—the very same mountain that not only made his father “Eiger John” famous, but killed him in 1966. In the 1960s an American named John Harlin II changed the face of Alpine climbing. Gutsy and gorgeous—he was known as “the blond god”—Harlin successfully summitted some of the most treacherous mountains in Europe. But it was the north face of the Eiger that became Harlin’s obsession. Living with his wife and two children in Leysin, Switzerland, he spent countless hours planning to climb, waiting to climb, and attempting to climb the massive vertical face. It was the Eiger direct—the direttissima—with which John Harlin was particularly obsessed. He wanted to be the first to complete it, and everyone in the Alpine world knew it. John Harlin III was nine years old when his father made another attempt on a direct ascent of the notorious Eiger. Harlin had put together a terrific team, and, despite unending storms, he was poised for the summit dash. It was the moment he had long waited for. When Harlin’s rope broke, 2,000 feet from the summit, he plummeted 4,000 feet to his death. In the shadow of tragedy, young John Harlin III came of age possessed with the very same passion for risk that drove his father. But he had also promised his mother, a beautiful and brilliant young widow, that he would not be an Alpine climber. Harlin moved from Europe to America, and, with an insatiable sense of wanderlust, he reveled in downhill skiing and rock-climbing. For years he successfully denied the clarion call of the mountain that killed his father. But in 2005, John Harlin could resist no longer. With his nine-year-old daughter, Siena—his very age at the time of his father’s death—and with an IMAX Theatre filmmaking crew watching, Harlin set off to slay the Eiger. This is an unforgettable story about fathers and sons, climbers and mountains, and dreamers who dare to challenge the earth.
Download or read book Eiger Dreams written by Jon Krakauer and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant hardships and victories more brilliantly than critically acclaimed author Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest work from such magazines as Outside and Smithsonian, he explores the subject from the unique and memorable perspective of one who has battled peaks like K2, Denali, Everest, and, of course, the Eiger. Always with a keen eye, an open heart, and a hunger for the ultimate experience, he gives us unerring portraits of the mountaineering experience. Yet Eiger Dreams is more about people than about rock and ice—people with that odd, sometimes maniacal obsession with mountain summits that sets them apart from other men and women. Here we meet Adrian the Romanian, determined to be the first of his countrymen to solo Denali; John Gill, climber not of great mountains but of house-sized boulders so difficult to surmount that even demanding alpine climbs seem easy; and many more compelling and colorful characters. In the most intimate piece, “The Devils Thumb,” Krakauer recounts his own near-fatal, ultimately triumphant struggle with solo-madness as he scales Alaska’s Devils Thumb. Eiger Dreams is stirring, vivid writing about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.
Download or read book The Will to Climb written by Ed Viesturs and published by Crown. This book was released on 2012-10-23 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of The Mountain and No Shortcuts to the Top chronicles his three attempts to climb the world’s tenth-highest and statistically deadliest peak while exploring the dramatic and tragic history of others who have made—or attempted—the ascent. “Viesturs and Roberts have written an exhaustively researched and wonderfully compelling history of the most fascinating and dangerous of the Himalayan giants.”—David Breashers, veteran mountaineer and documentary filmmaker, director of IMAX film Everest As a high school student, Ed Viesturs read and was captivated by the French climber Maurice Herzog’s famous and grisly account of the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950. When he began his own campaign to climb the world’s fourteen highest peaks in the late 1980s, Viesturs looked forward with trepidation to undertaking Annapurna himself. Two failures to summit in 2000 and 2002 made Annapurna his nemesis. His successful 2005 ascent was the triumphant capstone of his climbing quest. In The Will to Climb Viesturs and co-author David Roberts bring the extraordinary challenges of Annapurna to vivid life through edge-of-your-seat accounts of the greatest climbs in the mountain’s history, and of his own failed attempts and eventual success. In the process Viesturs ponders what Annapurna reveals about some of our most fundamental moral and spiritual questions—questions, he believes, that we need to answer to lead our lives well.
Download or read book The White Spider written by Heinrich Harrer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Eiger Sanction written by Trevanian and published by Crown. This book was released on 2005-05-10 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jonathan Hemlock lives in a renovated Gothic church on Long Island. He is an art professor, a mountain climber, and a mercenary, performing assassinations (i.e., sanctions) for money to augment his black-market art collection. Now Hemlock is being tricked into a hazardous assignment that involves an attempt to scale one of the most treacherous mountain peaks in the Swiss Alps, the Eiger. In a breathtakingly suspenseful story that is part thriller and part satire, the author traces Hemlock’s spine-tingling adventures, introducing a cast of intriguing characters—villains, traitors, beautiful women—into the highly charged atmosphere of danger. The accumulating threads of suspicion, accusation, and evidence gradually knit themselves into a bizarre and death-defying climax in this exciting, entertaining novel that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the last absorbing page.
Download or read book Touching the Void written by Joe Simpson and published by Direct Authors. This book was released on 2012-12-12 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 25th Anniversary ebook, now with more than 50 images. 'Touching the Void' is the tale of two mountaineer’s harrowing ordeal in the Peruvian Andes. In the summer of 1985, two young, headstrong mountaineers set off to conquer an unclimbed route. They had triumphantly reached the summit, when a horrific accident mid-descent forced one friend to leave another for dead. Ambition, morality, fear and camaraderie are explored in this electronic edition of the mountaineering classic, with never before seen colour photographs taken during the trip itself.
Download or read book Eiger Direct written by Peter Gillman and published by Vertebrate Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The North Face of the Eiger was long notorious as the most dangerous climb in the Swiss Alps, one that had claimed the lives of numerous mountaineers. In February 1966, two teams – one German, the other British–American – aimed to climb it by a new direct route. Astonishingly, the two teams knew almost nothing about each other's attempt until both arrived at the foot of the face. The race was on. John Harlin led the four-man British–American team and intended to make an Alpine-style dash for the summit as soon as weather conditions allowed. The Germans, with an eight-man team, planned a relentless Himalayan-style ascent, whatever the weather. The authors were key participants as the dramatic events unfolded. Award-winning writer Peter Gillman, then twenty-three, was reporting for the Telegraph, talking to the climbers by radio and watching their monumental struggles from telescopes at the Kleine Scheidegg hotel. Renowned Scottish climber Dougal Haston was a member of Harlin's team, forging the way up crucial pitches on the storm-battered mountain. Chris Bonington began as official photographer but then played a vital role in the ascent. Eiger Direct , first published in 1966, is a story of risk and resilience as the climbers face storms, frostbite and tragedy in their quest to reach the summit. This edition features a new introduction by Peter Gillman.
Download or read book Solo Faces written by James Salter and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1988-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With prose at once stark and lyrical, Salter elucidates the spirit of those who abandon material pursuits in search of an unspoiled honesty. He tells of one man's quest to rise above the mundane in search of peace and self-fulfillment.
Download or read book High Exposure written by David Breashears and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2000-05-17 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author, a noted mountaineer and cinematographer, describes a lifetime of conquering the world's mountain peaks and discusses his 1996 expedition to Mount Everest to create his IMAX film "Everest."
Download or read book The Mountain of My Fear written by David Roberts and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Account of first ascent of west face of Mt. Huntington, Alaska, in 1965.
Download or read book No Shortcuts to the Top written by Ed Viesturs and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-11-27 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This gripping and triumphant memoir from the author of The Mountain follows a living legend of extreme mountaineering as he makes his assault on history, one 8,000-meter summit at a time. “From the drama of the peaks, to the struggle of making a living as a professional climber, to the basic how-tos of life at 26,000 feet, No Shortcuts to the Top is fascinating reading.”—Aron Ralston, author of Between a Rock and a Hard Place and subject of the film 127 Hours For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go. A preternaturally cautious climber who once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest but who would not shrink from a peak (Annapurna) known to claim the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit, Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” It is with this philosophy that he vividly describes fatal errors in judgment made by his fellow climbers as well as a few of his own close calls and gallant rescues. And, for the first time, he details his own pivotal and heroic role in the 1996 Everest disaster made famous in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. In addition to the raw excitement of Viesturs’s odyssey, No Shortcuts to the Top is leavened with many funny moments revealing the camaraderie between climbers. It is more than the first full account of one of the staggering accomplishments of our time; it is a portrait of a brave and devoted family man and his beliefs that shaped this most perilous and magnificent pursuit.
Download or read book The Summits of Modern Man written by Peter H. Hansen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mountaineering has served as a metaphor for civilization triumphant. A fascinating study of the first ascents of the major Alpine peaks and Mt. Everest, The Summits of Modern Man reveals the significance of our encounters with the world’s most forbidding heights and how difficult it is to imagine nature in terms other than conquest and domination.
Download or read book Everest written by Broughton Coburn and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A filmmaker and veteran climber, David Breashears led the May 1996 expedition that captured Everest in a large-format IMAX motion picture. "Everest" is the breathtaking chronicle of a filmmaking expedition turned rescue mission. 125 stunning, full-color images, including IMAX frames from the film.
Download or read book Leadership in War written by Andrew Roberts and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparison of nine leaders who led their nations through the greatest wars the world has ever seen and whose unique strengths—and weaknesses—shaped the course of human history, from the bestselling, award-winning author of Churchill, Napoleon, and The Last King of America “Has the enjoyable feel of a lively dinner table conversation with an opinionated guest.” —The New York Times Book Review Taking us from the French Revolution to the Cold War, Andrew Roberts presents a bracingly honest and deeply insightful look at nine major figures in modern history: Napoleon Bonaparte, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, George C. Marshall, Charles de Gaulle, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Margaret Thatcher. Each of these leaders fundamentally shaped the outcome of the war in which their nation was embroiled. Is war leadership unique, or did these leaders have something in common, traits and techniques that transcend time and place and can be applied to the essential nature of conflict? Meticulously researched and compellingly written, Leadership in War presents readers with fresh, complex portraits of leaders who approached war with different tactics and weapons, but with the common goal of success in the face of battle. Both inspiring and cautionary, these portraits offer important lessons on leadership in times of struggle, unease, and discord. With his trademark verve and incisive observation, Roberts reveals the qualities that doom even the most promising leaders to failure, as well as the traits that lead to victory.
Download or read book The Climb Up to Hell written by Jack Olsen and published by St. Martin's Paperbacks. This book was released on 2000-07-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the heart of the Swiss Alps stand the three majestic peaks of the Bernese Oberland, Europe's most famous mountain range. The highest, at 13,638 feet, is the Jungfrau. Next is the Mönch, at 13,465 feet. But it is the smallest, the Eiger, rising 13,038 feet above sea level, that is by far the deadliest. Called a "living" mountain for its constantly changing conditions-unpredictable weather, disintegrating limestone surfaces, and continuously falling rock and ice-its mile-high north wall is perhaps the most dangerous climb in the world. And that may be just what beckons elite Alpinists to scale the treacherous peak against the odds. In 1957, nearly forty years before the well-known Mount Everest tragedy, two teams of confident climbers set out to summit the north wall of the Eiger Mountain. Not long into their journey, onlookers could tell that the four men were headed for disaster. Soon rescue teams from all over Europe raced toward the Eiger-yet only one of the four climbers survived to face unfounded international accusations. In a story as fascinating as any novel, Jack Olsen creates a riveting account of daring adventure, heroic rescue, and one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of mountain climbing.
Download or read book The Tower written by Kelly Cordes and published by Patagonia. This book was released on 2014-11-15 with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Patagonia’s Cerro Torre, considered by many the most beautiful peak in the world, draws the finest and most devoted technical alpinists to its climbing challenges. But controversy has swirled around this ice-capped peak since Cesare Maestri claimed first ascent in 1959. Since then a debate has raged, with world-class climbers attempting to retrace his route but finding only contradictions. This chronicle of hubris, heroism, controversies and epic journeys offers a glimpse into the human condition, and why some pursue extreme endeavors that at face value have no worth.
Download or read book Mountain Madness written by Robert Birkby and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scott Fischer, world-class mountain climber, led one of the tragic Mount Everest expeditions documented in the NYT bestseller Into Thin Air. Fischer died during the climb, but little was said about the 40 years of his life that led up to those final dramatic days. Mountain Madness is the first and only biography of this internationally famous mountain climber, written by a close friend, Robert Birkby. Now available in paperback, Mountain Madness is the exciting, touching and largely untold story of one of the world's greatest mountain climbers.
