Higher Than Everest

Few challenges remain for Earth-bound adventurers, but do not fear - the Solar System abounds with weird and wonderful places to explore. In this unique guidebook, Paul Hodge takes us on a tour of the most spectacular sites in the Solar System. His vivid descriptions of the challenges provide a compelling introduction to extra-terrestrial environments. Starting with a climb of Mars' Mt. Olympus, much higher than Everest, you will be taken on imaginary expeditions to such exotic places as the Moon's Alpine Valley, Venus' precipitous and scorching Mt. Maxwell, a table mountain on Io, the snows of Saturn's rings and Miranda's incredibly high, icy cliff. You will be treated to a descent into a fabulous canyon on Mars, one that dwarfs the Earth's Grand Canyon, and will explore the rock lakes and terraces of Copernicus, a giant crater on the Moon. Who knows - one day these adventures may really be done!

Higher than Everest paints an uncompromising portrait of Tendi Sherpa, who has successfully climbed twenty-one mountains over 8,000m, including fourteen ascents of Everest. This young father, part of the elite group of Nepalese guides, embodies the new generation of Sherpas who are taking their destiny into their own hands. In the numerous conferences he holds throughout the world, he never hesitates to denounce the amateurism and obsession of certain people determined to climb Everest, as well as the over-crowding of the sacred Himalayan mountains. As a child, the man who would go on to save many lives on the Roof of the World once dreamed of becoming a monk, and from his years at the monastery, he still retains a deep attachment to Buddhism and its many rituals. Resolutely looking towards the future, but also concerned about respecting the environment and traditions, Tendi regularly returns to the secluded valley of Khembalung, the land of his ancestors, never forgetting where it is he has come from.

High and wild places have dominated Stephen Venables' life and now he has written a full autobiography which explores how and - more importantly - why he became a mountaineer, and reveals a series of never-recorded adventures on four continents. At its climax he revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest's history and by Lord Hunt as 'one of the most remarkable ordeals from which men or women have returned alive'. As Venables writes: 'Although we didn't go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way - the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation.'

Traces the history of mapmaking while offering insight into the role of cartography in human civilization and sharing anecdotes about the cultural arenas frequented by map enthusiasts.

Author is a renowned writer in international climbing community Fascinating story of hoax that inspired a quest for a North American Shangri-La Vivid recounting of fabled mountains from across the world Using an infamous deception about a fake mountain range in British Columbia as her jumping-off point, Katie Ives, the well-known editor of Alpinist, explores the lure of blank spaces on the map and the value of the imagination. In Imaginary Peaks she details the cartographical mystery of the Riesenstein Hoax within the larger context of climbing history and the seemingly endless quest for newly discovered peaks and claims of first ascents. Imaginary Peaks is an evocative, thought-provoking tale, immersed in the literature of exploration, study of maps, and basic human desire.