Mountain Climbing

Account of first ascent of west face of Mt. Huntington, Alaska, in 1965.

Illus. in full color. Here is the gripping story of Hillary and Norgay's perilous ascent of Mount Everest as they battled snow and ice slides, whipping winds, and the grim knowledge that 19 others had died in the same attempt.

In this stunning picture book, Steve Jenkins takes us to Mount Everest - exploring its history, geography, climate, and culture. This unique book takes readers on the ultimate adventure of climbing the great mountain. Travel along and learn what to pack for such a trek and the hardships one may suffer on the way to the top. Avalanches, frostbite, frigid temperatures, wind, and limited oxygen are just a few of the dangers that make scaling this peak one of the most extreme physical challenges one can experience. To stand on the top of Mount Everest is to stand on top of the world. With informative text and exquisitely detailed cut paper illustrations, Steve Jenkins brings this extreme journey alive for young adventurers.

This completely revised and updated edition with all new color photos brings together in a single volume the anchoring systems most popular among climbers. Most climbers today learn their craft on artificial climbing walls and on sport routes with fixed protection. Their first efforts to lead on trad routes often come as a rude shock--they find that they haven't the skills and training to safeguard the climb or to set up solid belays. This new edition of Climbing Anchors is the climber's complete and authoritative source of information on protection, from fundamental knots to sophisticated rigging and equalizing skills.

Beginning with the first conquest of the Alps in the eighteenth century, the drive to scale the world's tallest peaks has inspired generations of amateur and professional climbers and explorers. In breathtaking illustrations and an exciting, accessible text, Roger Frison-Roche and Sylvain Jouty bring the history of mountain climbing vividly to life. Supplemented by biographies of fifty of the world's most celebrated mountain climbers and a detailed chronology, this thrilling chronicle of the triumphs and defeats that have marked the history of the sport will appeal to mountain-climbing enthusiasts and anyone who loves the great outdoors.

• First woman—and only the fourth climber ever—to summit all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters • Though the two climbers are friends, Kaltenbrunner’s path to high places has been very different from Edurne Pasaban’s record-breaking feat • Positive, uplifting account of a remarkable athlete Effusive, charismatic, tough, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is one of the world’s most successful high-altitude mountaineers and the first woman to climb all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen——and she also eschews high-altitude porters. Mountains in My Heart covers her early years learning to climb in Austria, her personal life, her training as an oncology nurse, and her ever-present passion for mountains, especially the Himalaya. Her love of being in the mountains shines through in her writing: For Gerlinde the important thing was not the race to be the first woman to climb the 8,000-meter peaks, but rather to experience the mountains and climb them in her self-sufficient style. Self-sufficiency did not, however, mean climbing without her husband, Ralf Dujmovits; in 2009, Lhotse became her twelfth and his fourteenth 8,000-meter peak! Kaltenbrunner shares the challenges, dangers, and euphoria of her high-altitude climbs, detailing medical emergencies and her own feelings about being high in the mountains. Her writing is honest, captivating, and unrestrained.

A brilliant book celebrating improbability as the engine that drives life, by the acclaimed author of The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject—in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"—Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth. The metaphor of Mount Improbable represents the combination of perfection and improbability that is epitomized in the seemingly "designed" complexity of living things. Dawkins skillfully guides the reader on a breathtaking journey through the mountain's passes and up its many peaks to demonstrate that following the improbable path to perfection takes time. Evocative illustrations accompany Dawkins's eloquent descriptions of extraordinary adaptations such as the teeming populations of figs, the intricate silken world of spiders, and the evolution of wings on the bodies of flightless animals. And through it all runs the thread of DNA, the molecule of life, responsible for its own destiny on an unending pilgrimage through time. Climbing Mount Improbable is a book of great impact and skill, written by the most prominent Darwinian of our age.

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.