For me one of the best things about journeying to remote places and experiencing the adventure that climbing has to offer is the opportunity it gives to enter a different world. The chance to find somewhere more dazzling than the everyday world and to escape from the streets to a place of wonder. Perhaps it’s good for us all to travel to a distant world and find ourselves experiencing the unimaginable challenges.
Take time out, put on your headphones and enter these adventures in sound. Here are some of my favourite audio books (and one of my own). Take a listen to some of the samples and travel to a world of adventure. These books have inspired me, I hope they inspire you too.
Simon McCartney: The Bond
We’ve all done it, stared at a photo in a magazine and thought, “What would it be like to be up there?” For Simon McCartney and Jack Roberts, two dedicated climbers from different sides of the Atlantic, it was a photograph of the unclimbed north face of Mount Huntingdon that changed their lives. No one thought it could be climbed such was the danger. Most of us walk away from challenges like but they did not and the climb they completed has never been repeated.
The two climbers followed that incredible feat with an equally challenging climb on Denali that almost cost one of them their lives. The two men formed an unbreakable bond on those climbs and, years later, joined together once more to face one last challenge. The Bond tells the award winning story of these climbs that have become legends.
Peter Boardman: The Shining Mountain
Written in 1978 this book was written in the golden age of Himalayan climbing. A time when there were many unclimbed peaks to conquer and when expeditions to find new routes and new challenges were flowing out from Britain. Himalayan climbers were heroes and household names, their exploits followed by every climber and hillwalker in Britain. I never managed to climb my shining mountain but listening to this book took me back to those early days and let me experience the thrill and hardship of those dramatic ascents.
I found this book immensely entertaining, frequently exciting and often funny. It transported me to those high mountains and world above the normal. That Boardman’s adventure began by spending nights sleeping in a frozen meat store in Salford only an hour from my home in Merseyside (people did that kind of thing in those days) brings it closer to me. Once there were heroes with dragons to slay.
There is no shortcut to greatness. Those who aspire do things beyond the range of most of us must be prepared to make the kind of sacrifices others will cannot tolerate. In some ways this is a book about obsession. In climbing the Dawn Wall, one of the hardest climbs not only the Yosemite valley but the world, Tommy Caldwell drove himself to the limit. He fell over and over again on the crux of this multi day climb until, eventually, he conquered it.
Sometimes I listened in disbelief at his determination to conquer this vertical world. That he did all this after losing a finger in an accident makes his achievement all the more incredible. Most of us couldn’t come close to what he did with all our fingers. Despite my admiration for the man the price he paid in terms of other aspects of his life was evident to see. He suffered divorce but eventually found love again. Caldwell was a driven man, his account of making this climb is as awe inspiring as the as the wall itself.
Here’s a little cheeky plug for my own book Sky Dance. You don’t have to be a member of the climbing elite to love our mountains. Sky Dance came from my passion for our hills and how appalled I was at how they were being treated. There are a lot of academic books on rewilding and the environment but I wanted to get the message across to the hillwalking fraternity in as entertaining way.
Sky Dance is full of larger than life characters who get themselves in sticky situations. It’s a about two hillwalkers who are frustrated by the lack of change in our mountains and take on the establishment. Lots of people have told me that the book made them aware of what is happening to our hills, just how abused they are by sporting estates. Stewart Crank has done a brilliant job of bringing my books to life. You’ll love taking this journey into the Scottish hills and maybe you’ll have a few laughs along the way.
Space Beneath my Feet: Gwen Moffat
Space Beneath my Feet was the first mountain book I ever read when I was a teenager in Merseyside. All those years ago I was tinged with more than a little sexism and I was astounded that a woman could dedicate her life to climbing. Over the years my attitude to female climbers has been changed by a number of women but Gwen Moffat was the first to put a dent in my sexism. Her story is one of someone whose zest for life and the mountains simply could not be contained within an ordinary existence. In her early years she deserted the army, just after the Second World War, and lived the life of a vagabond climber living on whatever she could find and climbing whenever she could.
That Moffat became the first ever female mountain guide is testimony enough for her ability to challenge convention. Her story may come from a time of hobnail boots and hemp climbing rope but her courage and tenacity is something to inspire us today. She can at least claim to have changed my attitude forever.
For as long as I can remember Chris Bonington has been the archetypal climber. When I was growing up he was the undisputed king of climbers. He was known across the world for his legendary climbs. In his memoir he recalls meeting the men of his time who were the superstars in an age when climbers were as well known as rock stars. He recounts meetings with men such as the great Don Whillans and Doug Scott. Bonington was the last of the old guard of climbers. His cut glass accent and military background were typical of the generation of climbers who had led the field before him. Whillans, however, was a plumber and after Bonington the class divide in climbing collapsed.
Bonington’s status in the world of mountaineering and his legacy of great ascents stands testimony to his ability not only as a climber but also as a man able to organise and to lead expeditions. Ascent marks the history of one of the great eras of climbing.
Vertebrate Publishing are offering 30% off all their titles including my own three books right now.
Thank you for that. Who reads Shining Mountain John?
I don’t know who reads it. It sells quite well although I suppose it’s a bit of a historical piece now.