For those of you interested in mountain conquest attempts, I recommend "Kingdom of Adventure:Everest", by James Ramsey Ullman, published in 1947, hence pre- Hillary success.st. Mainly about Mallory's expeditions, with maps and correspondence from many of the participant's of the 1920's attempts. Fascinating. I have a copy of the book, out of print for many a year, but I found the attached that's readable (on my system at least). Brave, crazy buggers they were. please log in to view this image https://archive.org/details/kingdomofadventu009327mbp
Cheers for that - haven't read it. Just found the documentary on you-tube so about to watch it...means a couple more beers before bed ! What a remarkable story...I'm sure you'll have watched it, but if not, here it is. It's well worth the couple of hours watch for anyone else interested it real life drama... Thanks again Plum.
Two things: I've found Joe Simpson's work a bit over dramatic. If you want a fantastic climbing book to read try The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer which is the harrowing account of an attempted ascent of the Death Wall on the Eiger by Toni Kurz back in 1936. There is a docudrama on youtube about this as well. Secondly, if you want to see an excellent climb in action have a search for Leo Houlding's preparation and climb of Mt Asgard on Baffin Island, also on youtube. Houlding has climbed El Cap and Half Dome in 24 hours!!
Into the Silence by Wade Davies. Explains that most of the early Everest pioneers were First World War survivors so mountaineering was a breeze for them.
Oh I realised, just that I was already here as I was interested in reading it as I have been to Yosemite. I didn't open up the thread (possibly read it) just to say 'completely pointless'.
Unfortunately, I'm absolutely ****-scared of even minor heights, so climbing has always been out of the question for me, but I absolutely love programmes on the subject.
Alain Robert is a French speed climber, more celebrity than hero, but impressive all the same. And to reiterate the original point of the thread he's a complete nutter! See this...
