Mt Whitney Zone Forums The Chat Room "The Bookshelf"

I keep coming across random recommondations for great hiking/mountaineering related books, but when I try to remember the names of the books, or the threads they were mentioned on......I forget (all of the above)

Even if you have mentioned them before, please list the names of your favorite hiking/mountaineering books (and add an purchase link to be really savvy!) This way, I can use this thread as my own private library reference.

I will begin with the story of a young boy meeting an ancient Apache and the apprenticeship in the wild that ensues:

The Tracker

Bee, this is my all time favorite:

especially Joe Tasker the master of empathetic mountain writing.
If you want to FEEL what it is like to be at extreme altitude, read the 4-books-in-one Boardman-Tasker Omnibus.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boardman-Taske...3313&sr=1-1

Worst Journey in the World.

We did mention it on the WITWHH thread.

Here is the Amazon link.

You can read the whole book on the Gutenberg Project.

I may not have the time and stamina to gain as much experience as others on these boards, but at the very least I can try to gain knowledge by reading/following the happenings on these boards and in books such as:

Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite
Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon
Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

It may seem morbid, but I'd rather learn from other's mistakes than my own!

For that matter, how about some links to good SAR incident sites?

Thank you SO much for starting this thread! I've thought the exact same thing so many times... 'What was that book again?'

=) tif

Bee, I have the same problem with forgetting.

What I have started doing is whenever someone recommends, I immediately go to Amazon, find the book, and add it to my wish list. Then it is there forever, and I can look it up from anywhere....like when I'm at the library.

My personal favorites are Reinhold Messner's accounts of his ground-breaking solo ascents of Nanga Parbat and Everest, in 1978 and 1980 respectively:

Solo Nanga Parbat

The Crystal Horizon

Death, Daring, & Disaster - Search and Rescue in the National Parks

The Last Season The Last Season examines the extraordinary life of legendary backcountry ranger Randy Morgenson and his mysterious disappearance in California's unforgiving Sierra Nevada—mountains as perilous as they are beautiful.

Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival

Two sides of the tragic 96 season on Mt Everest
The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster

Not a mountain, but truly topical. Transit of Venus: 1631 to the Present (Amazon).

One of my favorites is Tents in the Clouds

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...sl_7v5fqupg75_e

Patty

I popped over to Amazon; this book looks intriquing, and it has been around for a while (40 years) and I had not heard of it.

We have a very similar taste - both are my favorites by Messner. I met the man on his book tour/slide show for the Chrystal Horizon book - live in person, he was even more mesmerizing, so much so that 30 years later I am still going into the mountains.

Bee, to pick up on the female list , here are all the women from my library.

There a few editorial comments in there. As you know I like to glean quotes.

My favorites are Maria Coffey and Arlene Blum


Mountain Bibliography - female

Abbott, Cindy
Reaching Beyond The Clouds. From Undiagnosed to Climbing Mt. Everest
ISBN 0615482910

Allison, Stacy
Peter Carlin
Beyond the Limits. A Woman's Triumph On Everest
Little, Brown, Boston 1993
ISBN 0-316-03468-1

Blum, Arlene
Annapurna: A Womans Place, 1980
20th edition 1998
Sierra Club Books, San Francisco
ISBN 1-57805-022-7
Arlene Blum- in 1978 organized a team of ten women to climb 8,091m Annapurna.
Arlene Blum (born 1945) is an American mountaineer. She is best known for her all-woman ascent of Annapurna (I), a climb that was also the first successful American ascent. She also was a deputy leader of the first all-woman ascent of Mount McKinley and was the first woman to attempt to ascend Mount Everest.
Arlene Blum, who organized women to climb Annapurna, Arlene Blum is an impassioned feminist and outspoken advocate for mountaineering as a metaphor for life's challenges


Coffey, Maria
Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow 2003
Arrow Books Random House, London 2004
ISBN 0 09 043608 6
Maria Coffey- Joe Tasker was her boyfriend, lost on Everest in 1986. See Tasker. Her incredibly introspective book came 17 years later. *HVL
Joe Tasker's girlfriend Maria Coffey writes on parchment in. *HVL
Maria saw mountaineers' optimism despite knowing herself where the mountain casts its shadow (the name of her book).*HVL
Maria Coffey is originally from England, and now lives on a small island in British Columbia. She and her husband Dag Goering spend part of each year in Ireland, where Dag practises as a large animal veterinarian. They also work as professional sea-kayaking and trekking guides, leading trips in Vietnam, the Solomon Islands, Ireland and Canada. Coffey is the author of a number of internationally published books,

Coffey, Maria
Fragile Edge. Loss on Everest
Harbour Publishing, Madiera Park British Columbia 1989
ISBN 1-55017-218-2


Coffey, Maria
Explorers of the Infinite
Penguin Group, London 2008
ISBN 978-1-58542-651-5

Gammelgaard, Lene
Climbing High. A Woman's Account of Surviving The Everest Tragedy 1996
Pan Books, London 2000
ISBN 0 330 39227 1
Surprised her title did not include "Danish Woman's." She annoyingly mentioned it umpteen times along with other self-centered comments.


Jackson, Monica and Stark, Elizabeth
Tents in the Clouds. The First Women's Himalayan Expedition. 1956 ( Collins, London)
Seal Press, Seattle, 2000
ISBN 1-58005-033-6
In 1955, just two years after Hillary's historic first ascent of Everest, these women formed the first all-female expedition into the Jugal Himal of Nepal.

Johnson, Alexa - biographer
Reaching the Summit. Edmund Hillary's Life of Adventure 2005
DK Publishing, New York 2005
ISBN 0-7566-1527-5

McDonald, Bernadette
Brotherhood of the Rope. The Biography of Charles Houston. 2007
The Mountaineers, Seattle 2007

Muir, Brigette
The Wind in My Hair - some 1996 Everest info, otherwise awful book, no quotes
Viking/Penguin, Australia, 1998
ISBN 0 670 87955 X

O'Dowd, Cathy
Just for the love of it. The first woman to climb Mount Everest from both sides. 1999
Free to Decide Publishing, La Massana, Andorra 2008
ISBN 0-620-24782-7

Reynolds, Jan in
Gillette, Ned
Reynolds, Jan
Everest Grand Circle. A Climbing and Skiing Adventure through Nepal and Tibet
The Mountaineers, Seattle 1985
ISBN 0-89886-111-X


Salkeld, Audrey in
Holzel, Tom and Salkeld, Audrey
The Mystery of Mallory and Irvine first published 1986

Salkeld, Audrey in
Breashears, David and Salkeld, Audrey
Last Climb. The Legendary Everest Expeditions of George Mallory 1999
National Geographic Society, Washington DC 1999
ISBN 0-7922-7538-1

Salkeld, Audrey in
Holzel, Tom & Salkeld, Audrey
First On Everest
Henry Holt, New York
ISBN 0-8050-0303-7


Salkeld, Audrey in
Messner, Reinhold and Salkeld, Audrey
Everest. Expedition to the Ultimate 1978
The Mountaineers, Seattle, 1999
ISBN 0-89886-648-0

Salkeld, Audrey-translator in
Messner, Reinhold
Neate, Jill - translator
Salkeld, Audrey-translator
The Crystal Horizon. Everest -The First Solo Ascent 1982
The Mountaineers, Seattle 1989
ISNB 0-89886-574-3


Stark, Elizabeth
Jackson, Monica and Stark, Elizabeth
Tents in the Clouds. The First Women's Himalayan Expedition.


Summers,Julie
Fearless on Everest. The Quest for Sandy Irvine - No quotes
The Mountaineers, Seattle, 2000
ISBN 0-89886-796-7

Tullis, Julie
Clouds from Both Sides 1986
Sierra Club, San Francisco, 1987

Wow. Thanks, Harvey for taking the time to list these books.

I saw one that I recognized "Brotherhood of the Rope" and it reminded me of another that I saw on the REI shelf: "K2, The Savage Mountain" (or something like that). It looked good - are you familiar with it?

Bee, I have been accumulating that list for 20 yrs, so picking out the women was easy, just a click or two of the mouse. Both books you mentioned are excellent. Bernadette is famous at the Banff Center and her book about Charlie Houston(and his own book zbout K2) is outstanding. I'll send a quote or two later-I really should store them on Google docs so I can access them anywhere.

here it is

" How can I phrase what seems to be the most important question of all? It is the chance to be briefly free of the small concerns of our common lives, to strip off nonessentials, to come down to the core of life itself. …On great mountains all purpose is concentrated on the single job at hand, yet the summit is but a token of success, and the attempt is worthy in itself."
Charles Houston in Houston and Bates, K2 the Savage Mountain, page 24

Charlie Houston was famous for being part of the reconnaisance seeing the Western Cwm before Hillary and crew went up in 1953, for being one of the grandfathers of high altitude medicine - reporting HACE in the NEJM as a separate entity different from congestive heart failure, performing Operation Everest in hypobaric chambers for high altitude research and training of pilots to recognize hypoxia, and lastly, in his book reporting so eloquently how it felt on K2 during one of mountaineering's most famous accidents (and the belay by Pete Schoening holding the whole team) and the ill-fated attempt to rescue the dying Art Gilkey.

Hi Bee,

This is the next book I plan on reading:

A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond (Kindle Edition)
Jim Whittaker
Jim Whittaker (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Jim Whittaker Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
(Author), Edward M. Kennedy (Foreword), John Glenn (Foreword)


Book Description

Publication Date: August 31, 1999
There have been many "firsts" in Jim Whittaker's life. He was the first North American to summit Mount Everest. As the first manager and employee, and ultimately the CEO, of fledgling Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI), he guided the company through years of record-setting growth. He guided Bobby Kennedy up the newly named Mount Kennedy, helping him to become the first person to summit the Canadian peak. He lead the first and only International Peace Climb, which put climbers from the U.S., Russia, and China on the summit of Everest in the name of world peace.
Contrary to what many people might think, Jim Whittaker's career neither began nor culminated with that famous first ascent of Everest. His achievement on Everest and his many successes before and after are, rather, the natural outcome of a life driven by a passion for outdoor adventure combined with strong leadership qualities and a commitment to making a difference. In A Life on the Edge, readers will discover a true hero -- someone who inspires others to seek challenges in their own lives.


Hmmmm, I wonder if the CEO of Adventure 16 has written a book.

Here is an old tale, which includes buying and selling a lady, and the invention of the sleeping bag.

You might recognize the author.

Free from The Gutenberg Project. Buy from Amazon.

Wagga,

I think I would like this book. At first I thought the book was written by Gutenberg but I was wrong and pleasantly surprised when I clicked on the link to see a surprise author. Nice suggestion you have made, AND IT IS FREE! WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE. Hmmmmm, if it is free why is it offered at Amazon, I think I should re-read what I just read.

This was somewhat of an excuse to bring up The Gutenberg Project, which is a marvelous effort to bring out of print books back to life. The project has 39,000 free books to date, all copyright free. And free - as in free!

Travels was first posted as a WITWHH puzzle, and (little secret here) is also a clue for What In The World Happened Here? CXXXII (132).