Recollections of a Great Mountaineer and His Mountains. [A Memoir of Edward Whymper.] Overprint from the Fell and Rock Climbing Club Journal. [With Plates, Including a Portrait.]. PDF Download

Author: George Dixon Abraham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 8

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Author: Leif Whittaker
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
ISBN: 1680510703
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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• A fresh perspective on a famous father and a legacy forged on the icy slopes of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak In 1963, the world followed the first American Mount Everest Expedition, and watched as “Big Jim” Whittaker became the first American to stand on top of the world. He returned home a hero. My Old Man and the Mountain is Leif Whittaker’s engaging and humorous story of what it was like to “grow up Whittaker”—the youngest son of Jim Whittaker and Dianne Roberts, in an extended family of accomplished climbers. He shares glimpses of his upbringing and how the pressure to climb started early on. Readers learn of his first adventures with family in the Olympic Mountains and on Mount Rainier; his close yet at times competitive relationship with his brother Joss; his battle with a serious back injury; and his efforts to stand apart from his father’s legacy. With wry honesty he depicts being a recent college grad, still living in his parents’ home and trying to find a purpose in life—digging ditches, building houses, selling t-shirts to tourists—until a chance encounter leads to the opportunity to climb Everest, just like his father did. Leif heads to Nepal with all the excitement, irony, boredom, and trepidation that are part of high-altitude climbing. Well-known guides Dave Hahn and Melissa Arnot figure prominently in his story, as does “Big Jim.” But Leif’s story is not his father’s story. It’s a unique coming of age tale on the steep slopes of Everest and a climbing adventure that lights the imagination and fills an emotional human endeavor with universal meaning.

Author: Lou Whittaker
Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
ISBN: 1594853878
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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* The only biography of this Northwest's climbing hero * Features 15 color photos * Remarkable stories of climbs on K2, Kangchenjunga, and Denali * Features stories about Jim Wickwire, Pete Schoening, John Roskelley, Joe Kennedy, Jr., Peter Whittaker, and Willi Unsoeld Lou Whittaker has been one of America's most respected climbers for more than four decades. He began his illustrious mountaineering career as a teenager in the Pacific Northwest, climbing insatiably with his twin brother, Jim. He earned coveted spots on expeditions to formidable peaks in Alaska, the Himalaya, and the Karakoram, and went on to lead the expedition that made the first American ascent of the North Col on Everest in 1984. To Northwesterners, Lou's name is synonymous with Mount Rainier, where he has guided thousands to its summit since his own first ascent of the mountain at age 19. In Lou Whittaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide, Lou is at his storytelling best as he shares adventures and wisdom honed from the wild times of his youth to his more recent climbs with some of the country's best mountaineers. Tales of life as a young mountain rescuer, and later as mentor to others, are filled with his trademark humor, boundless energy, and compassion. He weaves his simple and practical philosophy through memories of climbing with Jim Wickwire, Pete Schoening, John Roskelley, Joe Kennedy, Jr., and a host of other celebrities and VIPs. He recounts amazing episodes on Mount McKinley, K2, Everest, Kangchenjunga, and his beloved Mount Rainier. Evident and inspiring throughout are his love for climbing and for life -- even amidst the loss of friends and promising young proteges. When it comes down to dying, Lou says, "I want to know what it is like to have really lived."

Author: Doug Scott
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1910240427
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 667

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Winner: Himalayan Club Kekoo Naoroji Award for Mountain Literature 'A full and fascinating portrait of one of the great figures of mountaineering.' – Michael Palin 'As well as relaying the literal ups and downs of the biggest walls and highest mountains in the world, Scott writes with honesty about the emotional and personal peaks and troughs of a life where family relationships are put under strain and life itself is so often at risk.' – The Westmorland Gazette At dusk on 24 September 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington's epic expedition to the mountain's immense south-west face. As darkness fell, Scott and Haston scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever – without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller's prophecy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. Scott and Haston returned home national heroes with their image splashed across the front pages. Scott went on to become one of Britain's greatest ever mountaineers, pioneering new climbs in the remotest corners of the globe. His career spans the golden age of British climbing from the 1960s boom in outdoor adventure to the new wave of lightweight alpinism throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In Up and About, the first volume of his autobiography, Scott tells his story from his birth in Nottingham during the darkest days of war to the summit of the world. Surviving the unplanned bivouac without oxygen near the summit of Everest widened the range of what and how he would climb in the future. In fact, Scott established more climbs on the high mountains of the world after his ascent of Everest than before. Those climbs will be covered in the second volume of his life and times.

Author: Eric Shipton
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1911342665
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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'It is often from our setbacks, even our weaknesses, that we derive some of our greatest blessings.' That Untravelled World is the autobiography of one of the greatest adventurers of the twentieth century. Eric Shipton was a pioneering explorer, journeying to places that did not feature on maps and to unexplored mountains, such as the High Dauphiné. Shipton describes early childhood days filled with adventures; his first encounter with the high mountains on a visit to the Pyrenees, and the onset of his climbing career inspired by travels in Norway with a friend. He reminisces on first meeting infamous explorer H.W. 'Bill' Tilman, and their first expedition together to Mount Kenya. Tilman and Shipton were later to become one of the most famous climbing partnerships of all time. Filled with anecdotes from different periods of his life, Shipton takes us on his journey from Kilimanjaro and Mount Stanley alongside Tilman, his discovery of the route to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, summiting Mount Kamet with mountaineering icon Frank Smythe, and multiple expeditions to Everest. First published in 1969, That Untravelled World is the story of an adventurer who, inspired by Edward Whymper, travelled to feral landscapes across the globe, and has in turn inspired generations of climbers and mountaineers.

Author: Edward Whymper
Publisher: National Geographic
ISBN: 9780792269236
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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When he first saw the Alps in 1860, Edward Whymper was a 20-year-old English wood engraver whose dream was to become an arctic explorer. Ambitious and hungry for adventure, he fell in love with the challenge the Alps presented and set out to conquer them peak by peak. Whymper made quick work of the challenge, racking up dozens of first ascents and acquiring a reputation as one of the best in the nascent field of mountaineering. But on the Matterhorn, considered to be mountaineering's Holy Grail at the time, Whymper met with failure again and again. On his eighth attempted ascent he finally succeeded, becoming the first man to reach its magnificent peak. The victory came at a heavy cost, however, as Whymper watched four of his companions fall to their deaths on the descent. It was a tragedy that would cast a shadow over the remainder of his life. Published in 1871, Scrambles Amongst the Alps is Whymper's own story of his nine years spent climbing in the Alps. One of the first books devoted to the sheer thrill of mountaineering, it is a breathtaking account of the triumph of man over mountain in a time before thermal clothing, nylon ropes, global positioning systems, and air rescues. It also offers Whymper's controversial story of the tragedy on the Matterhorn. One of the best adventure books of all time, Scrambles Amongst the Alps is an essential classic of climbing literature by one of mountaineering's most legendary figures.

Author: Jim Whittaker
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
ISBN: 1594856672
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 466

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"My father's greatest living heroes were John Glenn and Jim Whittaker—a physical giant with a huge heart, a decent soul, and inspirational courage. We can all be grateful that Whittaker has finally put his extraordinary life on paper. Whittaker's story is a riveting saga of high adventure by one of history's greatest climbers." —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. * Special anniversary edition to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first American ascent of Mount Everest * New foreword by Ed Viesturs and a new afterword by the author * More than 100 photos, including several never-before-published images In May of 1963 Seattle mountaineer Jim Whittaker stepped into world history by becoming the first American to summit Mount Everest. Fifty years later, he is still regarded as a seminal figure in North American mountaineering, as well as an astute businessman who helped create the outdoor recreation industry. A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond is Jim's courageous, no-punches-pulled autobiography and a look at a peripatetic, sometimes difficult life. Beyond the glory of the Everest summit and his other extraordinary climbing feats, including the first American summit of K2, he openly describes his personal, "everyman" experience of social upheaval in the 1960s and 70s, an early divorce, family strife, a passionate new love later in life, near-bankruptcy, and business triumphs and losses. Jim tells it all with verve and honesty and, true to his nature, turns every setback into the stage for new adventure. This special 50th anniversary edition celebrates the story of Jim's life and features a new foreword by Ed Viesturs, as well as a new final chapter that brings readers up-to-date, including details of his trek to Everest Base Camp in 2012 and his son Leif's recent successful summits of Everest.

Author: Bradford Washburn
Publisher: Westwinds Press
ISBN: 9780882409078
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Here at last is the thrilling memoir of the legendary mountaineer Bradford Washburn, one of the last explorers and adventurers of the twentieth century. Drawing from decades of memories, journals, and an exquisite photographic collection, Washburn completes the self-portrait of a man drawn to altitude, from his first great climb of Mount Washington at age eleven, through numerous first ascents of peaks all over the world, to handily scaling a climbing wall at eighty-eight. Indeed, Washburn also became renowned for his pioneering work in aerial photography, his dedication to science and cartography, his decades of leading Boston's Museum of Science, and his close association with the National Geographic Society. This mountaineering icon candidly offers an intimate look at a life devoted to the world's highest places, to the friends who challenged the mountains with him, and to wife Barbara, who shared his adventures for nearly sixty-five years.

Author: Brian Ed Conway
Publisher: McCutchen Press
ISBN: 1446544907
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Author: Gerry Roach
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781502368454
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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In part two of his gripping autobiography, world-class climber Gerry Roach continues his action-packed tales of mountaineering around the world. His stories are laced with a hard-edged reality that is tempered by his spiritual growth. Ride the Breath follows his continuing quests, picking up where his first book, Transcendent Summits, ends.This candid memoir takes you to some of Earth's most captivating peaks and lands: the Tetons, the North Cascades, the Canadian Rockies and Yukon, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, the Antarctic, Rainier, Iceland, Norway, the Alps, Africa's fabled Kilimanjaro, the Australian outback, Tasmania, New Zealand, and Hawaii. In each of these stories, Gerry better defines the edges between risk and reward, lust and loss, dreamtime and terrortime and, perhaps most important, transcendence and transgression. Gerry has a unique ability to takes his readers into the mountains with him and hold them on multiple belays. In the end, the life lessons learned transcend his climbs, allowing Gerry to include his readers on his climb for peace, which becomes an ever-growing Odyssean exploration.348 pages total. This color edition has 161 color photos and 5 black and white photos.