More Great Climbing Books

Following up on my post Top Ten Climbing Books of All Time, here are 40 more titles that are well worth seeking out. These books offer good reading as well as historical perspectives. Some are out of print so it will take some effort to track them down. If you have more suggestions, please leave comments.

Barker, Ralph. The Last Blue Mountain. The 1957 Harmosh expedition.

Bates, Robert G. Five Miles High. First American K2 expedition in 1938.

Bechtold, Fritz: Nanga Parbat Adventure. Ten fatalities in 1934.

Boardman, Peter. The Shining Mountain. Two men on Changabang.

Bonatti, Walter. The Great Days. A more recent autobiography with more epic ascents.

Bonington, Chris. Annapurna: South Face. An epic ascent.

Brown, Joe. The Hard Years. One of the hardest of the hard.

Browne, Belmore. The Conquest of Mount McKinley. Written in 1913.

Burdsall, Richard. Men Against the Clouds. Americans on Minya Konka in 1932.

Clinch, Nicholas. A Walk in the Sky. Only American first ascent of an 8000 m peak, in 1958.

Davidson, Art. Minus 148º. Denali in winter, say no more.

Diemberger, Kurt. K2: The Endless Knot. The tragic summer of 1986.

Ferlet, René. Aconcagua: South Face. Epic first ascent in 1955.

Harding, Warren. Downward Bound. A humorous perspective of Yosemite and climbing in the early 1970’s.

Hargreaves, Alison. A Hard Day's Summer. Six classic north faces, solo.

Harrer, Heinrich. Seven Years in Tibet. A fantastic true story.

Heckmair, Anderl, My Life As a Mountaineer. Much more than the Eiger.

Herzog. Maurice. Annapurna. First conquest of an 8000 m peak, in 1950.

Hunt, John. The Ascent of Everest. The official account of the 1954 first ascent.

King, Clarence. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada. What they were doing in 1872 will surprise you.

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air. One perspective of the 1996 Everest fiasco.

Languepin, Jean-Jaques. To Kiss High Heaven. Missing climbers on Nanda Devi in 1951.

Maraini, Fosco. Karakoram: The Ascent of Gasherbrum IV. Incredibly difficult climb in 1958.

Messner, Reinhold. The Seventh Grade. Postulations on the future of climbing from a 1973 perspective.

Messner, Reinhold. Solo Nanga Parbat. Probably the best from the best.

Murray, William. Mountaineering In Scotland. Hard routes in the 1930’s.

Newby, Eric. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush. Afghanistan adventure in 1956.

Patey, Tom. One Man's Mountains. Wry Scottish humor and hardcore climbs.

Rebufatt, Gaston. Starlight and Storm. Six of the greatest north faces in the Alps.

Ridgeway, Rick. The Last Step. Americans on K2 in 1978.

Robinson, Doug. A Night On the Ground. Sierra Nevada climbing tales.

Roper, Steve. Camp 4. A controversial history of Yosemite’s Golden Age.

Rowell, Galen. The Vertical World of Yosemite. A classic about the Valley’s in the early 1970’s.

Shipton, Eric. Blank On The Map. One of the great explorers in the Karakoram.

Smythe, Frank. Camp Six. The 1933 Everest expedition.

Tasker Joe. Savage Arena. Hard climbs in the great ranges.

Tichy, Herbert. Cho Oyu. A successful small expedition in 1954.

Tilman, Bill. The Ascent of Nanda Devi. Brits and Americans join forces in 1936.

Whillans, Don. Portrait of a Mountaineer. The hardman’s hardman.

Whymper, Edward. Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69. One of the most famous mountaineering books ever published.