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.

Galley Time

Just shipped the galleys for my training book so getting that ready was I haven't posted lately. For those of you who haven't published books, there are several stages of editing after a manuscript is turned in. 

First an editor goes through and fixes all the grammar mistakes you made (out of 100,000 words, you can bet there are a few) and they ask questions and make suggestions. All of this comes back to you as a hard copy printout and you get a week or two approve changes and add new content.

Then next step is called the galley. This is the first rough layout of the book, sans the photos. It is the authors last chance to make substantial changes. So when you ship the galleys back, your book is pretty much a done deal.

I'll get to look at it one more time in the form of proofs, which is my last chance to correct mistakes. But the catch is that no changes can affect layout. So if you add 5 words, you have to take out 5 from somewhere on the same page (usually). It's pretty much impossible to add a sentence or paragraph. 

Then it's off to the printer. And I should see a new book around July.

This really is a new book, even though it's a second edition. It went from six chapters to nine. I don't know the final page count but I'm guessing it will go from 240 pages to near 300. I've added a lot of content, took out some exercises and included new ones, and recommended roughly 40 products for training or recovery. Hopefully it will help some people have more fun!

So now that the galley has shipped, I begin collecting information for the third edition that may appear in five years. That's part of the reason I started this blog.

Top Ten Climbing Books of All Time

Among the many great things about climbing are a rich history and great literature. Unfortunately, many of today's climbers are unfamiliar with this legacy.

A while ago, I polled some friends with extensive book collections to see what they consider the best reads of all time. I gathered lists from Bob Ader, Fred Barth, Greg Crouch, Jim Moss, Gary Neptune, and myself. There were over 50 books suggested but many of the titles were recommended multiple times.

The following list is ordered by the number of recommendations. These are truly must-reads for any climber or armchair adventurer. Start with these books if you can find them (several are out of print). Later, I will post the list of 40 runner-ups.

1. Joe Simpson. Touching the Void. Epic survival in the Peruvian Alps.

2. Walter Bonatti. On the Heights. One of the alpine greats.

3. Heinrich Harrer. The White Spider. First ascent of the Eiger’s North Face.

4. Felice Benuzzi. No Picnic On Mt. Kenya. An incredible ascent in WW II.

5. Hermann Buhl. Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage. Messner considers him one of the best.

6. Tom Hornbein. Everest: The West Ridge. First traverse of Everest, in 1963.

7. Charles Houston. K2: The Savage Mountain. Near disaster in 1953.

8. Lionel Terray. Conquistadors of the Useless. Best book title ever and a good read.

9. Kurt Diemberger. Summits and Secrets. One of two men who made first ascents of two 8000 meter peaks (Buhl was the other).

10. Albert Mummery. My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus. A mountaineering classic first published in 1895.

New Performance Book on the way

Over the past few months, I have been working on a new edition of my book Climbing: Training for Peak Performance. To say that it is revised would be an understatement!

Since it was published over six years ago, I have continued to follow the science of nutrition and sports with great interest. During that time, I've been filing away notes, articles, and papers which I knew would be useful. I've also been following trends in the fitness industry such as the rise of CrossFit, kettlebells, functional training, and other concepts.

The new edition, which should be out around August 2008, is greatly updated and expanded. I took out some exercises that I no longer consider time efficient and added others that give more bang for the buck. There are three new chapters to help readers find information. And I have included recommendations on numerous specific products that can enhance training and recovery.

Over the next few months, I will use this blog to provide additional information on training for better outdoor performance. Although my book is specific to climbers, my own interests include many other sports. Sometimes there will be product reviews. Sometimes links to other blogs or articles. We'll see how this develops.