Everest the Cruel Way

Everest the Cruel Way

Author: Joe Tasker

Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1906148740

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On 30 January 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible. Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker's story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth - an attempt which pushed a group of Britain's finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter. Tasker's epic account vividly describes experiences which no climber had previously endured. Close up and personal, it is a gripping account of day to day life on expedition and of the struggle to live at high altitude. Joe Tasker was one of Britain's best mountaineers. He was a pioneer of lightweight, Alpine-style climbing in the Greater Ranges and had a special talent for writing. He died, along with his friend Peter Boardman, high on Everest in 1982 while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers.


Savage Arena

Savage Arena

Author: Joe Tasker

Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 427

ISBN-13: 1906148759

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I could never again maintain that I was caught up in this game unwillingly. I knew now what I wanted to do. Willingly would I accept the hardship and fear, the discipline and the sacrifices, if only I could be given back the chance to climb that mountain.' Joe Tasker lies, struck down by a tooth abscess, in a damp, bug-infested room in the Himalaya, wondering if he will be well enough to climb Dunagiri, his first venture to the 'big' mountains. He is there with Dick Renshaw to attempt to make a two-man ascent of the Peak - one of the first true Alpine-style expeditions to the Greater Ranges; an attempt that forms part of this tale of adventure in the savage vertical arena of hostile mountains. Joe Tasker was one of Britain's foremost mountaineers. A pioneer of lightweight mountaineering and a superbly gifted writer, in Savage Arena he vividly describes his participation in the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger; his first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang with Peter Boardman - considered to be a preposterous plan by the established climbing world; the first ascent of the North Ridge of Kangchenjunga; and his two unsuccessful attempts to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. This is a story of single-minded determination, strength and courage in a pursuit which owes much of its value and compulsion to the risks entailed - risks which often stimulate superlative performances. It is also a story of the stresses, strains and tensions of living in constant anxiety, often with only one other person, for long periods in which one is never far from moments of terror, and of the close and vital human relationships which spring from those circumstances. It is a moving, exciting and inspirational book about the adventuring spirit which seeks endless new climbing challenges to face, alluring problems to solve and difficulties to overcome, for it is not reaching the summit which is important, but the journey to it. Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman died on Everest in 1982, while attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Tasker's first book, Everest the Cruel Way, was first published in 1981. Savage Arena, his second book, was completed just before he left for Everest. Both books have become mountaineering classi. The literary legacy of Tasker and Boardman lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com 'The most riveting book on climbing that I have ever read.' Chris Bonington 'A gripping story of tremendous courage and unbelievable endurance.' Sir Edmund Hillary


Into the Silence

Into the Silence

Author: Wade Davis

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2011-10-18

Total Pages: 596

ISBN-13: 0307700569

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The definitive story of the British adventurers who survived the trenches of World War I and went on to risk their lives climbing Mount Everest. On June 6, 1924, two men set out from a camp perched at 23,000 feet on an ice ledge just below the lip of Everest’s North Col. George Mallory, thirty-seven, was Britain’s finest climber. Sandy Irvine was a twenty-two-year-old Oxford scholar with little previous mountaineering experience. Neither of them returned. Drawing on more than a decade of prodigious research, bestselling author and explorer Wade Davis vividly re-creates the heroic efforts of Mallory and his fellow climbers, setting their significant achievements in sweeping historical context: from Britain’s nineteen-century imperial ambitions to the war that shaped Mallory’s generation. Theirs was a country broken, and the Everest expeditions emerged as a powerful symbol of national redemption and hope. In Davis’s rich exploration, he creates a timeless portrait of these remarkable men and their extraordinary times.


The Boardman Tasker Omnibus

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus

Author: Peter Boardman

Publisher: The Mountaineers Books

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 938

ISBN-13: 9780898864366

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Collects four out-of-print classic climbing books: Tasker's Savage Arena and Everest the Cruel Way, and Boardman's The Shining Mountain and Sacred Summits.


The Shining Mountain

The Shining Mountain

Author: Peter Boardman

Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing

Published: 2013-10-01

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 1906148767

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'It's a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, I think it'll be the hardest thing that's been done in the Himalayas.' So spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unclimbed West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington's was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya and an ascent - particularly one in a lightweight style - would be more significant than anything done on Everest at the time. The idea had been Joe Tasker's. He had photographed the sheer, shining, white granite sweep of Changabang's West Wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year. Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman's story, which starts with acclimatisation, sleeping in a Salford frozen food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in forty days of isolation on a two-man expedition; as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds. First published in 1978, The Shining Mountain is Peter Boardman's first book. It is a very personal and honest story that is also amusing, lucidly descriptive, very exciting, and never anything but immensely readable. It was awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize for literature in 1979, winning wide acclaim. His second book, Sacred Summits, was published shortly after his death in 1982. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com


Everest

Everest

Author: Thomas F. Hornbein

Publisher: The Mountaineers Books

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9780898866162

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Details the author and his partner Willi Unsoeld's ascent of Everest's West Ridge in 1963.


On the Edge

On the Edge

Author: Alison Levine

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Published: 2014-01-07

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 145554485X

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On the Edge is an engaging leadership manual that provides concrete insights garnered from various extreme environments ranging from Mt Everest to the South Pole. By reflecting on the lessons learned from her various expeditions, author Alison Levine makes the case that the leadership principles that apply in extreme adventure sport also apply in today's extreme business environments. Both settings require you to be able to make crucial decisions on the spot when the conditions around you are far from perfect. Your survival -and the survival of your team-depend on it. Featuring a Foreword from legendary Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski who knows all about leadership, On the Edge provides a framework to help people scale whatever big peaks they aspire to climb-be they literal or figurative-by offering practical, humorous, and often unorthodox advice about how to grow as a leader.


The Trek

The Trek

Author: David Schachne

Publisher: Relevant Corporation LLC

Published: 2013-09-05

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 0989766101

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The Trek tells the story of David Schachne's adventure in November, 2004, attempting to summit Kala Patthar, a mountain which towers above Everest Base Camp in the Himalayas. At 18,192 feet above sea level, the summit of Kala Patthar offers successful climbers one of the most amazing views of Mount Everest (29,035 feet) without having to put your life at risk by entering the Khumbu Icefall, or by climbing Mount Lhotse or Mount Nuptse. Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Schachne loved visiting the great outdoors as a teenager, going camping and hiking in the Catskills and Adirondacks. Throughout his early adult life, he had a burning desire to go trekking in the Himalayas. He believed going there would make his life more fulfilled. Schachne certainly didn't expect his trek to be a "walk in the park", but he was ill-prepared for what was in store for him. Climbing for hours and hours each day while mentally and physically exhausted; confronting sub-freezing temperatures; dealing with illness, high altitude sickness, piercing headaches, wretched odors, utter filth, bacterial infections, dysentery and more, he endured two weeks of pure, nightmarish misery. In this riveting account of his gut-wrenching trek over fourteen sleepless days and nights, while malnourished, Schachne takes you along on each and every step of his journey. You'll experience the ups and downs of the hills and valleys, and the highs and lows of his personal triumphs and chaotic travails. He flies from Kathmandu in Nepal to the most dangerous airport in the world (Tenzing Hillary Airport), in a town called Lukla, then hikes to Phadking and Namche Bazaar, a virtual flea market at 11,000 feet, then Thyangboche Monastery and then Dingboche, Dzugla, Lobuche and Gorak Shep, before finally attempting the summit. Schachne reveals what originally led him to fall in love with nature, why he was so determined to go to the Himalayas, and why he persevered despite the brutal bodily punishment he experienced. Join Schachne for the most entertaining adventure of your life, as he takes you along on this thrilling, harrowing and laugh and cry-out-loud journey.