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A few words on the many mountaineering books I've amassed over the years. Next time I go down the library I'll make some notes on the books I've had out from there but forgotten about. |
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Must read | |
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Good | |
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Passes the time | |
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Don't bother |
| The Handbook of Climbing - Fyffe and Peter |
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THE manual of climbing. A definite must have and constant source of reference material. | |
| The Complete Guide to Modern Rope Techniques - Nigel Sheperd |
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Useful source of info on ropework for rock climbing. Covers SPA and MIA award schemes. Complementary to Fyffe and Peters. Recently updated to consolidate two books into one. | |
| Mountain Weather - David Pedgley |
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If you think you will be able to forecast the weather after reading this, think again. Curious layout as each chapter is about a particular weather situation, the book then explains what's happening. | |
| Mountaincraft and Leadership - Langmuir |
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Until very recently this was the standard text book for the ML scheme. Hopelessly outdated. Covers summer hill walking then jumps into ice climbing - quite who is it aimed at? Also covers weather and first aid. The kit list is in the realms of fantasy, you'll need a team of Sherpas to carry it all, but the kit is miraclassly shrunk for the diagram of packing a rucksac. The MLTB have just published a new ML text book, hopefully its better than this. Avoid. | |
Guide books |
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| Scotland's Winter Mountains - Martin Moran |
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Sort of a cross between a text book, history book and a guide book. Not very good on the guide book bit but very good on the other stuff. Its not the sort of book you read from cover to cover, you pick it up and read from anywhere. |
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| Cold Climbs - Wilson |
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The pick of Scottish winter climbs. Lots of pictures and detailed route descriptions plus good tales from the authors. Impractical to take on the hill though. |
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| The High Mountains of The Alps. Dumler |
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Large format glossy coffee table book of the 4000 m peaks. Route descriptions of the popular ways up. Other than the pictures (lots), not a great deal more information than a normal guide book, but worth it for the pictures. |
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| Everest - Gillman |
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What do you expect, a book about Everest. Another coffee table book. Lots of history and good essays together with the obligatory glossy pictures. |
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| Eiger - Vertical Arena, Daniel Anker |
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Curious layout, the Heckmair route is described by chapter numbers and full page photographs. The chapters themselves go into the history of the mountain and ascents. |
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| The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland - Irvine Butterfield |
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Details of all the major peaks in the UK and Ireland including photos and sketch maps plus a short description of the more popular walking routes. The little sketch maps show routes, ridges, paths, lakes, woods, etc. An amazing amount of detail is crammed into a single book. |
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| Exploring the South of Ireland - Paddy Dillon |
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Very detailed guide to some of the best walks in SW Ireland. Includes sketch maps and height profiles. Photos of the routes. Let down as there's no sketch map (as in High Mountains of Britain and Ireland) of all the ridges. Nevertheless, if you don't know the area then you're off to a flying start with this book. Combine it with High Mountains of Britain and Ireland and you're on to a winning combination. |
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| Classic Rock - Ken Wilson |
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55 of the supposedly best mid grade rock climbs in the UK. Similar style and layout to Cold Climbs. Some very obvious omissions, but then who's to say my ideas of the best climbs are correct? |
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| World Mountaineering - Salkeld |
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A coffee table guide book for armchair mountaineers |
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| Matterhorn Vision - Brian Bonner |
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One man's dream of climbing (being dragged up by a guide) the Matterhorn. Only saving grace is it's cheap else it would be no stars. |
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| The Mountains of Ireland, Paddy Dillon |
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Hopeless. Save your money. | |
Non Fiction |
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| The White Spider - Heinrick Harrer |
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The original story of the first ascent on the Eiger N Face. Absolute timeless classic, you won't want to put it down. The story of Toni Kurz is harrowing. This is one book that every mountaineer should have read. |
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| Touching the void - Joe Simpson |
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Classic of all classics, you don't get a Boardman-Tasker award for writing crap. |
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| This game of ghosts - Joe Simpson |
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History of Mr Simpson's early years on the hills. The bits on ice climbing and the drive down the Karokoram Highway are particularly entertaining. The entertainment value is diminished as the death toll of his friends mounts. |
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| The Boardman Tasker Omnibus - Boardman and Tasker |
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Four books in one and fine print so excellent value for money. These guys were good, they loved the mountains, they started off with naive enthusiasm and pushed the envelope pioneering lightweight expeditions and capsule style ascents in the Himalaya. |
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| The Wildest Dream - Mallory his life and conflicting passions, Peter and Leni Gillman |
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Biography of George Mallory. Extremely well written and researched. Details all his trips to the Alps and North Wales, he climbed an awful lot of routes that I didn't know about. Curiously there's no mention of him carrying a picture of Ruth on that fateful day in 1924. |
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| The Beckoning Silence - Joe Simpson |
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Typical Simpson but not his best. |
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| Dark Shadows Falling - Joe Simpson |
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Makes you examine your own ethics, is climbing Everest more important than someone else's life?. |
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| Ghosts of Everest, The authorized story of the search for Mallory and Irvine. Hemmleb |
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One of the obligatory books that came out after Mallory's body was found. Did they or didn't they? (the auther gives the evidence and the options and leaves you to decide). Well written and well illustrated. To some extent superceded now by Detectives on Everest (same author) which is based on a further expedition to Everest in 2001. |
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| Detectives on Everest. Hemmleb |
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Story of the 2001 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition to
Everest. Not a particularly brilliant buy if you've already got Ghosts of
Everest as a fair bit of that book is covered in this, however, its far from
an updated version so you still ought to read both. Not the same WOW! factor
as Ghosts as they didn't hit gold in quite the same way; they did find all
the British and Chinese camps though and mapped these out to fit various
theories. The biggest find was after the expedition when they interviewed
the 1960 Chinese climbers. This is in the epilogue. I won't tell you what
happened, but expect another expedition and another book... Perhaps one star is a bit hash, but its not quite as good as Ghosts. |
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| Regions of the Heart - Riose and Douglas |
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Biography of Alison Hargreaves. |
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| Tibets Secret Mountain - The Triumph of Sepu Kangri - Chris Bonnington |
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Story of Bonnington trying to climb Sepu Kangri. Average read about an average series of expeditions but not particularly inspiring. |
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| The Kurt Diemberger Ominbus Spirits of the Air Summits and Secrets The Endless Knot
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Don't waste money. I only got half way through it before giving up. Disjointed, rambling, and the translation into English doesn't help. |
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