Mountain Survival

"It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas." Thus spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unscaled 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.

Endless ice. Thin air. The threat of dropping into nothingness thousands of feet below. This is the climb Silvia Vasquez-Lavado braves in her pulse-raising memoir. A Latina hero in the elite macho tech world of Silicon Valley, privately, she was hanging by a thread. Deep in the throes of alcoholism, hiding her sexuality from her family, and repressing the abuse she’d suffered as a child, she started climbing. She then took her biggest pain as a survivor to the biggest mountain: Everest.

In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Mount Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceives his own crazy, beautiful plan: He will fly a plane from England to Everest, crash-land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit — completely alone.

A billionaire with dubious intentions. An expedition gone wrong. And a terrifying discovery 100,000 years in the making. Never wake a sleeping giant.

In the gritty streets of North Philadelphia, survival is not just an option—it’s a requirement. Amber-Rainne Mercedes Johnson, known on the streets as "Duchess," has learned that lesson early. At just 14, she’s already living the life of a seasoned survivor, juggling the legacy of her father—a kingpin in the city’s criminal underworld—and the heartache of her mother’s descent into addiction. The concrete jungle she calls home is ruled by crime, betrayal, and unforgiving power plays. But Duchess is not alone. Across Philly’s fractured landscape, five other teens—each from ...

An accurate and personal record from one of America's first breed of mountain men, giving a detailed description of many the lands he passed through and the habits and character of the various tribes encountered.

An inheritance or a lottery and nothing more nor less would have every brought this city slicker couple to this Godforsaken place with mountains and snow as far as one could see. A no man's land with no Internet, no satellite, and no cell phone service. And, not to mention the move-in day in the dead of Winter! But, desperate times call for desperate measures. They embark upon a journey, that will forever change their lives!

Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown.

The Last Great Mountain tells the story of the first ascent of Kangchenjunga the third highest but reputedly the hardest mountain in the world. It was an astonishing achievement for a British team led by Everest veteran Charles Evans. Drawing on interviews, diaries and unpublished accounts, Mick Conefrey begins his story in 1905 with the disastrous first attempt on the mountain by a team led by Aleister Crowley, explores the three dramatic German expeditions of the the late 1920s and brings it all to a climax 50 years later with the first ascent by Joe Brown and George Band.

What does it take to be one of the world's best high-altitude mountain climbers? A lot of fundraising; traveling in some of the world's most dangerous countries; enduring cold bivouacs, searing lungs, and a cloudy mind when you can least afford one. It means learning the hard lessons the mountains teach. Steve House built his reputation on ascents throughout the Alps, Canada, Alaska, the Karakoram, and the Himalaya that have expanded possibilities of style, speed, and difficulty.

A masterpiece of compelling narrative history, The White Ladder describes the epic rise of mountaineering's world altitude record, a story of ever higher climbs by figures great and small of mountaineering. Daniel Light describes how climbers used revolutionary techniques to launch themselves into the most forbidding conditions. The expeditions illustrate evolutionary changes in climbing style, the advancement of high-altitude science, and the development of mountain climbing as an industry.

Met Driscoll meets with the aliens again. This time the Earth is in peril. He learns that the Moon is an artificial creation of an ancient evil race. ----------- Excerpts ----------- As Met returned, the outer gear or space suits melted away from the aliens like some magic trick. The creatures were surprisingly human-like in their appearance but with scaled light green skin. *** A slowly rotating 3D hologram of the Moon hung in the air in front of the nearest alien. "This Moon of yours exposed your history. It should have been obvious to us from the beginning. The Moon's mass is only 1.2 ...

For 18 years, Ed Viesturs pursued climbing's holy grail: to stand atop the world's 14 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.

Not a technical guide on snowboarding but, rather, a very personal approach to how to think about mountains, snow, and adventure, The Art of Shralpinism reflects the remarkable journey of snowboarding superstar Jeremy Jones. Drawing on the hundreds of journals he has kept over the years, Jones offers intriguing snapshots of time and place that include his own on-the-slope stories and white-out moments, as well as those of other prominent adventurers such as Jimmy Chin, Zahan Billimoria, and Christina Lusti.

On April 25, 2015, Jim Davidson was climbing Mount Everest when a 7.8 magnitude earthquake released avalanches all around him and his team, destroying their only escape route and trapping them at nearly 20,000 feet. It was the largest earthquake in Nepal in 81 years and killed about 8,900 people. That day also became the deadliest in the history of Everest, with 18 people losing their lives on the mountain.

The most accomplished mountain runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climbs of Mount Everest in this profound memoir - an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth’s highest peak to the soul’s deepest reaches.

In the 1970s, a group of astronomers tracking a fragment from the Kohoutek comet obtained authorization to enter a remote region of the Soviet Union. The truth about what happened to that expedition remains hidden among myths and rumors.

The past years have proven just how uncertain the future can be. In this context, knowing that your family’s basic needs are covered is always a good strategy to make sure you can take care of your loved ones even during a crisis. But what are the steps you must take to make sure you have the basic products needed to survive for a few days and even weeks? What kind of food should you buy? This book tries to answer all these questions and teach you the right approach to building an emergency food pantry. Through the pages, you can discover where to start, what types of food last longer, ...

After a plane is forced to make an emergency landing in a remote area, the surviving crew and passengers must wait until a rescue team arrives. But they soon discover they are not alone in the wilderness, and the rescue team is not showing up anytime soon.

Acclaimed writer David Smart illuminates the fascinating life of Royal Robbins—in all its soulful ambition, rivalry, and romance. Royal Robbins chronicles his early years growing up as a latchkey kid in Southern California, the push and pull between being an aspiring banker or one of the original Camp 4 dirtbags, and his later decades as a father, husband, kayaker, and the trailblazing founder of the outdoor apparel company that bears his name.