Nature Biography

I Chose to Climb, first published in 1966, was Chris Bonington's first book. He was recognised then, as now, as one of the outstanding members of a brilliant generation of mountaineers. Here he describes his climbing beginnings as a teenager as well as successful ascents all over the world: the first ascent of the Central Pillar of Freney, the first British ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1962, Annapurna II in 1960 and in an unhappy expedition in 1961, Nuptse, the third peak of Everest.

By the time life had finished hitting Rick Crandall from all sides, he was at the lowest point of his life, both personally and professionally. His wife, Pamela, makes an astute and life-changing suggestion: "Let's get a dog." So begins the story of Emme, a 200-pound Saint Bernard trapped in the body of a five-pound Australian terrier puppy. Soon, Emme and Rick hit the hiking trails around Aspen, Colorado. While she is groomed to be a show dog, it's soon obvious that her heart is in the hills and with Rick, who decides to add more challenging hikes to the mix.

Dieses Hörbuch vereint folgende drei phantastische wie auch abenteuerliche Erzählungen von Reinhold Messner...

At 27, professional rugby player Ed Jackson was told he would never walk again. A freak accident, involving a swimming pool and a miscalculated dive, broke his neck and crushed his spinal cord. Jackson had to be resuscitated three times and spent weeks in intensive care—for the first of those, he couldn’t so much as twitch a muscle. But three years on from the accident, Jackson’s recovery is nothing short of miraculous.

As in all his books, Heckler draws from personal experience: training his horse, cultivating presence in aikido dojos, consulting with business executives, raising children. A masterful and encompassing book, Holding the Center develops from the fulcrum of the self in the natural world.

Mo Wilde made a quiet but radical pledge: to live only off free, foraged food for an entire year. In a world disconnected from its roots, eating wild food is both culinary and healing, social and political. Ultimately, it is an act of love and community. Using her expert knowledge of botany and mycology, Mo follows the seasons to find nutritious food from hundreds of species of plants, fungi and seaweeds, and in the process learns not just how to survive, but how to thrive. Nourishing her body and mind deepens her connection with the earth—a connection that we all hunger for.

Michael Branch “earned his whiskers” in the Great Basin Desert of northwestern Nevada, where he lives off the grid with his wife and two curious little girls. Shifting between pastoral passages on beauty found in the desert and humorous tales of being a father, Raising Wild offers an intimate portrait of a landscape where mountain lions and ground squirrels can threaten in equal measure. With Branch’s distinct lyricism and wit, this barren landscape becomes a place resonant with the rattle of snakes, the plod of pronghorn antelope, and the rustle of juniper trees.

Meine Fragen an das Leben: "Dies ist kein Ratgeber, sondern eine Auseinandersetzung mit mir und meiner Beziehung zur Natur. Es geht um meine Lust am Leben und meine Überforderung in anspruchsvollen Zeiten. Ich erzähle von dem, was mich umtreibt, was mich aufbaut, meinen Sehnsüchten. Ich erzähle von entscheidenden Stationen meines Lebens und den Fragen, die ich habe: Was ist mir wichtig? Wie schöpfe ich Kraft? Was bedeutet anständiges Verhalten im Hier und Jetzt? Wie versuche ich, auf mich, andere und die Natur achtzugeben und zugleich lustvoll durch die Welt zu navigieren? Ich möchte in diesem Buch das Leben feiern."

Ocean Country is an adventure story, a call to action, and a poetic meditation on the state of the seas. But most importantly it is the story of finding true hope in the midst of one of the greatest crises to face humankind: the rapidly degrading state of our environment. After a near-drowning accident in which she was temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham crisscrosses the globe in an effort to understand the threats to our dazzling but endangered oceans.

Echoes of the Hunt, written by Stan Corvin, Jr., is the true story of a deer hunt he was on a few years ago in West Texas. Arriving at the ranch, he learned the owner who invited him had the flu and was not going to participate in the hunting of a massive atypical mule deer named El Viejo. For the next 10 days, Stan hunted alone for the trophy buck. Interwoven with this adventure, he tells of hunting experiences as a young boy, then later as a teenager with his father, grandfather, and uncle.

Nobody could get Frederick Law Olmsted to sit still. He was filled with energy, adventure, and dreams of changing the world. As a boy, he found refuge in the peace and calm of nature, and later as an adult, he dreamed of designing and creating access to parks for a growing and changing America. When New York City held a contest for the best park design for what would become Central Park, Olmsted won and became the father of landscape architecture. He went on to design parks across America, including Yosemite National Park and even the grounds for the United States Capitol.

When the worst earthquake to hit Nepal in living memory strikes on 25 April 2015, Jules Mountain is shivering in his tent at Base Camp. To reach the summit of Everest has been a life-long dream, one which he is more determined than ever to realise, having won his battle with cancer two years earlier. The climbers are faced with an impossible set of decisions: to get to a safe zone as quickly as possible? To try to be of assistance in the relief effort? To push on despite everything?

Whether sailing across the ocean, hiking through the jungle, or climbing the highest volcanic peaks, everywhere Alexander went, he observed the land, animals, and culture. And where others saw differences, Alexander spotted connections.

"Ich war aufgebrochen, um mich in der körperlichen Anstrengung aufzulösen. Die weiße Querung wurde für mich zur absoluten Reise, zu einem Schweben in einer Idee von Landschaft." Sylvain Tesson. Vier Jahre lang, von 2017 bis 2020, unternimmt Sylvain Tesson in Begleitung des Bergführers Daniel du Lac jeden März eine kräftezehrende Skitour, um die gesamte Alpenkette von Menton in Frankreich aus über die Gipfel bis nach Triest in Italien zu queren.

Ein Mann – eine Legende. Reinhold Messner hat in seinem Leben zahlreiche "Grenzgänge" gewagt. Nicht selten begegneten ihm Wunder der Natur, oft verfolgte ihn der Tod. Ob auf den höchsten Gipfeln, in trockenen Steinwüsten oder im antarktischen Eis, überall suchte Messner seine Grenzen. In drei Vorträgen berichtet er u. a. vom Everest und Nanga Parbat, der Wüste Gobi und seinen Reisen in die Polarregionen. Diese Hörbuch-Sammlung weiß zu unterhalten und zu informieren, eine gelungene Mischung.

Let me introduce you to my beloved cat Habibi. She came into our lives when she was six weeks old. She lived a fulfilling and happy life of 20 years. She was given to my daughter for her fifth birthday. She brought so much light and love into our lives. She left so many memories for us that have been so hilarious, that I have to share with others.

Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix... Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him.

With a baby and a toddler, mounting debt, work demands and stress trampling over their desire to spend time together as a family in nature, Jen and Sim Benson move out of their rented accommodation, sell up their possessions and decide to live in a tent for a year as nomads around rural Britain. This is the story of that year–the highs and the lows–the doubts, epiphanies and the weather.

On 13 October 1972, the members of a top Uruguayan rugby team were flying over the Andes to play in Chile. Their plane crashed into a mountain and was stranded 11,000 feet up on an inhospitable glacier. Many died instantly in the crash, including the person sitting next to Nando, but others survived. They had almost no food or suitable equipment to withstand temperatures as low as -35C, and had to eat the bodies of their dead team-mates to survive.

Folgen Sie Reinhold Messner - zumindest im Geiste - auf den höchsten Berg der Welt. Der Bezwinger aller 14 Achttausender erzählt die Geschichte der Everest-Besteigungen von den ersten, schlecht ausgerüsteten Expeditionen gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts bis hin zu den kommerziell organisierten (Massen-)Touren in den letzten Jahren...