Sport Climbing

Leo Houlding started climbing at 10 years of age in the Lake District and was the youngest person (and first Briton) to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the United States at 18 years, which cemented his reputation. He has since gone on to summit the world's toughest peaks and explore the most extreme places on our planet.

Of all the games mountaineers play on the world’s high mountains, the hardest - and cruelest - is climbing the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in the bitter cold of winter. Ferocious winds that can pick you up and throw you down, freezing temperatures that burn your lungs and numb your bones, weeks of psychological torment in dark isolation - these are adventures for those with an iron will and a ruthless determination.

The Cairngorm mountains in Scotland are a magnet for climbers and walkers. John Allen spent more than thirty years in the Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team saving the lost and injured. This special anniversary edition of his story includes new chapters discussing how mountain rescue has developed over the last decade.

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.

Penguin Audio presents The Push by Tommy Caldwell, read by Johnathan McClain. A dramatic, inspiring memoir by legendary rock climber Tommy Caldwell, the first person to free climb the Dawn Wall of Yosemite's El Capitan. On January 14, 2015, Tommy Caldwell, along with his partner, Kevin Jorgeson, summited what is widely regarded as the hardest climb in history Yosemite's nearly vertical 3,000 foot Dawn Wall, after 19 days on the route. Caldwell's odds-defying feat was the culmination of an entire lifetime of pushing himself to his limits as an athlete.

Quando nel 1961 pubblica Le mie montagne, il suo primo libro, Walter Bonatti ha da rac- contare oltre un decennio di imprese impossibili, trionfi e sofferenze: dalla scalata sullo sperone Walker (a 19 anni) all’odissea sul Pilone Centrale, passando per il Grand Capucin, il Dru e la fatidica notte all’addiaccio sul K2. Se questo libro segnerà una svolta nella sua vita, sarà anche per il riaccendersi delle braci che covavano proprio sotto la memoria di quell’episodio.

In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit - all utterly alone.

In Wild Winter, John D. Burns, best-selling author of The Last Hillwalker and Bothy Tales, sets out to rediscover Scotland’s mountains, remote places and wildlife in the darkest and stormiest months. He traverses the country from the mouth of the River Ness to the Isle of Mull, from remote Sutherland to the Cairngorms, in search of rutting red deer, pupping seals, minke whales, beavers, pine martens, mountain hares, and otters.

In No Easy Way, his third volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasure and On Thin Ice, Fowler recounts a series of expeditions to stunning mountains in China, India, Nepal, and Tibet. Alongside partners including Paul Ramsden, Dave Turnbull, Andy Cave and Victor Saunders, he attempts striking, technically challenging unclimbed lines on Shiva, Gave Ding and Mugu Chuli - with a number of ascents winning prestigious Piolets d’Or, the Oscars of the mountaineering world.

Sette dei più forti alpinisti sono impegnati sul Pilone Centrale del Frêney al Monte Bianco, l'ultimo grande "problema" delle Alpi. Da giorni, gli italiani guidati da Walter Bonatti e i francesi da Pierre Mazeaud si trovano in alto sulla parete. Lampi, vento, neve, temperature a venti sotto zero bloccano la salita. Sembra che resistere nella speranza dell'arrivo del sereno sia l'unica soluzione. Ma la tempesta non si placa. E quando Bonatti decide di tentare una discesa disperata, è ormai troppo tardi.

This classic essay from Jon Krakauer is now available as an unabridged audiobook download. This essay is also included in the Classic Krakauer collection. From the best-selling author of Missoula and Into the Wild: a selection of the singular investigative journalism that made Krakauer famous, covering topics from avalanches on Mt. Everest to a volcano in Washington state; from a wilderness therapy program for teens to an extraordinary cave in New Mexico so unearthly that is used by NASA to better understand Mars.

At dusk on 24 September 1975, Doug Scott and Dougal Haston became the first Britons to reach the summit of Everest as lead climbers on Chris Bonington's epic expedition to the mountain's immense south-west face. As darkness fell, Scott and Haston scraped a small cave in the snow 100 metres below the summit and survived the highest bivouac ever - without bottled oxygen, sleeping bags and, as it turned out, frostbite.

There is a misconception that rock climbing is only for tough, macho guys and adventure junkies. Rock climbing certainly requires a lot of strength and energy, but this can be acquired by anyone willing to learn and dedicate some of their free time to it.

Sixty years after Mount Everest was first climbed, this unique book of letters celebrates, in a very personal way, this most majestic of mountains. With exclusive access to the private archives of pioneering New Zealand climber George Lowe, this is a welcome tribute to an unsung hero.The ascent of Everest in the summer of 1953 was one of the twentieth century’s great triumphs of exploration. George Lowe’s efforts on the mountain were crucial to the endeavour.

Helen Mort has always been drawn to the thrill and risk of climbing: the tension between human and rockface, and the climber's powerful connection to the elemental world. But when she becomes a mother for the first time, she finds herself re-examining her relationship with both the natural world and herself, as well as the way the world views women who aren't afraid to take risks.

Before Georgetown physics professor Francis Slakey decided to climb the highest mountain on every continent and surf every ocean, he had shut himself off from other people. His lectures were mechanical; his relationships were little more than ways to fill the evenings. But as his journey veered dangerously off course, everything began to change. A gripping adventure of the body and mind, To the Last Breath depicts the quest that leads Slakey around the globe, almost takes his life, and opens his heart.

Reinhold Messner, oltre che grande scalatore, è anche un attento e impegnato comunicatore del mondo dell'alpinismo, consapevole che la grande sfida, oggi, più che nelle altezze e nei record, sta nel rispetto della montagna e nello spirito con cui la si vive. Nella grande impresa, l'anima di un luogo e il confronto sincero, autentico con se stessi contano di più della bandierina su una vetta. Nella rubrica che tiene periodicamente su "La Gazzetta dello Sport", Messner ha raccontato i protagonisti e gioito dei traguardi dell'alpinismo contemporaneo.

Peruvian climber Silvia Vasquez-Lavado spent a lifetime running away from trauma. As a child she suffered sexual abuse, and as an adult, she struggled with both her sexuality and addiction. In spite of her private battles, Silvia climbed many of the world's greatest peaks. But she had yet to take on Everest. In the Shadow of the Mountain tells Silvia's story of abuse, addiction and trauma and then how, in 2016, she gathered a party of six sexually abused girls, and together they began the two-week expedition to Everest Base Camp.

Tony Howard rose to fame in 1965 as a member of a group of young climbers from northern England who made the first British ascent of Norway's Troll Wall. Tony went on to design the modern sit harness, now used universally by every climber in the world. Tony has dedicated his life to travelling the world in search of never before climbed rock faces and remote trekking adventures. The scale of his travels is vast. Quest into the Unknown, the last word in adventure travel, is the jaw-dropping account of a life of adventure that is the very definition of true exploration.

At the start of his second year at Harvard, Martin was hit by a car and thrown 150 feet. He landed on his head, suffering severe traumatic brain injury. He resolved to get back. Climbing Back: A Family's Journey Through Brain Injury follows Martin's sister, father, and mother (the author) as they accompany Martin through rehabilitation and recovery. They find that they too must work to get back, to heal their own minds and souls.