'Life is too short to waste time on second-class ambitions. Go for the big ones.' Now in his late seventies, Sir Ranulph Fiennes looks back on a lifetime of exploration, and draws powerful, inspiring lessons that we can all use when faced by the tribulations of everyday life. Having crossed both Polar ice caps on foot, climbed Everest and the Eiger, served in the SAS and circumnavigated the world along its polar axis - a 53,000 mile odyssey that has never been repeated - 'Ran' looks back from the summit of an incredible life and teaches us how to: - Learn self-discipline, and master fear - Plan for success, and make your own luck - Learn from failure and strive to succeed - Keep going, whatever life throws at you
Released to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the first ever ascent of Mount Everest. On the 29th May 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made history as they took their first triumphant steps on the top of the world. On 16 May 1998, Bear Grylls followed those same footsteps, achieving a childhood dream and entering the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest. Taken from his best-selling autobiography, Mud, Sweat and Tears , Climbing Everest tells the gripping story of Bear’s gruelling expedition, one which tested him to his very limits and nearly cost him his life.
No one writes about mountaineering and its attendant victories and hardships more brilliantly than Jon Krakauer. In this collection of his finest essays and reporting, Krakauer writes of mountains from the memorable perspective of one who has himself struggled with solo madness to scale Alaska's notorious Devils Thumb. In Pakistan, the fearsome K2 kills thirteen of the world's most experienced mountain climbers in one horrific summer. In Valdez, Alaska, two men scale a frozen waterfall over a four-hundred-foot drop. In France, a hip international crowd of rock climbers, bungee jumpers, and paragliders figure out new ways to risk their lives on the towering peaks of Mont Blanc. Why do they do it? How do they do it? In this extraordinary book, Krakauer presents an unusual fraternity of daredevils, athletes, and misfits stretching the limits of the possible. From the paranoid confines of a snowbound tent, to the thunderous, suffocating terror of a white-out on Mount McKinley, Eiger Dreams spins tales of driven lives, sudden deaths, and incredible victories. This is a stirring, vivid book about one of the most compelling and dangerous of all human pursuits.
Pioneer your own journey. Part guidebook, part self-help manual, Grit is a 4-Letter Word covers mental preparedness for living with only the gear on your back and a nimble mind. But it isn't a "how to" set of instructions, mostly because there are as many ways of enjoying the wilderness as there are backcountry travelers. The beauty of wilderness travel is discovering what works for you. Ann Gimpel is a clinical psychologist. She's also a mountaineer and a vagabond. The wilderness has played a huge role in her life. Stories speak to us at a bone-deep level, so this book is packed full of stories from the author as well as others. Read them with an open heart. It's how they were written. Appendices covering gear and backcountry kitchen ideas have been added, along with a resource guide, but this is only a starting point. Read. Absorb. Ask questions. Live your dreams.