This post is a little late...sorry I'm in Texas on vacation.
But, just wanted to pay respects to Sir Edmund Hillary, who passed away this week. He is truly a legend. The most amazing thing about his climb is the primative gear he was wearing and using. Todays climbers are so much better prepared against the elements and the mountains.
Of note, my list of the 5 best books about mountain climbing:
1. "Into Thin Air" (Jon Krakauer)
2. "Touching the Void" (Joe Simpson)- not Everest but takes place in the Peruvian Andes- an amazing story
3. "Ultimate High" (Goran Kropp)- this guy bikes all the way from Sweeden to Nepal and back, as he wants to climb Everest completely "unassisted" (he also takes all the food that he will eat on the mountain with him on his bike.
4. "No Shortcuts to the Top" (Ed Viesturs)- he recounts climbing the world's 14 highest peaks, all without supplemental oxygen. He has a great quote on why he does it without oxygen. "If you're going to climb a 29,000 foot mountain, don't artifically reduce it to a 26,000-foot mountain.
5. "The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest" (Anatoli Boukreev)- The book is Boukreev's rebuttal to accusations from fellow climber and author Jon Krakauer, who suggested in "Into Thin Air" that Boukreev forfeited the safety of his clients to achieve his own climbing goals
No comments:
Post a Comment