Inspirational reading

[andrewbish]

Hi all

I have been 'grounded' over the past month and have turned to reading to obtain my dose of outdoors/adventure.

My daughters bought me a Bear Gryll's book for Fathers' Day - "Two All-Action Adventures. Facing Up & Facing the Frozen Ocean". In it he recounts his ascent of Everest as well as an epic journey crossing the North Atlantic ocean in an inflatable boat. It's a terrific read and it has whet my appetite for more books about adventuring.

Another that has got my attention is "Mountaineering: The freedom of the hills"

On a more philosophical bent, I have been enjoying working my way through "The Gentle Art of Tramping", by Stephen Graham.

My question is this: What have you read (of the outdoors/adventuring type) that has inspired you?

[durks]

My question is this: What have you read (of the outdoors/adventuring type) that has inspired you?

A lot. Two ends of the spectrum might be:

'Total Alpinism', by Rene Desmaison
The most gripping account of hard alpinism I have ever read.

'The Complete Doctor Stories: The Ridiculous Mountains, and Nothing So Simple as Climbing', by GJF Dutton
Off-beat humour, set in the British hills.

I would also mention:

'Thin Air', by Greg Child
This is a very well-written book by an Australian mountaineer which seemed to go under the radar at the time of its release. It is well worth finding and reading.

[andrewbish]

Hi Durk

Thanks for that.

- Rene Desmaison had an interesting life.

- "The Complete Doctor Series" - had to filter out all the Doctor Who links Then found this great review: "if I could give this six stars I would! It helps to be a climber. It helps to have spent time in Scotland. It helps to have a sense of humor. But this collection is so good it should overcome lack of any of these!"

- Thin Air - also looks great.

Thanks!

[Snowzone]

I'd highly recommend The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer. Very edge of your seat stuff from the Eiger.

I also enjoyed Into thin Air. I have just finished Into the Wild also by jon Krakauer and while I don't think the book inspired me it was still an interesting although slightly disturbing read.

[WarrenH]

'Trek through the Back Country' by John Blay.

As a Bicentennial project John Blay undertook a trek through the rugged and little known country of the Deua, Woila and Brogo Wilderness regions in the mountains west of Bermagui, from near Araluen to Bemboka in SE NSW. For nine months he and his mule Zac travelled through this difficult country. It is an inspirational feat of bushwalking by a great bushy and professional writer, in the near impossible to traverse country of many deep gorges and huge cliffs.

http://www.abebooks.com/9780454012361/T ... 012365/plp

Another fantastic book to have is the original publication of Wild Places by Prineas and Gold. The original publication has large maps. The reprinting has small maps. This is a meticulously researched and beautifully written book on wilderness by Peter Prineas with photographs by Henry Gold ... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WILD-PLACES- ... 0492201736

'... without a doubt the best overview ever produced on the wilderness areas of eastern New South Wales. This book inspired me and my family to venture off the beaten trails ... to see for ourselves the astonishing vistas it describes with such authority and affection.' — Allen Farrelly, former editor of The Australian.

'Not just the best book about wilderness in New South Wales - it is essential reading for anyone interested in wilderness in Australia.' — Tim Bonyhady, author of 'Places worth Keeping: Conservationists, politics and the law'.

'The photos are superb, and alone are worth the price of the book.' — Bushwalking NSW

'A very readable and informative statement on wilderness and the authoritative work of its kind on the shrinking wilderness of New South Wales. This book will appeal to those committed to the cause of wilderness conservation and to those wishing to discover more of the surprisingly little-known wild places in this more densely populated part of Australia.' — Peter Hitchcock, former member of the Australian Heritage Commission.

Warren.

[andrewbish]

Thanks, Snowzone and WarrenH. All look good. My reading list is looking much healthier.

[durks]

I'd highly recommend The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer. Very edge of your seat stuff from the Eiger.

That's the classic Eiger book - and it's a great book! - but bear in my mind that its portrayal of Corti might be somewhat questionable. See e.g. http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2483 for an alternative point of view.

On the Eiger, look out for the English translation (imminent I believe) of the recent book" Eiger - Triumphe und Tragödien 1932-1938" by Rainer Rettner - the reviews of the (original) German edition were very good.

[durks]

Oh, and for some more hard mountaineering by an Australian, definitely check out 'Expeditions' by Andrew Lindblade.

Ok - enough from me on this thread - enjoy the books!

[climberman]

"White Limbo" by Lincoln Hall is well worth a read also. It's the story of the first Australian ascent of Everest. Bold and ballsy, a new route on Everest, without supplementary oxygen. Yes, name influenced by Oz Crawl.

Deny King's biography is also a great read: "King of the wilerness" by Christobel Mattingly.

[Stibb]

Thor Heyerdahl! A true adventurer. He wrote a bunch of books back in the good ol' days and "Fatu Hiva" was my bible in my teens. Great back to nature theme Of course the classic "Kon-Tiki" is a must read for any adventurer but "Ra" and "The Tigris" are also great adventure stories! If his theories were right or wrong is irrelevant here. He did what other said was impossible and wrote captivating accounts about it.

I also enjoyed Into thin Air.

I've probably read all the books available from that Everest 1996 season (can't remember exactly but must be almost a dozen books and a couple of movies). Krakauer, IMO, is an arrogant prick but yeah, his account is pehaps the most well written (although not the most fair or accurate!). A must read is "The Climb" by Anatoli Boukreev. You get a very different picture about what really happened and, I believe, more accurate too. I guess this has already been debated enough, just a heads up if you haven't come across any other books from this tragedy. Some of the other books are very interesting reading but not always great literature but still worth a read especially if you like me wants to know what really happened and who actually did what. There's the Australian take of it from Mike Groom (one of the guides) in his biography "Sheer will". Perhaps one of the most extraordinary achievements (here I mean successful climbs, not rescues) during that fateful season must be Göran Kropp's solo ascent. He rode his pushbike from Sweden to Nepal, climbed Everest without O2, Sherpas or any fixed lines, and then rode back home. You can read about it in his book "8000+" (?) (IIRC it's called "Ultimate High" in the English translation) and there's a documentary too but can't remember what it's called. Most inspirational? Well Beck Weathers "Left for dead" is hard to walk pass.

Another great climbing book is "Touching the void" by Joe Simpson. A truly harrowing survival story

[Empacitator]

My daughters bought me a Bear Gryll's book for Fathers' Day - "Two All-Action Adventures. Facing Up & Facing the Frozen Ocean". In it he recounts his ascent of Everest as well as an epic journey crossing the North Atlantic ocean in an inflatable boat. It's a terrific read and it has whet my appetite for more books about adventuring.

I've just finished reading this, the Everest book was incredible. I like his style of writing, very personal. His new book Mud, Sweat and Tears is also a good read but is an autobiography which also touches on Everest, his ocean crossing and others.

Another great climbing book is "Touching the void" by Joe Simpson. A truly harrowing survival story

I've only watched the movie/documentary and that was incredible. I'll have to get the book for sure. After watching it sure was a case of sitting back and saying, "I have no idea how they could have possibly lived through that".

[climberman]

I second "Touching the void". A wonderful book. Much of Simpson's other stuff is also excellent.

As an aside, a pair some years ago did another route on the mountain climbed in Touching the Void. They named their route "Avoiding the touch".

[andrewbish]

Just got given a copy of "A Step Too Far". Written by Richard Yallop, it's the story of Australian Peter Bland's attempt in 2001 to cross the Antarctic Peninsula.

(I did a quick Google yesterday for adventure tours into Antarctica. There's a few options. You just need to find around $40-50k. )

[Stibb]

(I did a quick Google yesterday for adventure tours into Antarctica. There's a few options. You just need to find around $40-50k. )

Why not get paid to go there
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/jobs/jobs-in-antarctica

[tas-man]

<Snip> My question is this: What have you read (of the outdoors/adventuring type) that has inspired you?

The first that came to mind was "Men and the Matterhorn" by Gaston Rebuffat, published in 1967. One of my first purchases of such a book, greatly inspired by the magnificent B & W photography that got me into purchasing my first SLR in 1968. Amazing stories of triumph and disaster. Here's one of the photos.

Another of his books "Starlight and Storm" is a great read as well. Here's a quote to give you a taste -

"In this modern age, very little remains that is real. Night has been banished, so have the cold, the wind and the stars. They have all been neutralized: the rhythm of life itself is obscured. Everything goes so fast and makes so much noise, and men hurry by without heeding the grass by the roadside, its colour, its smell and the way it shimmers when the wind caresses it. What a strange encounter then is that between man and the high places of his planet! Up there he is surrounded by the silence of forgetfulness. If there is a slope of snow steep as a glass window, he climbs it, leaving behind him a strange trail. If there is a rock perfect as an obelisk, he defies gravity and proves that he can get up anywhere."

[andrewbish]

That's a great excerpt from S & S, Ian. I suspect it taps into a viewpoint that many/most of us on this forum share. - its now on the shopping list.

[mikethepike]

If you're after an inspirational read and haven't already come across it, AJ MacKinnon's The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow' is exceptional in many ways. In it, the author describes his voyage across England and Europe to the Black Sea, including crossing the Channel, in his Mirror dinghy. He had plenty of disasters but the humour is never far away and you often end up laughing. The story really defines to me what adventure is viz, setting out without knowing where you'll end up each night or just what is in store for you on any given day. Not that he was careless and didn't plan (though he did make last minute major changes to plan on a whim) but all the study in the world couldn't have prepared him for his trip down the tidal Thames estuary and which gave him an appalling 'worst day in my like'. If nothing else, the book proves to me that the best in life comes with some hefty doses of effort and discomfort as part of the package....and the ability to laugh - but the readers of these pages don't need to be reminded of that! A highly recommended read!

[ULWalkingPhil]

A couple of books I have read in the last couple of weeks are very inspiring. Very keen on doing a thru hike after reading these two books.

"A blistered kind of love" by Angela Ballard and Duffy Ballard

"Skywalker: The highs and lows on the Pacific Crest Trail" by Bill Walker.

[ULWalkingPhil]

Sheer Will by Michael Groom is another good read. Michaels a good bloke. I've had the privilege to meet Michael and spoke to him about his mountaineering. I never asked him about that 1996 season.

[LandSailor]

Some books I really enjoyed from a classic armchair adventurer ..........

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale - a simple story wonderfully told - inspired me to go to the Cook Islands no less.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale

Confessions of a Long Distance Sailor - solo circumnavigation - free ebook for download if you have Kindle or other ereader
http://www.arachnoid.com/sailbook/index.html

Hell or Highwater by Peter Heller - the first successful expedition to kayak down the Tsangpo River in Tibet
http://www.peterheller.net/hellorhighwater.html

American Nomads by Richard Grant - about the modern day nomadic lifestyle in the US
http://www.amazon.com/American-Nomads-C ... 0802117635

Blind Descent by James M Tabor - great book about extreme caving
http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Descent-Que ... 1400067677

[peregrinator]

"Walking the Flinders Ranges", C.Warren Bonython, Rigby, 1971. (Reprinted 2000, Royal Geographical Society of South Australia.)

I've been expecting that someone would mention this before now. It seems though that the exotic is more alluring than the local.

The raw data: Crystal Brook to Mount Hopeless over several stages in 1967-68. Miles walked 632 (1 mile = 1.6 km). Days walked 498. The loads carried, ridiculous.

Reading the book (twice so far), I sometimes felt that I was in the party. I certainly felt, and continue to feel, inspired to visit the country he walked; some of it rarely walked by whitefellas until he went there.

[Stibb]

Some books I really enjoyed from a classic armchair adventurer ..........

An Island to Oneself by Tom Neale - a simple story wonderfully told - inspired me to go to the Cook Islands no less.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Neale

I like that one! I read it while we spent a couple of month on the Cook Islands although we didn't make it to 'his" Suvarov island (we got "stuck" in a beach house on Rarotonga that was too perfect to leave behind). His was a great story indeed. BTW the uni library on Rarotonga is fantastic. Tiny, but ALL the books you could imagine about Pacific exploration and adventures.

[Explorer_Sam]

I read James Castrission's book "Crossing the Ditch", about Justin Jones and his kayak from Australia to New Zealand in 2008 and while waiting for their latest book to be released, I read it again. On Wednesday night I went to Melbourne to their public speaking tour and book launch and picked me up a copy of their new book "Extreme South" and can't wait to read it.

[Wollemi]

I read James Castrission's book "Crossing the Ditch", about Justin Jones and his kayak from Australia to New Zealand in 2008 and while waiting for their latest book to be released, I read it again. On Wednesday night I went to Melbourne to their public speaking tour and book launch and picked me up a copy of their new book "Extreme South" and can't wait to read it.

Um... I got the feeling that they did the 'Ditch trip for the want of fame - and then to my surprise, a yachtie (who had read the book) said this to me. Kudos to James for all the effort in getting that (ridiculous) craft sea-worthy from an idea, though.
Similarly, I saw a YouTube video some time ago of these 2 skiing in KNP - something they had not really done before - and my prior thoughts came back to me.
I have run with Justin - a pretty happy and funny guy.

Inspirational reading? Simon Yates - 'Against the Wall'. Sir Ranulph Fiennes - 'Mind Over Matter' - ever had sunburn to the palate of your mouth?

[Nungulba]

Just to bring this thread 'up-to-date' (sort of), one book I enjoyed reading in late 2011 was Wade Davis's Into the Silence - about the Mallory/Irvine expedition to climb Everest by the North Ridge in 1924. It was later issued as an audiobook (Random House). Just the thing to listen to when it's raining outside the tent & you're 'bag-bound' (as they say) for the rest of the day!

A stunning film was made on the same subject featuring the American mountaineer Conrad Anker, who discovered Mallory's frozen body high on the mountain. The film was released in 2011 as well.

[Moondog55]

Colin Fletchers "The Man Who Walked Thought Time"

[gayet]

Just to bring this thread 'up-to-date' (sort of), one book I enjoyed reading in late 2011 was Wade Davis's Into the Silence - about the Mallory/Irvine expedition to climb Everest by the North Ridge in 1924. It was later issued as an audiobook (Random House). Just the thing to listen to when it's raining outside the tent & you're 'bag-bound' (as they say) for the rest of the day!

A stunning film was made on the same subject featuring the American mountaineer Conrad Anker, who discovered Mallory's frozen body high on the mountain. The film was released in 2011 as well.

On this subject, try "Last Climb"" David Breashears and Audrey Salkeld. It covers the expeditions to Everest Mallory undertook, as well as the expedition to find his body some 70 years later. It includes photos from all 4 expeditions (1921,22, 24 and 99) with the 1920's notes based on diaries of members at the time.

[wayno]

roald amundsens biography, "The Last Viking"
what an eye opener, i knew he was an accomplished explorer, but he pulled off the near impossible just to start his expeditions... if it was worth doing, he was doing it...

http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Book ... /19977054/

"antarctic Journeys" was a steal. 500 pages, $16. covers great explorers in the southern continent... still working my way through it, good read.'
http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Book ... /11494656/

"Four pairs of boots"
Kiwi, walking the length of japan.
he has a good eye for the funny side of peoples idiosynchrasies and documents it in his walk... he mainly road walks between towns..
http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Book ... /21753131/

Huts Untold Stories
a history of a selection of various types of NZ backcountry huts, good read for anyone wanting to know the background of how NZ huts came about and the varied backgrounds and roles the huts performed.
http://www.mightyape.co.nz/search/?i=28 ... ton=Search

Shelter from the Storm
similar to Huts untold stories, this is a much larger book, covering a much larger no of huts, albeit with less detail on each hut.if your an information freak, this is by far the most extensive book about nz huts around... un not exactly for taking on bushwalks, its a couple of kilos, a coffee table book
http://www.mightyape.co.nz/product/Book ... /20848076/

[Happy Pirate]

Hi all

I have been 'grounded' over the past month and have turned to reading to obtain my dose of outdoors/adventure.

My daughters bought me a Bear Gryll's book for Fathers' Day - "Two All-Action Adventures. Facing Up & Facing the Frozen Ocean". In it he recounts his ascent of Everest as well as an epic journey crossing the North Atlantic ocean in an inflatable boat. It's a terrific read and it has whet my appetite for more books about adventuring.

Another that has got my attention is "Mountaineering: The freedom of the hills"

On a more philosophical bent, I have been enjoying working my way through "The Gentle Art of Tramping", by Stephen Graham.

My question is this: What have you read (of the outdoors/adventuring type) that has inspired you?

Generally I don't read books of wilderness experience any more than I regularly watch videos of other folk walking....
but I loved "The Kontiki Expedition" when I read it first (except for the bit about killing a whale shark for fun)...

"South" by Ernest Shackleton - a gripping yarn of Antarctic exploration.
It must be good because my dad has sent me a copy for my last 3 birthdays!
A great read - even thrice!

I really liked also "Into the Wild" as an account of stupid (and fatal) adventurism but big hearted wilderness appreciation (makes you think about your relationship with the wild and the 'real' world- or did for me ).

How about some theory - speculation - schmoozing? Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver are great essayists (regardless of their fictional outputs).
"Small Wonder" by Barbara Kingsolver is the most hearwarming and inspiring work of essays on nature, family and our relationship to the world I've ever read. Very powerful stuff. This would be at the top of my list of non-specific nature works.

And for deeper theory/musing try "Goatwalking" or the semi-theory collection: "Deep Ecology" too maybe...

Of course if you're really stuck, go back to the grandfather Tome - "Darwin - On the Origin of Species"
Everyone quotes it but few have fully read it. It's on my broken leg - to read list too. (It looks good on my biology bookcase so far... )
Good luck and get well soon
Steve

[Moondog55]

Origin of Species was an interesting read and an easy one
If you need a little light relief try any of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series