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No Easy Way: The Challenging Life of the Climbing Taxman
- Narrated by: Christopher Knight
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Adventurers, Explorers & Survival
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Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small, green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick’s second work, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Echoes. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.
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Epic, emotional, and inspiring!
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Joe Tasker lies, struck down by illness, in a damp, bug-infested room in the Himalaya, wondering if he will be well enough to climb Dunagiri, his first venture to the "big" mountains. One of Britain’s foremost mountaineers and a pioneer of lightweight climbing, he is about to attempt one of the first true "Alpine-style" climbs in the Greater Ranges. The Dunagiri attempt forms part of Tasker’s striking tale of adventure in the savage arena of the mountains.
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wow 👏 what a book great listen
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The Ogre
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On the afternoon of July 13, 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse.
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Survival against all the odds
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Jerry Moffatt - Revelations
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When Jerry Moffatt burst onto the scene as a brash 17-year-old, rock climbing had never seen anyone like him before. Fiercely ambitious, even as a boy Moffatt was focused on one thing: being the best in the world. This is the story of his meteoric rise to stardom and how he overcame injury to stay at the top for over two decades. Top sport climber, brilliant competitor, and a pioneer in the new game of bouldering, Moffatt's story is that of climbing itself in the last 30 years. Yet Jerry Moffatt is more than a dedicated athlete.
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Great lessons learnt and inspired!
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Up and About
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- By: Doug Scott
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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.
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Interesting from beginning to end
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The Shining Mountain
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"It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas." Thus spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unscaled West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition.
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Excellent
- By Mrs Susan J Fraser-Smith on 01-10-20
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Tides
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- By: Nick Bullock
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- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
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Overall
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Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small, green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick’s second work, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Echoes. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.
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Epic, emotional, and inspiring!
- By S. E. on 30-05-19
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Savage Arena
- By: Joe Tasker
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- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
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Joe Tasker lies, struck down by illness, in a damp, bug-infested room in the Himalaya, wondering if he will be well enough to climb Dunagiri, his first venture to the "big" mountains. One of Britain’s foremost mountaineers and a pioneer of lightweight climbing, he is about to attempt one of the first true "Alpine-style" climbs in the Greater Ranges. The Dunagiri attempt forms part of Tasker’s striking tale of adventure in the savage arena of the mountains.
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wow 👏 what a book great listen
- By travel18 on 06-01-21
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The Ogre
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- By: Doug Scott
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- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
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On the afternoon of July 13, 1977, having become the first climbers to reach the summit of the Ogre, Doug Scott and Chris Bonington began their long descent. In the minutes that followed, any feeling of success from their achievement would be overwhelmed by the start of a desperate fight for survival. And things would only get worse.
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Survival against all the odds
- By Linda on 15-12-20
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Jerry Moffatt - Revelations
- By: Jerry Moffatt
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- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
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When Jerry Moffatt burst onto the scene as a brash 17-year-old, rock climbing had never seen anyone like him before. Fiercely ambitious, even as a boy Moffatt was focused on one thing: being the best in the world. This is the story of his meteoric rise to stardom and how he overcame injury to stay at the top for over two decades. Top sport climber, brilliant competitor, and a pioneer in the new game of bouldering, Moffatt's story is that of climbing itself in the last 30 years. Yet Jerry Moffatt is more than a dedicated athlete.
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Great lessons learnt and inspired!
- By Travis on 11-05-20
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Up and About
- The Hard Road to Everest
- By: Doug Scott
- Narrated by: Saethon Williams
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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.
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Interesting from beginning to end
- By Hayley on 03-01-20
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The Shining Mountain
- By: Peter Boardman
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
"It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas." Thus spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unscaled West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition.
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Excellent
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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.
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Psyched me up to a whole new level!
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The Push
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- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
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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.
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The Push by Tommy Caldwell
- By Anonymous User on 28-05-18
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Ascent
- By: Sir Chris Bonington
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Hear Sir Chris Bonington's extraordinary story, read by Gordon Griffin. His memoir, Ascent, charts not only his many triumphs in the climbing world - such as the Eiger and the Himalayas - but also the struggles he has faced in his life bringing up a family and maintaining a successful and loving marriage over the decades of travelling the world to conquer mountains.
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Ascent
- By Anonymous User on 04-12-17
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Everest the Cruel Way
- By: Joe Tasker
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On 30 January, 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible. Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker's story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth - an attempt which pushed a group of Britain's finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter.
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People Will Climb Mountains
- By SocialGoose on 28-09-19
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Vertical Mind
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- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Vertical Mind, Don McGrath and Jeff Elison teach rock climbers how to improve their mental game so they can climb better and have more fun. They teach how the latest research in brain science and psychology can help you retrain your mind and body for higher levels of rock climbing performance, while also demonstrating how to train and overcome fears and anxiety that hold you back. Finally, they teach climbing partners how to engage in co-creative coaching and help each other improve as climbers.
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Great training manual - Bit of a slow listen
- By Josiah Beynon on 01-01-18
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Training for the New Alpinism
- A Manual for the Climber as Athlete
- By: Steve House, Scott Johnston, Mark Twight - foreword
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Steve House, world-class climber and Patagonia ambassador, and Scott Johnston, coach of US national champions and World Cup Nordic skiers, translate training theory into practice to allow you to coach yourself to any mountaineering goal. Applying training practices from other endurance sports, House and Johnston demonstrate that following a carefully designed regimen is as effective for alpinism as it is for any other endurance sport and leads to better performance. They deliver detailed instruction on how to plan and execute training tailored to your individual circumstances.
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Good book but the narration is generally poor
- By Jasper_Smith on 07-08-19
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Above the Clouds
- How I Carved My Own Path to the Top of the World
- By: Kilian Jornet
- Narrated by: Steven Brand
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The most accomplished mountain runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climbs of Mount Everest in this profound memoir - an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth’s highest peak to the soul’s deepest reaches.
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Good book but maybe not the best audiobook
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Quest into the Unknown: My Life as a Climbing Nomad
- By: Tony Howard
- Narrated by: Saethon Williams
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
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.
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The Bond: Two Epic Climbs in Alaska and a Lifetime's Connection Between Climbers
- By: Simon McCartney
- Narrated by: RJ Bayley
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Simon McCartney was a young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meeting in Chamonix in 1977 with Californian "Stonemaster" Jack Roberts that would dramatically change both their lives - and almost end Simon’s...The Bond is Simon McCartney’s story of these legendary climbs.
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interesting book
- By Helen on 09-08-19
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The Last Blue Mountain
- The Great Karakoram Climbing Tragedy
- By: Ralph Barker
- Narrated by: Stewart Crank
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Last Blue Mountain is the heart-rending true story of the 1957 expedition to Mount Haramosh in the Karakoram range in Pakistan. With the summit beyond reach, four young climbers are about to return to camp. Their brief pause to enjoy the view and take photographs is interrupted by an avalanche which sweeps Bernard Jillott and John Emery hundreds of feet down the mountain into a snow basin. Rae Culbert and Tony Streather risk their own lives to rescue their friends, only to become stranded alongside them.
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Boring
- By Mystic Mog on 15-01-21
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Ghosts of K2
- By: Mick Conefrey
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
At 28,251 feet, K2 might be almost 800 feet shorter than Everest, but it’s a far harder climb. It will kill you on the way up and the way down. Mick Conefrey guides us through the early story of the legendary mountain and the extraordinary attempts that led up to its first ascent in 1954 - these are tales of riveting drama and unimaginable tragedy.
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The story behind the story - very good
- By Andrew on 04-11-15
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In Some Lost Place: The First Ascent of Nanga Parbat’s Mazeno Ridge
- By: Sandy Allan
- Narrated by: Saethon Williams
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
In the summer of 2012, a team of six climbers set out to attempt the first ascent of one of the great unclimbed lines of the Himalaya - the giant Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain. At 10 kilometers in length, the Mazeno is the longest route to the summit of an 8,000-meter peak. Ten expeditions had tried and failed to climb this enormous ridge.
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Magnificent achievement - odd choice of reader
- By Marbo on 30-08-20
Summary
"If we were guaranteed success in everything we tried then life would be pretty boring."
Mainstream news reports about climbing are dominated by action from the world’s highest mountains, more often than not focusing on tragedy and controversy. Far removed from this high-altitude circus, a group of visionary and specialist mountaineers are seeking out eye-catching objectives in the most remote corners of the greater ranges and attempting first ascents in lightweight style.
Mick Fowler is the master of the small and remote Himalayan expedition. He has been at the forefront of this pioneering approach to alpinism for over 30 years, balancing his family life, a full-time job at the tax office and his annual trips to the greater ranges in order to attempt mountains that may never have been seen before by Westerners, let alone climbed by them.
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.
Written with his customary dry wit and understatement, he manages challenges away - the art of securing a permit for Tibet - and at home - his duties as Alpine Club president - all the while pursuing his passion for exploratory mountaineering.
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Overall
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- R J Townsend
- 04-10-20
Good story, woeful narrator
The story is interesting and well structured but the narrator is awful. Unable to pronounce simple words such as lethargy, conducive and many others they become just a distraction.