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Tides
- A Climber's Voyage
- Narrated by: Nick Bullock
- Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins
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Summary
Winner: Mountain Literature Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018
Shortlisted for the 2018 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature
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.
Now retired from the strain of work as a prison officer, Nick is free to climb. A lot. Tides is a treasury of his antics and adventures with some of the world’s leading climbers, including Steve House, Kenton Cool, Nico Favresse, Andy Houseman, and James McHaffie. Follow Nick and his partners as they push the limits on some of the world’s most serious routes: The Bells! The Bells! on Gogarth’s North Stack Wall; the Slovak Direct on Denali; Guerdon Grooves on Buachaille Etive Mor; and the north faces of Chang Himal and Mount Alberta, among countless others.
Nick’s life can be equated to the rhythm of the sea. At high tide, he climbs, he loves it, he is good at it; he laughs and jokes, scares himself, falls, gets back up, and climbs some more. Then the tide goes out, and he finds himself alone, exposed, all questions and no answers. Self-doubt, grieving for friends or family, fearful, sometimes opinionated, occasionally angry - his writing more honest and exposed than in any account of a climb. Only when the tide turns is he able to forget once more.
Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.
What listeners say about Tides
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- Corin
- 29-09-19
Nick Bullock seeks adventure
and finds some great tales with interesting introspection.
At times a little disconnected in 5 minutes he moves through time and space.
Llanberis to Nepal to a canal boat to Chamonix, you have to leap with him then it is a great listen.
Recommended.
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- DANIEL T.
- 10-03-21
Very enjoyable
Very good listern, Nick has a skill for narrating in a poetic sort of way.
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- Hayley
- 11-01-20
A bit dreary, but not in a bad way
Story is v good, interesting and evocative. A lot of emotion and self doubt/criticism throughout the book, interesting to hear it read by the author, I had read his first book and didn't pick up on the emotions as much as hearing it read. Audio quality was good, but only sometimes was a tad unclear.
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- Edward Shelley
- 08-10-19
Who gave Nick a microphone?!
Another good book from a fascinating climber, but he should be forced to have someone else read them!
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- Jonathan Bond
- 24-02-20
inspiring
as a climber stuck in a dead end job, never have I felt the pull of the mountains stronger than in sharing this author's story .. I now have to finish a shift knowing all I want to do is get in my own van, and pull into that little lay by under Tryfan to begin my own journey .. thanks for sharing your tale
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- Ed Challinor
- 20-08-20
Thoughtful, exciting and poetic
This is a real climbing book. There are so many trashy ghost-written or just plain boring climbing books. Tides is more like Messner or Boardman. It’s an instant classic.
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- Hannah Morris
- 25-06-19
A fascinating memoir of life in the mountains.
‘Tides’ picks up where Nick Bullock’s debut ‘Echoes’ left off, with Bullock leaving his career in the prison service to pursue a life of climbing out of a small van.
‘Tides’ found me during my own time of upheaval. Moving house and changing job in the same month, my first dip into the world of audiobooks provided my partner and I with a welcome soundtrack as we dismantled our life and prepared to start a new one in the north of England. Nick’s lyrical prose lulled us along the M62 as we ferried our belongings between houses, his northern twang recalling with stark clarity the ups and downs of an impressive career in the mountains.
This is a memoir with many faces, rattling from Chamonix in the French Alps to the peaks of the Himalaya and back to the UK. Bullock shifts between the years with each chapter, detailing impressive ascents of routes in Alaska, Canada and Scotland. His accomplishments are numerous, with many first ascents of Himalayan peaks and a Piolet d’Or to his name.
A logbook of ticks and accents though, this memoir is not. Bullock deals with all aspects of climbing: the challenges of balancing serious mountaineering with personal relationships, the ache of loss experienced when risks become consequences in the mountains, the sting of loneliness on the road, the longing for connection and its discovery in the most remarkable of places.
Nick captures the seduction of the mountains and the liberating unpredictability of life outside of your comfort zone. He describes the visceral fear of running out of time and grapples with questions of risk, selfishness and freedom. The snapshots of the quieter moments spent in his van give a fascinating insight into Bullock’s mind; a single raindrop falling from the roof of his van precedes the question ‘is there such a thing as to live too long?’
‘Tides’ is a brilliant, incredibly honest and personal insight into a life devoted to climbing – its joys and its discontents as rhythmic as the tides. Bullock’s reflections on life in the mountains often had me searching for a pencil in our moving boxes to scribble excerpts in a notebook, or interrupting my partner as we packed our life away and forcing him to listen to whole paragraphs. A rich and energetic celebration of non-conformity and the pursuit of passion, ‘Tides’, describes a life lived with intent, affirming ‘at whatever level, at whatever frailty, life has to be worth living’.
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- Anonymous User
- 04-09-19
More than the story of the life of a climber
Well written insight into the trials and tribulations of the life of a climber. To my surprise, it was a series of stories that jumped through different periods of Bullock's life from when he left his job in the prison service to living in his van which I really enjoyed.
A thoroughly enjoyable listen. I would look elsewhere however if looking for something solely focused on climbing, as this book focuses a lot on the difficulties of maintaining relationships while being a full time climber.
4/5 ☆☆☆☆
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- S. E.
- 30-05-19
Epic, emotional, and inspiring!
Tides is a gripping listen! It tells the story of Nick Bullock as he transitions from working in a prison to following his passion and becoming a climber full time. Bullock delves deep into the world of climbing in a raw and meaningful way, detailing his adventures and telling of what it means dedicate your life to this sport. This is a brutally honest and very personal account which illustrates the highs and lows, risks and rewards, and at many points turns inward to explore the psychological struggles one can face when embarking on a bold and unpredictable lifestyle such as this. Inspirational, emotional, and interspersed with humour: an all-round enjoyable and enlightening read.
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- Paul Bann
- 16-04-19
Go climbing with the Hippy!
Thought provoking, inspiring and extremely well written /narrated. You don't have to be a climber to appreciate this book.
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