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Ten cracking adventure books to curl up with: 30% off biographies

Thursday, 8 November 2018

According to some forecasters we're in for our coldest winter in eight years. With freezing temperatures predicted to blast the UK with thick snow, indoor entertainment might be the only option. To keep you occupied while the impending storm passes, we're offering 30% off ten classic climbing and mountaineering biographies (well nine, plus Steve Birkinshaw's bestselling There is no Map in Hell). Scroll down to the bottom to receive our festive discount code.

	The Bond Simon McCartney was a cocky 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. Their first objective was the 5,500-foot north face of Mount Huntington. The result was a route so hard and serious that for decades nobody believed they had climbed it. Then, raising the bar even higher, they made the first ascent of the south-west face of Denali, a climb that would prove almost fatal for Simon, and one that separated the two young climbers for over three decades.
	Art of Freedom Voytek Kurtyka is one of the greatest alpinists of all time. He was one of the leading lights of the Polish golden age of mountaineering that redefined Himalayan climbing in the 1970s and 1980s. His visionary approach to climbing resulted in many renowned ascents, such as the complete Broad Peak traverse, the ‘night-naked’ speed climbs of Cho Oyu and Shishapangma and, above all, the alpine-style first ascent of the West Face of Gasherbrum IV. Art of Freedom is a profound and moving profile of one of the international climbing world’s most respected, complex and reclusive mountaineers.
	The Magician's Glass The Magician’s Glass by award-winning writer Ed Douglas is a collection of eight recent essays on some of the biggest stories and best-known personalities in the world of climbing. Douglas writes about bitter controversies, like that surrounding Ueli Steck’s disputed solo ascent of the south face of Annapurna, the fate of Toni Egger on Cerro Torre in 1959 – when Cesare Maestri claimed the pair had made the first ascent, and the rise and fall of Slovenian ace Tomaz Humar. There are also profiles of two stars of the 1980s: the much-loved German Kurt Albert, the father of the ‘redpoint’, and the enigmatic rock star Patrick Edlinger, a national hero in his native France who lost his way.
	Norton of Everest E.F. Norton lived a life of distinction in the declining years of the British Empire. His gift for leadership was first demonstrated via his rapid progression through the ranks in the First World War. Events in the Second World War followed suit, when Norton was abruptly assigned the post of acting governor of Hong Kong, entrusted to save the civilian population from imminent Japanese invasion. The 1924 Everest expedition exemplifies the pattern of having had leadership thrust upon him. Leading from the front, Norton set an altitude record for climbing on Everest without supplementary oxygen. In Norton of Everest, Hugh Norton has written sensitively and knowledgably about his father’s remarkable life as a mountaineer, soldier and family man.
	There is no Map in Hell In 1986, the legendary fell runner Joss Naylor completed a continuous circuit of all 214 Wainwright fells in the Lake District, covering a staggering distance of over 300 miles – plus many thousands of metres of ascent – in only seven days and one hour. Those in the know thought that this record would never be beaten. It is the ultimate British ultramarathon. There is no Map in Hell tells the story of a man willing to do just that. In 2014, Steve Birkinshaw made an attempt at setting a new record. With a background of nearly forty years of running elite orienteering races and extreme-distance fell running over the toughest terrain, if he couldn’t do it, surely no one could.
	Statement On 14 June 1990, at Raven Tor in the Derbyshire Peak District, twenty-four-year-old Ben Moon squeezed his feet into a pair of rock shoes, tied in to his rope, chalked his fingers and pulled on to the wickedly overhanging, zebra-striped wall of limestone. Two minutes later he had made rock-climbing history with the first ascent of Hubble, now widely recognised as the world’s first F9a. In Statement, Moon’s official biography, award-winning writer Ed Douglas paints a portrait of a climbing visionary and dispels the myth of Moon as an anti-traditional climbing renegade.
	Chris Bonington Mountaineer Chris Bonington is one of the best-known and highly regarded mountaineers in the world. He has tested himself in some of the most savage and remote mountain regions, including the Karakoram, the Arctic, the Himalaya and Patagonia. This fully revised and updated edition of Bonington’s photographic autobiography gives a frank perspective into the surreal, majestic, mundane and occasionally tragic corners of his mountaineering career, and includes a new foreword by Leo Houlding.
	Up and About 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. For Doug Scott, it was the fulfilment of a fortune-teller’s prophecy given to his mother: that her eldest son would be in danger in a high place with the whole world watching. In Up and About, the first volume of his autobiography, Scott tells his story from his birth in Nottingham during the darkest days of war to the summit of the world.
	Punk in the Gym Andy Pollitt is as close to a Hollywood A-lister as the climbing world will ever get. He had the looks, and he starred in all the big roles in the 1980s and 1990s – Tremadog, Pen Trwyn, the big Gogarth climbs, Raven Tor and the cult Australian adventures. With nothing held back, Andy tells his roller-coaster story from the UK to Australia, exactly as it happened. The legendary routes are all here – The Bells, The Bells!, Skinhead Moonstomp, The Hollow Man, Boot Boys, The Whore of Babylon and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. And the route that broke him and robbed the climbing world of its Hollywood star – Punks in the Gym.
	The Fight for Everest 1924 In 1924 Mount Everest remained unclimbed. Two British expeditions had already tackled what was known to be the highest mountain on Earth. The first, in 1921, found a route to the base. The second, in 1922, attempted the summit, reaching a record height of 27,320 feet before retreating. Two years later, a team that included Colonel E.F. Norton, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine returned to the Himalaya. Armed with greater knowledge and experience, confidence was high. But they were still climbing into the unknown. Could they succeed where others had failed, and make the first ascent of the highest mountain on Earth? Before they could find out, tragedy struck – George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, climbing high on the mountain, vanished into the clouds.

CHRISTMAS OFFER: GET 30% OFF ANY OF THESE BOOKS WHEN YOU ENTER CODE CHRISTMASWRAPPEDUP AT CHECKOUT. FREE POSTAGE ON ALL UK MAINLAND ORDERS. OFFER ENDS 25 NOVEMBER 2018.