Elusive Summits
Four Expeditions in the Karakoram
- Paperback
- ISBN: 978-1-911342-19-9130 pages
- Author
- Victor Saunders
- Publication date
- 14 Mar 2013
At a time when the greatest mountains in the greatest ranges had been climbed by numerous routes, collected like stamps and written about extensively, Victor Saunders and his friends relished the exploration of the slightly lower, slightly humbler, but often more aesthetically satisfying and no less testing summits in the 6000- and 7000-metre range. With thousands of unclimbed peaks in the Karakorum and Himalaya to choose from, these were ripe fruit for the committed mountaineers of the day.
In his Boardman-Tasker-winning Elusive Summits, Victor Saunders describes four expeditions to the Karakoram, to Uzum Brakk, Bojohaghur Duanasir, Rimo and the stunning Spantik. Battling crevasses and violent weather, injured climbers and dropped rucksacks, Saunders and his friends make a string of exciting and difficult ascents.
Saunders communicates the highs and lows of expedition life with relish, good humour, and a keen eye for the idiosyncratic among his companions. His first book, Elusive Summits, is a wonderful celebration of the sheer exhilaration that comes from the hardest level of alpine-style exploration in the Karakoram.
Also available as an ebook:
Victor Saunders was born in Lossiemouth and grew up in Malaya. He started climbing in the Alps in 1978 and has climbed in the Caucasus, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan. He became a UIAGM mountain guide in 1996 after a career as an architect in London. He relocated to Chamonix, France and became a member of the SNGM (National Syndicate of French Mountain Guides) in 2003. He has been on more than ninety expeditions in mountain ranges including the Himalaya and Karakoram, and estimates that he has spent seven years of his life under canvas. His previous books include Elusive Summits, which won the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature in 1990; No Place to Fall; and Himalaya: The Tribulations of Mick & Vic, co-written with Mick Fowler, which won the Grand Prize at the Passy International Mountain Book Festival in 2015.
- Title: Elusive Summits
- Subtitle: Four Expeditions in the Karakoram
- Author: Victor Saunders
- Imprint: Vertebrate Publishing
- ISBN: 978-1-911342-19-9
- Rights: Worldwide
- Publication date: 16 January 2017
- Edition: First
- Size: 234mm x 156mm
- Extent: 130 pages
- Cover: Paperback
- Weight: 220g
- Retail price: £9.99
Also available as an ebook:
- Imprint: Vertebrate Digital
- ISBN: 978-1-906148-67-6
- Publication date: 14 March 2013
- Price: £4.99