Customer Reviews

Heroic Climbs: A Celebration of World Mountaineering

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It's got such fantastic photography, the hardcover is well worth the investment.

Spanning the globe from Asia to Antarctica to Alaska to New Guinea, this wonderful book is a must for any mountain lover--including those of the armchair variety. The illustrations are heartpounding, while about a few dozen short narratives are wholly satisfying. This book is a wee bit pricey, and, tho' I am a poor boy, I don't feel one bit robbed. This may be the best picture book/narrative mtn. book I own.

Great photographs in this book - largely by John Cleare one of the world's greatest mountain photographers. Thank you John for yet more stunning photographs!

This review is for the cloth, hardcover edition of HEROIC CLIMBS: A Celebration of World Mountaineering, edited by Chris Bonington & Audrey Salkeld (224 pgs., 1994).
Although this over-sized book includes more than 180 vibrant and emotive photographs, this is no mere coffee-table photo-book. It includes descriptive, full of emotion writings from some of the climbing world's best known pioneers and modern seekers of the high peaks.
There are nearly no weak entries in this collection. HEROIC CLIMBS is divided by geographical area. Each chapter includes historical backgrounds for each mountainous region. The writings from different contributors flow seamlessly into each other making a cohesive whole.
This combination of I-just-gotta-look-at-these-again photos, some covering entire pages and evocative writing; makes readers want to leap out of their easy chairs, gather together their gear, rush to the airport and fly away to pursue personal adventures.
It's a sin to highlight just one contribution in this excellent anthology. However, since Scotland owns my heart & my fingers are typing this, here are a few lines from Mick Fowler to illustrate the down-to-earth lack of pretense found throughout this book.
"Ian is an old school friend . . . Still it was inconvenient of him to arrange his
wedding to Margaret for a friday afternoon. It meant that, despite the Scottish
forecast being excellent this weekend, we are later than usual weaving in and
out of the tired commuters grinding tediously up the M1."
Perhaps, it's because my own Cockney friend, Ian, and I have made this same drive up the M1 that it strikes such an emotive chord within me. Maybe, because I once knew a Maggie in Scotland, my heart aches to journey back to Torridon and join Fowler on his climbs into the mountains, nae far from me own wee bothy.
Read this book and if you've climbed any hills or mountains anywhere in the world, your own memories will surface. This will be a much appreciated gift for any climbing friends you may have; or it might entice armchair travelers to get out and climb.