The Mountains Of My Life

The legendary mountaineer describes his adventures in such ranges as the Alps and Himalayas, and provides details of what really happened during a controversial 1954 Italian expedition that made the first ascent of K2.

"Living in Paris for a winter and a spring and waking each morning to a view of Notre Dame, David Oates is led to revise his life story from one of trudging and occasional woe into one punctuated by nourishing and sometimes unsettling brilliance. In The Mountains of Paris, he offers a technique of reimagining one's life story that might be available to anyone. The present tense of the book takes place during the seasons he spends in Paris, sharing an artist's residency. It is a rare opportunity to consider what it means to be human, through time-stopping moments with music, art, and deep history. The past tense of the book offers memories that intrude into the bustle of Paris life: a Billy Graham crusade at age thirteen, a mountain pass, a love, a loss. In long years of mountaineering Oates fought the self-loathing which had infused him as the gay kid in the Baptist pew. In The Mountains of Paris, he ascends to a place of wonder through intense, personal narrative encounter with the strangeness of being alive. In his searching, luminous, and inimitable prose, Oates invites readers to share the sense of awe awakened by a Vermeer painting, or the night sky, or the echoing strains of music fading down a Paris street, lifting the curtain on a cosmos filled with a terrifying yet beautiful rightness"--

Account of first ascent of west face of Mt. Huntington, Alaska, in 1965.

•*Reveals the long view from an icon who, with age, has added wisdom to his list of accomplishments •*Messner climbing firsts: the world’s fourteen peaks taller than 8000 meters; Everest solo; Everest without supplemental oxygen •*Author of more than 60 books Reinhold Messner: My Life at the Limit, the newest book by the famed mountaineer, is a conversation between Messner and interviewer Thomas Hüetlin, an award-winning German journalist. It reveals a more thoughtful and conversational Messner than one finds in his previous books, with the “talk” between Messner and Hüetlin covering not only the highlights of Messner’s climbing career, but also his treks across Tibet, the Gobi, and Antarctica; his five-year-stint as a member of the European Parliament; his encounter with and study of the yeti; his thoughts on traditional male/female roles; and much more. Readers learn about Messner’s childhood, his thoughts about eating ice cream with girls (against), politics (mostly liberal), and his technique for killing chickens (sharp scissors). Messner is known as one of history’s greatest Himalayan mountaineers, a man who pushed back the frontiers of the possible for a whole generation of climbers. While the interest in My Life at the Limit is that it exposes much more of the man than his climbing career, that career is still utterly remarkable——and Mountaineers Books is proud to present this book, which is core to our mission, to audiences across North America. ***For a limited time, donors to our Legends and Lore series will receive a signed copy of My Life at the Limit. Click here > to learn more.***

Caldecott Honor Book! "An evocative remembrance of the simple pleasures in country living; splashing in the swimming hole, taking baths in the kitchen, sharing family times, each is eloquently portrayed here in both the misty-hued scenes and in the poetic text." -Association for Childhood Education International

• First woman—and only the fourth climber ever—to summit all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen or high-altitude porters • Though the two climbers are friends, Kaltenbrunner’s path to high places has been very different from Edurne Pasaban’s record-breaking feat • Positive, uplifting account of a remarkable athlete Effusive, charismatic, tough, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner is one of the world’s most successful high-altitude mountaineers and the first woman to climb all fourteen 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen——and she also eschews high-altitude porters. Mountains in My Heart covers her early years learning to climb in Austria, her personal life, her training as an oncology nurse, and her ever-present passion for mountains, especially the Himalaya. Her love of being in the mountains shines through in her writing: For Gerlinde the important thing was not the race to be the first woman to climb the 8,000-meter peaks, but rather to experience the mountains and climb them in her self-sufficient style. Self-sufficiency did not, however, mean climbing without her husband, Ralf Dujmovits; in 2009, Lhotse became her twelfth and his fourteenth 8,000-meter peak! Kaltenbrunner shares the challenges, dangers, and euphoria of her high-altitude climbs, detailing medical emergencies and her own feelings about being high in the mountains. Her writing is honest, captivating, and unrestrained.

Sheldon B. Lubar is one of Wisconsin's leading entrepreneurs, most generous philanthropists, and most public-spirited citizens. This memoir, published in Mr. Lubar's 91st year, shares the secrets of his success and explains the deeply held principles behind it.

When Kelly Perkins learned she needed a heart transplant at the age of 30, she thought the active healthy life she loved was over. From the brink of death to the summit of Mt. Fuji, Kelly, with the support of her husband Craig, not only survived the transplant surgery, but became the first heart transplant patient to summit some of the world's most recognized peaks. The Climb of My Life tells the story of Kelly's transplant, recovery, and ascents up such mountains as Mt. Kilimanjaro-all on a borrowed heart.

A student leader of the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square provides a persona account of the protests, the Chinese government's violent retaliation, and the aftermath.

The uplifting story of two unlikely mountaineers: a man in late middle age and a fearless pint-sized pup who, together, scale Colorado's highest peaks. By the time life had finished hitting Rick Crandall from all sides, he was at the lowest point of his life, both personally and professionally. Depressed to find himself facing a mid-late-life age crisis and watching his finances crumble as the tech industry bubble burst, he hopes his future isn't headed downhill. It was at this critical juncture in their new marriage that his wife Pamela made an astute and life-changing suggestion: "Let's get a dog." So begins the story of Emme, a 200-pound Saint Bernard trapped in the body of 5-pound Australian terrier puppy. Soon, Emme and Rick hit the hiking trails around Aspen, Colorado. While she is groomed to be a show dog, it's soon obvious that her heart is in the hills and with Rick, who decides to add more challenging hikes to the mix. Before long, they are scaling Colorado's "fourteeners," peaks with altitudes of over 14,000 feet. On one magical day, Emme climbs to the top of four "fourteeners," a quarter of the sixteen such peaks she will complete during her life without once being carried on a trail or on the rocks on the way to a summit. In mountaineering Rick realizes he has found—in his late sixties—his life's new passion. This is where Emme has led him—out of the abyss and to the top of the mountain. She was never really walking behind: she was nudging him along until he found his stride. Even after Rick understood the glory of climbing, it was Emme still doing the leading, until Rick learned how to lead himself.