Sport Climbing

Mount Everest is situated in the Himalayan Mountains, on the border between Nepal and Tibet. It is the tallest mountain in the world, standing roughly 29,029 feet above sea level. Every year, Everest gets taller by about half an inch. This is due to movements in the Earth's crust and two tectonic plates, deep beneath the Earth's surface, pushing together.

Of all the games mountaineers play on the world’s high mountains, the hardest - and cruelest - is climbing the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in the bitter cold of winter. Ferocious winds that can pick you up and throw you down, freezing temperatures that burn your lungs and numb your bones, weeks of psychological torment in dark isolation - these are adventures for those with an iron will and a ruthless determination.

Explore the elevated world of rock climbing! Listeners will learn about free soloing, equipment needed, and safety measures taken for this sky-high sport. Discover other extreme climbing and how athletes practice their skills and experience thrills in nature.

A wonderful cocktail of extraordinary writing and heartfelt appreciation for the natural world. An essential oddity for any book collection. In this charming and witty companion, Jack Cooke explores the city through its canopy: teetering on the edge of an oak's branches, scurrying up a Scots pine, spying views from the treetops that few have ever had the chance to see. He takes us through the parks, over the canals and rivers and into secret gardens in his journey sometimes only 10 foot above the street.

Unabridged selections from George Mallory's collected writings on his mountaineering - and his motivations. Famously impelled to climb Mount Everest simply because it was there, Mallory made three attempts to be the first to reach its summit, and perished on the third. His writing reveals the emotional life of the mountaineer. With eloquence, Mallory captures the struggles and the rewards involved, the climber's sense of triumph, and experiences of staggering beauty.

Ron Fawcett is a natural-born climber. In 1969, while still at school in his native Yorkshire, he tied into a climbing rope for the first time and was instantly hooked. From that moment on, it seemed nothing else in his life mattered nearly as much as his next vertical fix... Fawcett found the pressures of the limelight too much to bear, and at the end of the 1980s he faded from view. Now, for the first time, he tells his extraordinary story, of how his love of nature and the outdoors developed into a passion for climbing that took him to the top - and almost consumed him.

In recent years, there has been a huge influx of interest in climbing. Climbing gyms are popping up all over the place, and new climbers are taking to the outdoors, but there aren’t enough old timers to pass on all of the necessary knowledge that comes with taking on such a sport. There is more to climbing than just going up a rock. Once you join the sport, you become part of a community, a family, and there are certain unwritten rules that should be adhered to.

There is a misconception that rock climbing is only for tough, macho guys and adventure junkies. Rock climbing certainly requires a lot of strength and energy, but this can be acquired by anyone willing to learn and dedicate some of their free time to it.

"Non è una punta, ma una massa prodigiosa. Il lungo braccio della Cresta Nord-ovest, con i suoi speroni secondari, sembra la cattedrale di Winchester dopo una nevicata." George Leigh Mallory, 1921. È l'Everest: sui suoi pendii da un secolo si cimentano i migliori alpinisti del mondo, da Eric Shipton a Reinhold Messner, da Edmund Hillary a Krzysztof Wielicki, Anatolij Boukreev, Doug Scott, Simone Moro e Alex Txikon. Ma anche avventurieri, topografi, sognatori, scienziati e figure eccezionali come quelle degli sherpa.

Are you interested in rock climbing, but don’t know where to get started? Or do you want to just learn more about the sport? It can be overwhelming trying to get your head wrapped around the different equipment, types of climbing, and techniques used. But the thing about the sport is you’ll improve dramatically once you've familiarized yourself with these basic concepts.

There is a misconception that rock climbing is only for tough macho guys and adventure junkies. Rock climbing certainly requires a lot of strength and energy, but this can be acquired by anyone willing to learn and dedicate some of their free time to it. The step-by-step training in this book is so easy to follow that you will have success with it, even if you have failed at every other hobbies you’ve tried.