Ron Fawcett - Rock Athlete

Author: Ron Fawcett
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1906148392
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 199

Book Description
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. Ten years later, Fawcett was the most famous rock climber in Britain and among the best in the world, part of a new wave whose dedication to training transformed the sport, pushing standards further and faster than ever before - or since. His legacy of new climbs ranks him alongside the very best in the history of the sport. He was also the first to style himself a professional rock climber, starring in the landmark television documentary "Rock Athlete", and appearing on the covers of magazines around the world. But far from enjoying the fame, 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. Winner of the 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

Jerry Moffatt - Revelations

Author: Jerry Moffatt
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1906148406
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
When Jerry Moffatt burst onto the scene as a brash 17-year-old, rock climbing had never seen anyone like him before. Fiercely ambitious, even as a boy Moffatt was focused on one thing: being the best in the world. This is the story of his meteoric rise to stardom, and how he overcame injury to stay at the top for over two decades. Top sport climber, brilliant competitor and a pioneer in the new game of bouldering, Moffatt's story is that of climbing itself in the last thirty years. Yet Jerry Moffatt is more than a dedicated athlete. Travelling the world to fulfil his dreams, his story is a compelling and often hilarious account of the climbing community with all its glories, dangers and foibles, as well as the story of a true sporting legend. Grand Prize Winner - Banff Mountain Book Festival 2009.

The Climbing Bible

Author: Martin Mobråten
Publisher: Vertebrate Publishing
ISBN: 1839810335
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 472

Book Description
More and more people around the world are discovering how great climbing is, both indoors and outdoors. The Climbing Bible by internationally renowned climbers and coaches Martin Mobråten and Stian Christophersen is a comprehensive guide to help you train effectively to become a better climber. The authors have been climbing coaches for a number of years. Based on their own extensive experience and research, this book collates the best European training techniques into one book with information on how to specifically train for the technical, physical and mental performance factors in climbing – including endurance, power, motivation, fear of falling, and much more. It also deals with tactics, fingerboarding and finger strength, general training and injury prevention, injuries related to climbing, and training plans. It is illustrated with 400 technique and action photos, and features stories from top climbers as well as a foreword by climber and bestselling author Jo Nesbø. The Climbing Bible will help and motivate you to improve and develop as a climber and find even more joy in this fantastic sport.

Fast and Free - Pete Livesey

Author: John Sheard
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910077016
Category : Mountaineers
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
This is the collected biography of Pete Livesey with contributions from Geoff Birtles, Martin Berzins, John Cleare, Jean Claude Droyer, Jim Eyre, Peter Gomersall, Dennis Gray, Ron Fawcett, Peter Livesey, John Long, Nicho Mailander, Mark Radtke, John Sheard, and many more. This compilation of inspirational and at times downright funny tales forms a loose climbing biography that charts his journey from cave explorer to one of the world's leading rock-climbers.

Freedom Climbers

Author: Bernadette McDonald
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
ISBN: 1594857571
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 422

Book Description
CLICK HERE to download the first chapter from Freedom Climbers (Provide us with a little information and we'll send your download directly to your inbox) "One of the most important mountaineering books to be written for many years." —Boardman-Tasker Prize See this book trailer for Freedom Climbers made by RMB Books, its publisher in Canada, where the cover is slightly different from the Mountaineers Books U.S. edition * Behind the Iron Curtain, Cold War mountaineers found freedom on the world's highest peaks—and paid an awful price to achieve it * Winner of the Boardman-Tasker Prize, Banff Grand Prize, and American Alpine Club Literary Award Freedom Climbers tells the story of Poland's truly remarkable mountaineers who dominated Himalayan climbing during the period between the end of World War II and the start of the new millennium. The emphasis here is on their "golden age" in the 1980s and 1990s when, despite the economic and social baggage of their struggling country, Polish climbers were the first to tackle the world's highest mountains during winter, including the first winter ascents on seven of the world's fourteen 8000-meter peaks: Everest, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Cho Oyu, Kanchenjunga, Annapurna, and Lhotse. Such successes, however, came at a serious cost: 80 percent of Poland's finest high-altitude climbers died on the high mountains during the same period they were pursuing these first ascents. Award-winning writer Bernadette McDonald addresses the social, political, and cultural context of this golden age, and the hardships of life under Soviet rule. Polish climbers, she argues, were so tough because their lives at home were so tough—they lost family members to World War II and its aftermath and were so much more poverty-stricken than their Western counterparts that they made much of their own climbing gear. While Freedom Climbers tells the larger story of an era, McDonald shares charismatic personal narratives such as that of Wanda Rutkiewicz, expected to be the first woman to climb all 8000-meter peaks until she disappeared on Kanchenjunga in 1992; Jerzy Kukuczka, who died in a fall while attempting the south face of Lhotse; and numerous other renowned climbers including Voytek Kurtyka, Artur Hajzer, Andrej Zawaka, and Krzysztof Wielicki. This is a fascinating window into a different world, far-removed from modernity yet connected by the strange allure of the mountain landscape, and a story of inspiring passion against all odds. This title is part of our LEGENDS AND LORE series. Click here > to learn more.

No Logo

Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312203436
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 520

Book Description
"What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands." Billy Bragg from the bookjacket.

The Impossible Climb

Author: Mark Synnott
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101986654
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Book Description
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES MONTHLY BESTSELLER One of the 10 Best Books of March, Paste Magazine A deeply reported insider perspective of Alex Honnold’s historic achievement and the culture and history of climbing. “One of the most compelling accounts of a climb and the climbing ethos that I've ever read.”—Sebastian Junger In Mark Synnott’s unique window on the ethos of climbing, his friend Alex Honnold’s astonishing free solo ascent of El Capitan’s 3,000 feet of sheer granite is the central act. When Honnold topped out at 9:28 A.M. on June 3, 2017, having spent fewer than four hours on his historic ascent, the world gave a collective gasp. The New York Times described it as “one of the great athletic feats of any kind, ever.” Synnott’s personal history of his own obsession with climbing since he was a teenager—through professional climbing triumphs and defeats, and the dilemmas they render—makes this a deeply reported, enchanting revelation about living life to the fullest. What are we doing if not an impossible climb? Synnott delves into a raggedy culture that emerged decades earlier during Yosemite’s Golden Age, when pioneering climbers like Royal Robbins and Warren Harding invented the sport that Honnold would turn on its ear. Painting an authentic, wry portrait of climbing history and profiling Yosemite heroes and the harlequin tribes of climbers known as the Stonemasters and the Stone Monkeys, Synnott weaves in his own experiences with poignant insight and wit: tensions burst on the mile-high northwest face of Pakistan’s Great Trango Tower; fellow climber Jimmy Chin miraculously persuades an official in the Borneo jungle to allow Honnold’s first foreign expedition, led by Synnott, to continue; armed bandits accost the same trio at the foot of a tower in the Chad desert . . . The Impossible Climb is an emotional drama driven by people exploring the limits of human potential and seeking a perfect, choreographed dance with nature. Honnold dared far beyond the ordinary, beyond any climber in history. But this story of sublime heights is really about all of us. Who doesn’t need to face down fear and make the most of the time we have?

Unjustifiable Risk?

Author: Simon Thompson
Publisher: Cicerone Press Limited
ISBN: 1849656991
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description
To the impartial observer Britain does not appear to have any mountains. Yet the British invented the sport of mountain climbing and for two periods in history British climbers led the world in the pursuit of this beautiful and dangerous obsession. Unjustifiable Risk is the story of the social, economic and cultural conditions that gave rise to the sport, and the achievements and motives of the scientists and poets, parsons and anarchists, villains and judges, ascetics and drunks that have shaped its development over the past two hundred years. The history of climbing inevitably reflects the wider changes that have occurred in British society, including class, gender, nationalism and war, but the sport has also contributed to changing social attitudes to nature and beauty, heroism and death. Over the years, increasing wealth, leisure and mobility have gradually transformed climbing from an activity undertaken by an eccentric and privileged minority into a sub-division of the leisure and tourist industry, while competition, improved technology and information, and increasing specialisation have helped to create climbs of unimaginable difficulty at the leading edge of the sport. But while much has changed, even more has remained the same. Today's climbers would be instantly recognisable to their Victorian predecessors, with their desire to escape from the crowded complexity of urban society and willingness to take "unjustifiable" risk in pursuit of beauty, adventure and self-fulfilment. Unjustifiable Risk was shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker prize in 2011.

Punk in the Gym

Author: Andy Pollitt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781910240694
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Andy Pollitt is as close to a Hollywood A-lister as the climbing worldwill 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. Alongside co-stars like Jerry Moffatt, John Redhead and Malcolm'HB' Matheson, he brought us sexy climbing - gone were the beards,the woolly socks and the fibre pile. Andy was all skin-tight pink Lycra, vests and brooding looks. For those watching, Andy Pollitt had it all. But Punk in the Gym gives us the whole truth. The self-doubt, the depression, the drinking, the fags, the womanising, the injuries, the loss of a father and the trouble that brings, and a needfor something - for recognition, a release for the pain, and, for Andy, more drinking, more tears, bigger run-outs. With nothing held back, Andy tells his roller-coaster story from theUK to Australia, exactly as it happened. Exposing his fragile ego and leaving us to laugh, cry, marvel and judge, this is a sports autobiography like no other. 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 robbedthe climbing world of its Hollywood star - Punks in the Gym.

Why Study History?

Author: John Fea
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493442708
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
What is the purpose of studying history? How do we reflect on contemporary life from a historical perspective, and can such reflection help us better understand ourselves, the world around us, and the God we worship and serve? Written by an accomplished historian, award-winning author, public evangelical spokesman, and respected teacher, this introductory textbook shows why Christians should study history, how faith is brought to bear on our understanding of the past, and how studying the past can help us more effectively love God and others. John Fea shows that deep historical thinking can relieve us of our narcissism; cultivate humility, hospitality, and love; and transform our lives more fully into the image of Jesus Christ. The first edition of this book has been used widely in Christian colleges across the country. The second edition provides an updated introduction to the study of history and the historian's vocation. The book has also been revised throughout and incorporates Fea's reflections on this topic from throughout the past 10 years.