UKC

There has been a proliferation of autobiographies recently from climbers and most have made a good read, However i picked up a copy of Eric Jones's - A life on the edge and its been brilliant. What a life the guy has had, its a must read for anyone interested in extreme sports, great stories, great photos, and he makes a great brew as well

In reply to Anoetic:

I agree, brilliant read

In reply to Anoetic:

I went into high sports in Shrewsbury looking for a good read. Stuart Cathcart recommend the book, he gets a mention in it.
I agree it's a lovely read, so down to earth and honest, what adventures Eric Jones has had!
When you go into his cafe he is always good to chat to and interested in what you are doing at the crag.

In reply to Anoetic:

I'm three chapters in and it's magic.

In reply to Anoetic:

May I also recommend "In some lost place", by Sandy Allan. It's primarily about the ascent of Nanga Parbat via the Mazeno Ridge, but there is also some description of his earlier life and climbing career. I really enjoyed it.

In reply to hokkyokusei:

Vertebrate Publishing have brought out a lot of great books over the past few years, (including - this year - 'In Some Lost Place'). Hats off to 'em: the printed word is showing signs of life.

I agree with the sentiments expressed above about Eric Jones's book: great to see all these stories seeing the light of day.

In reply to Anoetic:

Eric is one of the all time nice guys - who on earth has managed to dislike your post?

In reply to Anoetic: Thanks - didn't know of this book. Definitely on the Christmas list. I'm sure he'd hate the phrases 'adventure sports' and 'mountain athlete' but there's many that embrace them or even define themselves by those words that can't hold a candle to his achievements. And, as has been mentioned, he'll even make you a brew as well.

T.

In reply to jon:

Perhaps the" dislike" is because he doesn't think he makes a good brew! I once asked the old girl in there for a black coffee, as she made it she asked,"Do you want milk in the black coffee". Went to hear Eric give a talk in London last year in aid of CAC, a real legend and a fantastic evening.

In reply to Anoetic:

Well spotted - on my Xmas list. What a legend and nice chap to boot.

His whole 'Eiger Solo' film is on Youtube youtube.com/watch?v=5d9avT0R-qk& - tremendous

In reply to ericinbristol:

CHeers for that - I remember about fifteen years ago trying to source a VHS copy of this. Glad I just decided to wait till the internets solved all my problems for me!

In reply to Anoetic:


seconded. not the most well written but a totally compelling read, he's done some amazing things.

In reply to Bobling:


Leo Dickinson can sell you a copy: see http://www.adventurearchive.com/data/books_videos/order.asp

It doesn't seem like he himself has done (or authorized) the YouTube uploads - so think on that.

In reply to Rob Parsons:

My apologies. I had no idea this was still on sale. I bought my own copy of this on VHS many moons ago, so Leo D's had payment from me

In reply to ericinbristol:

No problem. Thanks.

In reply to Anoetic:

I bought a copy from Eric hmself:
Me: "is it any good?"
Eric: "no, but it's cheap."

In reply to Anoetic:


Thanks for the tip, I shall go and buy it.

A great climber and a lovely man.

I can only presume the idiot hitting the dislike button either isn't getting any, or suffering from PTSD having been recently rescued from a Diff at Birchens.

In reply to Goucho:

There are Diffs that could easily lead to a rescue at Birchens without any significant embarrassment... anyone can cramp up in a tight cave slot. Maybe lets concentrate on the climbing books worth reading this Xmas rather than the the unknowable motivations behind anonymous odd behaviour.

I'll add my praise to VG for their significant impact in recent years on widening the book choice for Xmas.

In reply to john spence:

Eric was great at that talk, disconcertingly humble about his achievements to the point that some non-climbing members of the audience may have been unclear about how great they are. When the questions came his interaction with each questioner was like a gentle conversation, no matter how naive and "childish" some of them seemed to be, Eric invariably tried to understand what they were really asking and deal with that, always in a soft-voiced, understated conversational tone.

A very fine gentleman and a great adventurer.

In reply to Darron:



Norman Croucher (double amputee, both legs below the knees, started climbing AFTER he was disabled), once told the following story :

He was at a conference on disabled people and what they could do, sporting wise, and it was packed to the gunnels with the ostensibly "high minded", particularly quite aggressive bullying women who seemed mostly interested in making a career out of "caring" rather than actually helping the supposed beneficiaries of their benevolence. They all had a great deal of self-assurance and self-worth, were normally very well dressed and seemed in extremely comfortable circumstances, due in no small part to their virtue proclaiming. They all had vast stores of polysyllabic jargon that they could trot out for extended periods, creating sentences that sounded very impressive but where it was very hard to tell what, if anything, they were actually saying, still less why.

Norman gave a talk on some aspect of disability, whatever his stance was, it had clearly run against the party line for one of these ladies. She stood up to question him, and from the height of her well-presented pomposity said :

"Most us here are quite highly qualified in this subject and have a great deal of knowledge of this sector, what exactly are Mr Croucher's qualifications to address us to express the view he just has?"

Norman paused for a moment and, in his rolling Cornish accent said :

"Well there are 2 reasons, first I have been doing quite a lot of research on the subject and have thought carefully about it"

The audience waited for the inevitable "I am disabled myself, being a double leg amputee", simultaneously claiming victimhood and moral superiority. Norman however said :

"The second is that I'm really quite cheap".

In reply to Goucho:


That's not fair, you promised you'd be discrete about that "incident".

In reply to Anoetic:

I'd throw in Extreme Eiger by Peter Gillman. It is the follow up to his first book "Eiger Direct". The passage of time has allowed Peter and his wife Leni to re investigate the climb and give not only the Harlin Team view but also the view from the German team.

It is truly brilliant peice of work and worthy of the BT award which it seems to have sadly been overlooked for (as did Eric's, but Eric's is not technically well written). The story of Eiger Direct is that of Hero's, Villan's (Daily Mail Journalist), life, love, death and epic adventure all visible from behind a telescope.

Eiger Direct and Extreme Eiger tell the same story with the same outcome but the stuff that goes on in the middle differs in many places. Peter Gillman goes to lengths to explain the changes and errors made and the German point of view is very different. A quite excellent and compelling book to read.

In reply to Jim Walton:

That's really interesting - thank you. It can be good to go back, solicit different perspectives.

Is it in Eiger Direct or Haston's autobiography, where he describes the last pitch, coming adrift of the fixed ropes, his crampons in a centimetre at most, desperately thin moves, pretty much at the end of his tether, no protection that would stop you, knowing the belay would rip and everyone would die? One of those situations when you simply must not fall - and yet you might very well do so.

Mick