Recommendations: Climbing Books and Films

“Shortcuts to While Away Slack Time”

from the 2019 Going to the Sun Journal
Compiled by Ellen-Thérèse Lamm and Larry Hiller

Classic Books

Classic Book Selection 1
Boy Scouts in Glacier Park: The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Walter Prichard Eaton

Classic Book Selection 2
Conquistadors of the Useless: From the Alps to Annapurna by Lionel Terray

Classic Book Honorable Mention 1
The Last of His Kind: The Life and Adventures of Bradford Washburn, America’s Boldest Mountaineer by David Roberts

Classic Book Honorable Mention 2
The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger by Heinrich Harrer

Other Classic Book Recommendations:
● A Woman’s Way West by John Fraley
● Avalanche by Albert Lewis Sperry
● Freedom of the Hills by The Mountaineers Books
● Gervasutti’s Climbs by Giusto Gervasutti
● Norman Clyde: Legendary Mountaineer of California’s Sierra Nevada by Robert C. Pavlik
● Of Men and Mountains by Justice William O. Douglas
● Seven Years in Tibet by Henrich Harrer
● The Long Walk by Slavomir Rawicz
● The Man Who Walked Through Time by Colin Fletcher
● Ways to the Sky by Andy Selters

Contemporary Books

Contemporary Book Selection 1
The Ledge: An Inspirational Story of Friendship and Survival by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan

Contemporary Book Selection 2:
Eiger Dreams by Jon Krakauer

Contemporary Book Honorable Mention 1 & 2
● The White Death by McKay Jenkins
● In Search of the Mount Cleveland Five by Terry Kennedy

Other Contemporary Book Recommendations
● Annapurna: A Woman’s Place by Arlene Blum
● Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
● Challenge of the North Cascades by Fred Beckey
● Desert Towers by Steve Bartlett
● Finding Mallory on Everest by Conrad Anker
● Glacier Mountaineering: An Illustrated Guide to Glacier Travel and Crevasse Rescue by Andy Tyson
● Grandma Gatewood’s Walk by Ben Montgomery
● Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
● K2 by Ed Viesturs
● Mount Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative by David Roberts
● Night of the Grizzlies by Jack Olsen
● No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs
● On the Ridge Between Life and Death, A Climbing Life Re-examined by David Roberts
● The Art of Freedom by Bernadette McDonald
● The Beckoning Silence by Joe Simpson
● The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains by Barry Blanchard
● The Cicerone Guides
● The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev
● The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarkop
● The Mountain by Ed Viesturs
● The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre by Kelly Cordes
● The Will to Climb by Ed Viesturs
● The Wolverine Way by Doug Chadwick (with Film)
● Touch the Top of the World by Erik Weihenmayer
● Touching the Void by Joe Simpson (with Film)
● Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House

Classic Films

Classic Film Selection 1
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life

Classic Film Selection 2
North Face (Nordwand)

Other Classic Film Recommendations
● Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey
● Thirty Days to Survival
● Valley Uprising

Contemporary Films

Contemporary Film Selection 1
A Life Ascending

Contemporary Film Selection 2
Touching the Void (with Book)

Contemporary Film – Honorable Mention
The Grand Rescue

Other Contemporary Film Recommendations
● 127 Hours
● Free Solo
● Meru