Editeur - Casa editrice

Asia
Himalaya
Garhwal

Città - Town - Ville

Anno - Date de Parution

Pagine - Pages

Titolo originale

Lingua originale

Lingua - language - langue

Edizione - Collana

Ristampa - Réédition - Reprint

Traduttore

Prefazione

Peter Boardman, (now dead from a subsequent mountaineering accident), in this book relates his successful 1976 two-man climb with Joe Tasker up the west wall of Changabang in the Garhwal Himalaya. The hardships of an Alpine-type assualt on this monster mountain are related, as are the doubts and fears he experiences, along with the disciplined mental state he cultivates to banish them.

The most curiously attractive thing about the book is the young author's thinking: clear, intelligent, and able to remain focused on each task at hand under the most extraordinary circumstances. The reader follows PB through each portion of the ascent and descent as he and Joe Tasker face and eliminate seemingly impossible obstacles one by one. The rhythm of the tale told feels right. It moves forward at a careful and deliberate pace, never puffed up or pedantic.

An emotional epilogue by climber Chris Bonington underscores Boardman's achievements both on the mountain, as a climber, and off, as a gentle human being.

Nota biografica: DOpo aver arrampicato sulle Alpi, nell'Hindu Kush, in Alaska e nel Caucaso, Peter Broadman (1950-1982) è stato uno degli alpinisti che ha raggiunto la vetta dell'Everest lungo la parete Sud-ovest nel 1975. Nel 1979, insieme a Tasker e Scott, raggiunge la vetta del Kanchenjunga, mentre con Hillary Couloir, che è poi diventata sua moglie, ha scalato il Kilimanjaro e il Monte Kenya. Muore con Tasker nel 1982, durante il tentativo di raggiungere la vetta dell'Everest lungo la parete Nord-est, ancora inesplorata. Il suo corpo è stato ritrovato solo 10 anni dopo. Di Peter Boardman sono apparsi in Italia La Montagna di Luce e Montagne Sacre.

Dopo aver arrampicato sulle Alpi, nell'Hindu Kush, in Alaska e nel Caucaso, Peter Broadman (1950-1982) è stato uno degli alpinisti che ha raggiunto la vetta dell'Everest lungo la parete Sud-ovest nel 1975. Nel 1979, insieme a Tasker e Scott, raggiunge la vetta del Kanchenjunga, mentre con Hillary Couloir, che è poi diventata sua moglie, ha scalato il Kilimanjaro e il Monte Kenya. Muore con Tasker nel 1982, durante il tentativo di raggiungere la vetta dell'Everest lungo la parete Nord-est, ancora inesplorata. Il suo corpo è stato ritrovato solo 10 anni dopo. Di Peter Boardman sono apparsi in Italia La Montagna di Luce e Montagne Sacre.

Peter Boardman (1950-1982) was a British climber, Everest summiteer, and author of several mountaineering books. Born in Stockport, England, he began climbing in his teens, and at the age of 16 made his first visit to the Alps. He quickly became a proficient Alpine climber, and made the first British ascents of the North Face Direct of the Olan, the North Face of the Nesthorn and the North Face Direct of the Lauterbrunnen Breithorn.
After Stockport, he studied English at the University of Nottingham, where he was President of the Mountaineering Club, here he undertook his first expedition to the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, climbing the North Face of Koh-I-Khaaik and making the first ascent of Kohi-Mundi. After Nottingham, Peter studied for a diploma in education at the University of Wales at Bangor where he learnt some Welsh. He became a British Mountain Guide, and worked for the British Mountaineering Council. He was subsequently President of the British Association of Mountain Guides and Director of the International School of Mountaineering at Leysin.
A number of expeditions followed, and in 1975, he summited Everest via the South West face, on an expedition on which fellow climber Mick Burke was tragically killed.
In 1976 he joined forces with Joe Tasker and climbed the West Wall of Changabang, at its time probably the hardest Himalayan climb in the world. His book about the experience The Shining Mountain is one of the outstanding works of mountaineering literature, and won the 1979 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for literature.
After a failed attempt at K2, in which climber Nick Estcourt was killed in an avalanche, Boardman successfully climbed Kangchenjunga in 1979 via the North Ridge. He returned to K2 in 1980, reaching a height of 7975 metres. He was killed on the North-North East ridge of Everest in 1982, along with his climbing partner Joe Tasker.
A second book Sacred Summits, detailing his climbing exploits of 1979, was published posthumously. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in memory of him and Joe Tasker, also a gifted writer.
The Boardman Tasker Omnibus collects the books of Boardman and Tasker.