SACRED SUMMITS

BOARDMAN, Peter

Sports & Outdoors

RANDOM HOUSE UK

Describes the adventures of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker on their expedition to climb a mountain in the Himalayas

The shining mountain: Two men on Changabang's west wall

Mountaineering

Hodder and Stoughton

Mountaintops have long been seen as sacred places, home to gods and dreams. In one climbing year Peter Boardman visited three very different sacred mountains. He began on the South Face of the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea. This is the highest point between the Andes and the Himalaya, and one of the most inaccessible, rising above thick jungle inhabited by warring Stone Age tribes. During the spring Boardman made a four-man, oxygen-free attempt on the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga. Hurricane-force winds beat back their first two bids on the unclimbed North Ridge, but they eventually stood within feet of the summit - leaving the final few yards untrodden in deference to the inhabiting deity. In October, he climbed the mountain most sacred to the Sherpas: the twin-summited Gauri Sankar. Renowned for its technical difficulty and spectacular profile, it is aptly dubbed the Eiger of the Himalaya and Boardman's first ascent took a gruelling twenty-three days. Three sacred mountains, three very different expeditions, all superbly captured by Boardman in Sacred Summits, his second book, first published shortly after his death in 1982. Combining the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains, this is an amusing, dramatic, poignant and thought-provoking book. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com

Sacred summits: A climber's year

The Shining Mountain

Travel

Asia

Vintage

Mountaintops have long been seen as sacred places, home to gods and dreams. In one climbing year Peter Boardman visited three very different sacred mountains. He began on the South Face of the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea. This is the highest point between the Andes and the Himalaya, and one of the most inaccessible, rising above thick jungle inhabited by warring Stone Age tribes. During the spring Boardman made a four-man, oxygen-free attempt on the world's third highest peak, Kangchenjunga. Hurricane-force winds beat back their first two bids on the unclimbed North Ridge, but they eventually stood within feet of the summit - leaving the final few yards untrodden in deference to the inhabiting deity. In October, he climbed the mountain most sacred to the Sherpas: the twin-summited Gauri Sankar. Renowned for its technical difficulty and spectacular profile, it is aptly dubbed the Eiger of the Himalaya and Boardman's first ascent took a gruelling twenty-three days. Three sacred mountains, three very different expeditions, all superbly captured by Boardman in Sacred Summits, his second book, first published shortly after his death in 1982. Combining the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains, this is an amusing, dramatic, poignant and thought-provoking book. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com

The Mountaineers

* Includes Savage Arena and Everest the Cruel Way by Joe Tasker, and The Shining Mountain and Sacred Summits by Peter Boardman* Includes two 8-page black-and-white photo sections British mountaineers Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, leaving behind a track record of light-weight first ascents that inspired a new generation of alpine-style expeditions. Their legacy includes four classic books sought by collectors, and now gathered in The Boardman Tasker Omnibus. Tasker's Savage Arena spans his remarkable career. Everest the Cruel Way is Tasker's account of the 1980 British attempt of Everest via the West Ridge. Boardman's The Shining Mountain, about his ascent of Changabang with Tasker won the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize in 1978. And in Sacred Summits, Boardman recounts three expeditions, to the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea, Kanchenjunga, and Guari Sankar. As their stories interweave, these four books convey the exhilaration, the frustrations and the tragedies of high altitude climbing, and the single minded commitment involved in getting to the top for two men who were both friends and rivals blessed with the eloquence to describe their passion thoughtfully, honestly, and with wry humor.   Men's Journal gives list The Boardman Tasker Omnibus its stamp of approval by listing it as one of the Top 11 Sports Cult Books of All Time  

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus

Tasker, Joe

MOUNTAINEERS BOOKS+

‘It’s a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it’ll be the hardest thing that’s been done in the Himalayas.’ 
So spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unclimbed West Wall of Changabang – the Shining Mountain – in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya and an ascent – particularly one in a lightweight style – would be more significant than anything done on Everest at the time. 
The idea had been Joe Tasker’s. He had photographed the sheer, shining, white granite sweep of Changabang’s West Wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year. Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman’s story, which starts with acclimatisation, sleeping in a Salford frozen food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in forty days of isolation on a two-man expedition; as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds. 
First published in 1978, The Shining Mountain is Peter Boardman’s first book. It is a very personal and honest story that is also amusing, lucidly descriptive, very exciting, and never anything but immensely readable. It was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for literature in 1979, winning wide acclaim. His second book, Sacred Summits, was published shortly after his death in 1982.

The Shining Mountain: The first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang

Vertebrate Publishing

Boardman and Tasker were British mountaineers who died on Everest in 1982. Their legacy includes four classic books that have now been gathered together in this book. Well worth the read!

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus : Savage Arena', 'Shining Mountain', 'Sacred Summits', 'Everest the Cruel Way

Cordee

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BOARDMAN, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by BOARDMAN, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by BOARDMAN, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

SACRED SUMMITS

The shining mountain: Two men on Changabang's west wall

Sacred summits: A climber's year

The Shining Mountain

Sacred summits: A climber's year

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus

The Shining Mountain: The first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang

The Boardman Tasker Omnibus : Savage Arena', 'Shining Mountain', 'Sacred Summits', 'Everest the Cruel Way