Higher Than the Eagle Soars distills “the intense essence” of his Everest climb, concentrating on the drama of the final climb and nightmarish descent. It is an intimate and epic account of an event that confirmed Venables as the greatest British climber of his generation.I have been wanting for some time now to revisit the Everest climb. Although the book I wrote about it [Everest: Alone at the Summit] was very successful and has appeared in four different editions, it conformed superficially to an “expedition book,” telling the whole story from beginning to end, with considerable technical detail. It would be good to go back and extract the intense essence of the story, concentrating on the drama of the final climb and nightmarish descent, making a grand finale to the book. Although Everest wasn’t the end of my climbing career, it was a big turning point: it had quelled the demon of ambition and I sensed that I would probably never do anything quite so extreme in the mountains. And, although we didn’t go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way — the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation.

Higher Than the Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest

Venables, Stephen

Biographies & Memoirs

Hutchinson

Ollie: The inspiring story of a special child

Stephen Venables and three companions made the first ascent of Panchu Chuli V—a remote Himalayan peak on the borders of India, Nepal and Tibet. A rappel anchor failed on the descent, pitching Venables into a 300-foot fall. Crashing through the black night, flung from rock to rock, he assumed that he was plunging to his death. Against all odds he survived, but was left stranded 19,000 feet above a labyrinth of glaciers and snow slopes with two broken legs, the threat of gangrene, and scant food or medical supplies. If he was to return to his wife and son waiting at home some 5000 miles away, Venables knew he had to draw on his reserve of courage and determination. The third Adrenaline Classic, A Slender Thread is a spellbinding account of Venables' survival—and his intense personal struggle to understand the risks he takes for the sake of his insatiable passion for climbing. He comes as close to anyone to answering the unanswerable question: Why do they do it?

A Slender Thread

Travel

Asia

An exceptionally moving story about a courageous autistic boy, and the effect he had on all who knew him, written by his father, a successful mountaineer.“Like the swallows, Ollie came in the spring and left in the autumn. Dancing, singing, swooping — there was something birdlike about his energy, joy and laughter — but also the fleeting, transitory, enigmatic quality of his life. At the age of two he lost the ability to speak, when autism turned his life — and ours — into a baffling challenge. Then at four he almost died from Leukemia. Chemotherapy worked its magic, but at six he had a relapse. He fought hard and made a full recovery. Then, just six months from the Official All Clear, a brain tumour was discovered. After a brave struggle, he died very suddenly. His body had gone into meltdown. He was twelve.“This is not a story of passive suffering or failure. Ollie had extraordinary courage. Time after time he bounced back, determined to enjoy life. He had astonishing endurance.”“I would like to explore the journey we made with Ollie and to tell his story. Unlike a mountaineer, pursuing extreme experiences for self-gratification, he had difficulty thrust upon him — his courage was real. For me, too, although I did not have to do all the physical pain and suffering, the journey was far more compelling than any expedition.”From the Hardcover edition.

OLLIE

Arrow

Higher Than the Eagle Soars distills “the intense essence” of his Everest climb, concentrating on the drama of the final climb and nightmarish descent. It is an intimate and epic account of an event that confirmed Venables as the greatest British climber of his generation. I have been wanting for some time now to revisit the Everest climb. Although the book I wrote about it [Everest: Alone at the Summit] was very successful and has appeared in four different editions, it conformed superficially to an “expedition book,” telling the whole story from beginning to end, with considerable technical detail. It would be good to go back and extract the intense essence of the story, concentrating on the drama of the final climb and nightmarish descent, making a grand finale to the book. Although Everest wasn’t the end of my climbing career, it was a big turning point: it had quelled the demon of ambition and I sensed that I would probably never do anything quite so extreme in the mountains. And, although we didn’t go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way — the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation. From the Hardcover edition.

Higher Than the Eagle Soars

South Georgia is remote, inhospitable, beautiful and the burial place of Antarctica's hero, Shackleton, inspiration for Stephen Venables' odyssey. Over December 1989 and January 1990 he and four friends were able to travel south with "Endurance", the Antarctic survey and supply vessel reprieved from the scrapyard by its Falklands war service. Ostensibly it was a climbing expedition, but in South Georgia they discovered a world of primeval wonder in which the elements dictated the puny activities of mere men. As an exploratary base they excavated themselves a large ice cave in a wind scoop recommended by explorer Duncan Carse. From here they snatched breaks in the blizzard to make ski forays to unclimbed peaks, and explored the coastlines with their colonies of elephant seals and penguins, their bleak memorials to a past whaling industry and even starker graffiti of the Falklands War. Stephen Venables has woven the whole story of exploration and exploitation, of a fragile ecological chain set in a precarious political scenario, into an account of a small team battling against the world's worst weather across the most magnificent terrain at the edge of Antarctica. The author is one of Britain's leading climbers with a new route on Everest to his credit. He is also the Boardman Tasker prize-winning author of "Painted Mountains" and "Everest, Kangshung Face".

Island at the Edge of the World

Hodder&Stoughton

To the Top : The Story of Everest

Children's Books

CANDLEWICK PRESS +

This magnificent volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first successful ascent of the world's highest mountain, and chronicles the history of Everest exploration from the early years of the 20th century to the present. It is the first and only book on the subject to benefit from complete access to the Royal Geographical Society's astonishingly rich collection of photographs, documents, and artifacts. Painstakingly selected from over 20,000 subjects, the 400 photographs record the surveying, planning, reconnaissance expeditions, and actual attempts that the Royal Geographical Society and the Alpine Club jointly launched from 1921 - culminating in Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's historic climb on 29 May 1953.

Everest: Alone at the Summit

Avalon Publishing Group

Arranged geographically by region, a collection of travel narratives recalls the experiences of some of the world's top mountaineers as they climbed some of the world's most challenging peaks, in a richly illustrated volume that provides a description of each mountain, as well as the various expeditions to Everest, Lhotse Middle, Mount Erebus, El Capitan, and other peaks.

Voices From the Mountains

History

Americas

Readers' Digest

Breathtaking photos and an intriguing narrative capture the allure of the world’s highest mountain - and the spirit of the many adventurous souls who have dared to attempt the ultimate climb. What compels human beings to risk their lives scaling the world’s tallest peak? What challenges do they encounter along the way? Who are the Sherpas, whose guidance and skill keep foreign mountaineers safe? What does it feel like to stand atop Mount Everest, high above Tibet and Nepal? Esteemed author and climber Stephen Venables answers these questions and many more in a fascinating narrative, accompanied by spectacular photographs from the Royal Geographical Society in London. With a special focus on the first successful climb by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953, this magnificent book touches also on the history of the mountain, earlier failed missions, and the effect that growing Himalayan tourism has had on local people and on the mysterious Mount Everest itself.

To the Top: The Story of Mount Everest

Candlewick

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