Against The Wall

'Elegiac, immensely readable, full of the real excitement of climbing' M. John Harrison, Times Literary Supplement

Elegiac, immensely readable, full of the real excitement of climbing

An engaging book, both the story of another great climb and a wistful acknowledgement that nothing, in any area of our lives, is ever quite what it seems

Simon Yates has climbed extensively in the Himalayas and the Andes, and travelled through India, Kazakhstan and Australia. His first book, Against the Wall, was runner-up for the Boardman Tasker Award for mountain literature.

Simon Yates is 'the one who cut the rope' in Joe Simpson's award-winning account of their epic struggle for survival in Touching the Void. Afterwards, Yates continued mountaineering on the hardest routes. Perhaps the most testing of all was one of the world's largest vertical rockfaces, the 4, 000-ft East Face of the Central Tower of Paine in Chile. Battered by ferocious storms and almost crippled with fear just below the summit, Yates and his three companions are forced into a nightmare retreat. After resting in a nearby town, they return to complete the climb, but Yates knows he still has to face one of life's greatest challenges...

Simon Yates

Simon Yates' remarkable climbing journal, which offers the armchair alpinist a detailed account of lucky escapes, near disasters and more than a few triumphs, is one of the most readable mountaineering books currently on the market

Simon Yates, author of Against the Wall, takes us back to his early years as a climber - the escapades and excitement of a young life lived on the edge and for the moment, when experience was all-important and dramatic achievements and failures came as naturally as the hair-raising risks themselves. 
 
A mountaineering travelogue of dazzling variety, The Flame of Adventure moves from the camaraderie of deprived Russian climbers in the little-known peaks in the Tien Shan to the awesome experience of the North Face of the Eiger, from a rumbustious motorbike ride across Australia with a psychotic lorry driver. We meet a remarkable gallery of climbers, from Doug Scott to Joe Simpson, and, when not exploring high mountains, we enter the bizarre world of rope access workers: mavericks balancing high above building sites on the London skyline.

Simon Yates

Praise for Flame Of Adventure

Simon Yates' remarkable climbing journal, which offers the armchair alpinist a detailed account of lucky escapes, near disasters and more than a few triumphs, is one of the most readable mountaineering books current ...

Books by Simon Yates

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