By Joe Simpson, Greg Child
Author note; Joe Simpson (Foreword by way of)
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• Reflections and funny items, plus insights into a few of mountaineering's extra debatable events
• Revealing photos of different Himalayan climbers
Peeling again the layers to bare the gritty fact concerning the elite hiking global is Greg Child's distinctiveness. With shrewdpermanent wit, sharp observations, and insightful reflections, Child's writing covers the whole spectrum of the hiking experience.
Entertaining even to those that have by no means been above sea point, Child's tales exhibit climbing's different face. His description of the day-by-day conduct of mountaineers on day trip (who don't shower for months) is either disgusting and horrifyingly humorous. A post-climb fiasco within the workplaces of petty Pakistani bureaucrats proves that no longer all epics ensue on excessive mountain faces. Falling of a rock climb in entrance of his mom is an workout in humility.
Child takes up mountain climbing controversy with an analogous prepared perception. His research of Tomo Cesen's claimed first ascent of Lhotse's south wall is taken into account the definitive document in this arguable occasion. a troublesome examine the media frenzy round the dying of Alison Hargreaves on K2 evolves right into a wonderful, impassioned safeguard of a chum. He additionally speaks out at the funds- and media-driven expeditions that now crowd Everest.
But baby by no means preaches. even if contrasting his clumsy functionality with Lynn Hill's based strikes on a climb within the distant mountains of Kyrgyzstan or reflecting upon artifacts (from crucifixes to crimson flamingos) that beautify the world's maximum peaks, he writes it as he sees it, with a dose of wit. a real insider, Greg baby attracts us deep into the realm of hiking yet by no means denies its darkish side.
Literary Awards
Boardman Tasker Prize Nominee for Mountain Literature (1998)
Read Online or Download Postcards from the Ledge: Collected Mountaineering Writings of Greg Child PDF
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Additional resources for Postcards from the Ledge: Collected Mountaineering Writings of Greg Child
Example text
The thought made him laugh. It was not, Sharpe suspected, the anticipation of excitement that had brought Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill to this state of near joviality, but rather the thought that a battle would cause casualties and misery, and misery was the Sergeant's delight. He liked to see men cowed and frightened, for that made them biddable, and Sergeant Hakeswill was always at his happiest when he was in control of unhappy men. The three officers had stopped their horses at the head of the column and now used telescopes to inspect the distant ridge which was clouded by a ragged fringe of smoke left from the last discharge of the enemy cannon.
See it? ' His face twitched again as he released the stock. ' 'Mad as a hare, ' Tom Garrard muttered. ' Hakeswill whipped around to stare at Sharpe, but Sharpe was so palpably still and staring mutely ahead that his innocence was indisputable. Hakeswill paced back down the Light Company. 'I have watched men die, better men than any of you pieces of scum, proper men, but God has spared me! So you do what I says, boys, or else you'll be carrion. ' He abruptly thrust the musket back into Sharpe's hands.
Instead he leaned forward in his saddle with one hand clasped over the tiger hilt of his curved sabre as he watched his infantry march on the infidel British. The sword was slung on a silken sash that crossed the pale yellow silk jacket that the Tippoo wore above chintz trousers. His turban was of red silk and pinned with a gold badge showing a tiger's mask. ' Above it, pinned to the turban's brief white plume and brilliant in the day's sunlight, there glittered a ruby the size of a pigeon's egg.