On Thin Ice: Alpine Climbs in the Americas, Asia and the HimalayaOn Thin Ice is Mick Fowler's second set of climbing memoirs, following Vertical Pleasure. Here, the celebrated mountaineer records his expeditions since 1990. Despite work and family commitments, he has maintained a regular series of 'big trips' to challenging objectives around the world with a sequence of major successes: Taweche (1995, with Pat Littlejohn), Changabang (1997, with Steve Sustad, Andy Cave and Brendan Murphy), Arwa Tower (1999, with Sustad), Mount Kennedy (2000, with Cave), Siguniang (2002, with Paul Ramsden). Siguniang's hard ice climbing on a fabulous face in deepest China was so admired by the international climbing community that it won the US 'Golden Piton' and the French 'Piolet d'Or', both awards given for the finest alpine achievements in the world during that year. The author describes his travels in the great traditions, with engaging modesty and wit, but the climbs themselves are frequently so dramatic that the anxiety and tension forces its way to the surface to be matched by a corresponding relief and triumph when success and safe descent is achieved. Mick Fowler has thus become Britain's most successful exponent of high-standard lightweight mountaineering in the greater ranges. At 48 he is already something of an elder statesman of a cadre of international activists. They are steadily ticking off the most challenging lines in the world - a 'golden age' of super-alpinism that is now in full swing. How this influences activities on the 8000m peaks where the dangers (rarefied air, weather severity and sheer scale) are greater is an open question. History suggests that as major challenges on the lower peaks are steadily mastered the focus will return to technical challenges offered at the higher altitudes. Whether the results will exceed achievements such as the Kurtyka/Schauer (Gasherbrum 4) and the Bohigas/Lucas (Annapurna 1) remains to be seen. The combination of exotic travel with major climbs provides the ultimate adrenalin-soaked holiday experience that Mick Fowler has mastered to the full. We are transported from the cliffs of Jordan, to remote peaks in deepest Asia, via Taweche and Changabang in the Himalaya, with jaunts to the Andes and Alaska thrown in for good measure. That Fowler has organised this routine for years, while holding down a conventional nine-to-five job with the Inland Revenue, has constantly amazed his peers. In this, his second book, he has also mastered the skills of amusing travel-writing to entertain us as a preliminary to the finale of a titanic struggle on each of his fiendishly demanding climbs. |
Contents
NorthEast Buttress | |
Scottish Winter Climbing | |
Bureaucratic Bliss | |
Tragedy and Survival | |
El Niño on Siula Chico | |
Arwa Tower Yosemite in the Garhwal | |
Filming on the Lofoten Islands with Dr Death | |
Mount Kennedy | |
The Elephants Trunk of Etratat | |
Disappointment on Peak 43 | |
the Approach to Siguniang | |
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Common terms and phrases
abseil acclimatisation Ak-su alpine altitude Andy Cave appeared arrived Arwa ascent Bagini Base Camp belay bivi bivouac buttress Cajatambo Carless challenging Changabang Chris Bonington Chris Watts clearly cliffs climbers crack Crag Dave descent didn’t difficult Etratat expedition feeling felt Fowler gear glacier gorge ground head helicopter Himalayan huge ice screws ice slopes ice streaks Joshimath Julie-Ann jumar Kalanka keen knew ledge Littlejohn looked managed metres Mick Fowler Mike Morrison morning Mount Kennedy mountain moved Nicki night North Face obvious overhanging Paul Ramsden Peak 43 perhaps Petra photographs pitch porters problem ridge road rock climbing Roger rope route rucksack seemed sérac side Siguniang Simon Simon Yates Siula Chico Siula Grande sleeping snow somehow sort Spantik spectacular spindrift stared steep Steve Sustad summit Taweche tent traverse trip unclimbed uncomfortable valley vertical Victor Saunders walk wall weather weekend whilst