I've read a few recently about mountaineering and I'm hooked. So far I've read this... this........ and I've just finished this........ All proper gripping stuff.
The Eiger Sanction was a film I always enjoyed as a bit of fluffy escapism... ...and that native American girls tits, of course. But when I read a book about the amount of lives the north face had claimed I was stunned to see that the last act was almost word for word truth. Me, I get dizzy on a thick carpet.
LOL!! I always thought I'd quite fancy knocking off an 8000er but after reading those books??........f*ck that for a game of soldiers. Weirdly the main bit that puts me off is having to hang around with a bunch of mountaineering types for weeks at base camp. I'm not a massive fan of other people.
I saw a documentary about the Eiger. I also couldn't believe how many people had lost their lives on what seems like a relatively small Alpine peak.
From what I gathered, it's the orientation of the hill with regard to the north face rather than it's size. From the south, it's almost an afternoon stroll, but the flat, almost vertical north face pulls the weather around it like an upright version of 'Whack-a-Mole'. You're right about crowds though. Hateful things. I'm home alone all weekend, so there's going to be much drinking of beer in my underpants while me and Bert watch Sky Sports from the cushion fort we're planning on building. That's my kind of socialising.
Excellent! I was all prepared for a weekend like that but the missus has just asked that I spend the evening at hers on Saturday and go for a coffee with her Mum and Dad on Sunday. I'm seriously considering selling the bike as it's just not getting used. It's the double-edged sword of being in a relationship I guess. Someone always wants your time and when they don't it's always raining.
On a different topic i read A really good recount on the Great Train Robbery from those who dunnit' For fear of being flamed, i'm now working my way through
I love mountaineering books and once went to a talk by Joe Simpson of touching the void fame, amazing. Having flown paragliders and paramotors there seems to be a draw amongst my flying friends towards either mountaineering or diving (I'm Padi qualified too). Anyway bear with me there is a point to this, one of the best books I've read in years is called "raising the dead". It's a moving, very sad and ultimately amazing story of an attempt to recover a young divers body from an extremely deep fresh water cave in South Africa. Rich, you'd love it mate
Been looking forward to reading this for a while... Don't get me wrong, this is a guy that's reanimated interest in the manned space programme and he's a great ambassador for his craft... ...but... About all I've taken from it so far is that astronauts work incredibly, incredibly hard to get into space. Frankly, I'd sort of worked that out before. I might re-read (for the umpteenth time) this when I've finished, still the definitive work on the subject in my opinion.
