Moutaineers Books

Paul Pritchard's memoir of climbing the hardest routes in Britain and Patagonia. Pritchard was one of the most talented rock climbers of his generation before a falling rock ended his climbing career. The writing matches the climbing: bold, exposed, committed.

In the annals of climbing history, the ‘80s have been written off as something of a spandex-clad stepchild to the sport’s mid-century golden era, where now-legends like Royal Robbins and Yves Chouinard ruled the rock. That didn’t sit well with Smoot, who dedicated two decades to combing through modern climbing’s rowdy adolescence—and his own memories of controversial game-changers like Todd Skinner—to document both the dirtbag antics and bold innovation that paved the way for the sport’s freakishly athletic superstars of today.

Perrin's biography of the most talented and self-destructive British climber of the twentieth century. Whillans was a genius on rock and a disaster everywhere else. Perrin writes about him with the same unflinching attention he brought to Menlove Edwards.

Pritchard was hit by a falling rock on the Totem Pole, a sea stack in Tasmania, and suffered a catastrophic brain injury. His memoir of recovery — relearning to speak, to walk, to think — is as harrowing and brave as his climbing ever was.