Climbing has personalities, environment, and history. Literature offers another way for understanding climbing culture. The following [English language] list aims to provide some suggested reading:
Autobiography
Alvarez, A. 2001. Feeding the Rat: a climber’s life on the edge.
Bartlett, P. 1993. The Undiscovered Country.
Bass, D & Wells, F. 1988. Seven Summits.
Beckey, F. 1969. Challenge of the North Cascades.
Beckey, F. 1993. Mount McKinley.
Bell, S. 2016. Virgin on Insanity: coming of age on the world’s toughest mountains.
Benuzzi, F. 1953. No Picnic on Mount Kenya.
Bird, I. 1879. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains.
Blanchard, B. 2014. The Calling, a life rocked by mountains.
Blum, A. 1980. Annapurna: A Woman’s Place.
Boardman, P & Tasker, J. (1978-1982) 1995. The Boardman Tasker Omnibus.
Borthwick, A. 1939. Always a Little Further.
Bonatti, W. 1998. The Mountains of My Life.
Bonnington, C. 1966. I Chose to Climb.
Bonnington, C. 1971. Annapurna South Face.
Borthwick, A. 1969. Always a little further.
Boukreev, A. 1997. The Climb: tragic ambitions on Everest.
Boyson, M. 2014. Hanging on: a life inside British climbing’s golden age.
Breashears, D. 1999. High Exposure: an enduring passion for Everest and unforgiving places.
Bridwell, J. 2001. Climbing Adventures: A Climber’s Passion.
Bridwell, J. 2008. The Bird.
Brown, J. 1967. The Hard Years.
Buhl, H. 1956. Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage: the lonely challenge.
Bullock, N. 2012. Echoes: one climber’s hard road to freedom.
Bullock, N. 2018. Tides: A Climber’s Voyage.
Cave, A. 2005. Learning to Breath.
Child, G. 1988. Thin Air: encounters in the Himalayas.
Child, G. 1998. Postcards from the Ledge.
Coldwell, T. 2017. The Push: a climber’s journey of endurance, risk, and going beyond limits.
Coffey, M. 1989. Fragile Edge: loss on Everest.
Coffey, M. 2005. Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow: the dark side of extreme adventure
Craig, D. 1987. Native Stones: a book about climbing.
Davidson, A. 1969. Minus 148⁰: first winter ascent of Mount McKinley.
Davis, S. 2007. High Infatuation: a climber’s guide to love and gravity.
Dawes, J. 2011. Full of Myself.
Dent, C.T. 1885. Above the Snow Line.
Destivelle, C. 2015. Rock Queen.
Diemberger, K. 1971. Summits and Secrets.
Drummond, E. 1987. A Dream of White Horses: Recollections of a Life on the Rocks.
Fawcett, R. 2011. Rock Athlete.
Florine, H. 2016. On the Nose: a lifelong obsession with Yosemite’s most iconic climb.
Fowler, M. 2005. On Thin Ice.
Gibson, G. 2019. Blood, Sweat and Smears.
Gray, D. 1970. Rope Boy.
Gray, D. 1993. Tight Rope!: the fun of climbing.
Griffin, A. 2000. The Coniston Tigers: seventy years of mountain adventure.
Harding, W. 1975. Downward bound.
Hargreaves, A. 1994. A Hard Day’s Summer.
Harrer, H. 1953. Seven Years in Tibet.
Harrer, H. (1959) 2005. The White Spider.
Haston, D. 2002. In High Places.
Heckmair, A. 1975 (translated by Sutton, G), My Life as a Mountaineer / 2002 (translated by Tim Carruthers), My Life: Eiger North Face, Grandes Jorasse, and Other Adventures.
Herzog, M. 1952. Annapurna.
Hill, L. 2002. Climbing Free: my life in the vertical world.
Hillary, E. 1955. High Adventure.
House, S. 2009. Beyond the Mountain.
Honnold, A. 2015. Alone on the Wall.
Houston, C & Bates, R. 1954. K2 The Savage Mountain.
Hornbein, T. 1965. Everest, the West Ridge.
Howard, T. 2019. Quest into the Unknown.
Howarth, D. 1955. We Die Alone.
Hunt, J. 1953. The Ascent of Everest.
Irving, R. 1935. The Romance of Mountaineering.
Jones, E. 2015. A Life on the Edge.
King, C. 1872. Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.
Kirkpatrick, A. 2009. Psychovertical.
Krakauer, J. 1997. Into Thin Air.
Lines, J. 2013. Tears of the Dawn.
Matthiessen, P. 1978. The Snow Leopard.
McCartney, S. 2016. The Bond: two epic climbs in Alaska and a lifetime’s connection between climbers.
McClure, S. 2014. Beyond Limits, a life through climbing.
McLewin, W. 1991. In Monte Viso’s Horizon: climbing all the Alpine 4000m peaks.
Messner, R. 1982. The Crystal Horizon.
Messner, R. 2014. My Life at the Limit.
Moffat, G. 1961. The Space Below My Feet.
Moffatt, J. 2009. Revelations.
Muir, J. 1911. My First Summer in the Sierra.
Mummery, A. 1895. My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus.
Murray, W. H. 1947. Mountaineering in Scotland.
Murray, W. H. 2002. Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Mountaineer’s Tale.
Newby, E. 1958. A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.
Norgay, J. 2001. Touching my Father’s Soul: a Sherpa’s journey to the top of Everest.
Oppenheimer, L. 1908. The Heart of Lakeland.
Patey, T. 1971. One Man’s Mountains.
Peascod, B. 1985. Journey After Dawn.
Pilley, D. 1935. Climbing Days.
Pritchard, P. 1997. Deep Play: climbing the world’s most dangerous routes.
Pritchard, P. 2000. The Totem Pole: and a whole new adventure.
Pollitt, A. 2016. Punk in the Gym.
Radkte, M. 2015. A Canvas of Rock.
Rébuffat, G. 1956 (english edition). Starlight and Storm.
Redhead, J. 1997. …And One for the Crow.
Richards, D. 1935. Climbing Days.
Robert, A. 2008. With Bare Hands: the story of the human spider.
Roberts, D. 1991. The Early Climbs: Deborah and The Mountain of my Fear.
Roberts, D. 2018. Limits of the Known.
Robbins, R. 2009. To be Brave.
Robbins, R. 2010. Fail Falling.
Roper, S. 1994. Camp 4: recollections of a Yosemite rock climber.
Saunders, V. 1990. Elusive Summits.
Saunders, V. 1994. No Place to Fall.
Scott, D. 2017. The Ogre: biography of a mountain and the dramatic story of the first ascent.
Sherman, J. 1999. Sherman Exposed: slightly censored climbing stories.
Shipton, E. (1936) 1995. The Six Mountain Travel Books [Nada Devi/Blank on the Map/Upon That Mountain/Mountains of Tartary/Mount Everest Reconnaisence Expedition 1951/Land of Tempest].
Simpson, J. 1989. Touching the Void.
Simpson, J. 2002. The Beckoning Silence.
Smythe, F. (1920-39) 2000. The Six Alpine/Himalaya Climbing Books [Climbs and Ski Runs/The Kanchenjunga Adventure/Kamet Conquered/Camp 6/The Valley of the Flowers/Mountaineering Holiday].
Stainforth, G. 2012. Fiva.
Steck, A. 2017. A Mountaineer’s Life.
Steck, U. 2018. My Life in Climbing.
Stephen, L. 1871. The Playground of Europe.
Swenson, S. 2017. Karakoram: climbing through the Kashmir conflict.
Tabai, J. 2017. Honouring High Places: the mountain life of Junko Tabai.
Terray, L. 1963 (english edition). Conquistadors of the Useless.
Tharkay, A. (1954) 2016. Sherpa.
Tilman, H. (1937-52) 1991. The Seven Mountain Books [Snow on the Equator/The Ascent of Nanda Devi/When Men and Mountains Meet/Everest 1938/Two Mountains and a River/China to Chitral/Nepal Himalaya].
Twight, M. 2003. Kiss or Kill: confessions of a serial climber.
Venables, S. 1999. A Slender Thread: escaping disaster in the Himalaya.
Whymper, E. (1871) 1996. Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69.
Winthrop Young, G. 1927. On High Hills.
Whillans, D. 1971. Portrait of a Mountaineer.
Whymper, E. 1871. Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the years 1860-69.
Yates, S. 1997. Against the Wall.
Yates, S. 2001. The Flame of Adventure.
Biography
Allen, J. 2010. Cairngorm John: a life in Mountain Rescue.
Ament, P. 1977. Master of Rock: a lighthearted walk through the life and rock climbing of John Gill.
Ament, P. 1998. Royal Robbins: spirit of the age.
Anderson, J. 2017. High Mountains and Cold Seas: the life of H.W ‘Bill’ Tilman, soldier, mountaineer, navigator.
Calvert, A. 1985. Smythe’s Mountains: F.S.Smythe and his climbs.
Conner, J. 2002. Dougal Haston: the philosophy of risk.
Craddock, J. 2009. Jim Puttrell: pioneer climber and cave explorer.
Cruickshank, J. 2005. High Endeavours: the life and legend of Robin Smith.
Dean, S. 1993. Hands of a Climber: a life of Colin Kirkus.
Douglas, E. 2003. Tenzing, Hero of Everest: A Biography of Tenzing Norgay.
Douglas, E. 2015. Statement: The Ben Moon Story.
Gill, M. 2019. Edmond Hillary: a biography.
Gillman, P & Gillman, L. 2000. The Wildest Dream: George Mallory, the biography of an Everest hero.
Hankinson, A. 1995. Geoffrey Winthrop Young.
Hepp. T. 1994. Wolfgang Gullich: a life in the vertical.
Imeson, B. 2010. Playing the Man: a biography of the mountaineer Captain John Percy Farrar D.S.O.
Irwin, S. 2000. Between heaven and earth: the life of a mountaineer, Freda du Faur 1882-1935.
Kimberley, H. 2017. A Woman’s Place is at the Top: A Biography of Annie Smith Peck, Queen of the Climbers.
Lloyd-Jones, R & Macfarlane, R. 2013. The Sunlit Summit: The Life of W. H. Murray.
McDonald, B. 2009. Brotherhood of the Rope: the biography of Charles Houston.
McDonald, B. 2010. Tomaz Humar.
McDonald, B. 2017. Art of Freedom – the life and climbs of Voytek Kurtyka.
Messner, R & Hofler, H. 2000. Hermann Buhl: climbing without compromise.
Neale, J. 2003. Tigers of the Snow.
Perrin, J. 1985. Menlove: Life of John Menlove Edwards.
Perrin, J. 2005. The Villain: The Life of Don Whillans.
Perrin, J. 2013. Shipton and Tilman: the great decade of Himalayan exploration.
Rose, D & Douglas, E. 1999. Regions of the Heart: the triumph and tragedy of Alison Hargreaves.
Scott, C. 2015. Deep Powder and Steep Rock: The Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser.
Sheard, J & Radtke, M. 2014. Pete Livesey – Fast and Free: Stories of a Rock Climbing Legend.
Smythe, F. 1940. Edward Whymper.
Smythe, T. 2015. My Father Frank: The Forgotten Alpinist.
Steele, P. 1998. Eric Shipton: Everest and Beyond.
Steinberg, S. 2008. Capturing the Mountains: The Lake District Through the Lens of the Abraham Brothers.
Sutton, G & Noyce, W. 1961. Samson: the life and writings of Menlove Edwards.
Tenderini, M. 1995. Gary Hemming: The Beatnik of the Alps.
Teacher, K. 2000. Siegfried Herford: an Edwardian rockclimber.
Unsworth, W. 1967. Tiger in the snow: the life and adventures of A.F.Mummery.
Zak, H. 1996. Rock stars.
History
Achey, J & Chelton, D. 2001. Climb: the history of rock climbing in Colorado.
Ament, P. 2002. A History of Free Climbing in America: Wizards of Rock.
Bainbridge, S. 2020. Mountaineering and British Romanticism: the literary cultures of climbing 1770-1836.
Beckey, F. 2003. Range of Glaciers: the exploration and survey of the Northern Cascade Range.
Beatty, J. 2002. This Mountain Life – The First Hundred Years of the Rucksack Club.
Birkett, B. 1989. Women Climbing.
Braham, T. 2004. When the Alps Cast Their Spell: mountaineers of the Alpine golden age.
Brooker, W.D (editor). 1988. A Century of Scottish Mountaineering.
Brown, R. 2002. Women on high: pioneers of mountaineering.
Byne, E & Sutton, G. 1966. High Peak.
Burgman, J. 2020. High Drama: the rise, fall, and rebirth of American competition climbing.
Burman, J. 1966. A Peak to Climb.
Chambre, D. 2015. The 9th Grade: 150 years of freeclimbing.
Clark, R. 1953. The Victorian Mountaineers.
Clark, R. 1977. Men, Myths and Mountains.
Cleare, J & Smythe, T. 1966. Rock Climbers In Action In Snowdonia.
Colley, A. 2010. Victorians in the mountains: sinking the sublime.
Conefrey, M. 2015. Ghosts of K2: the race for the summit of the world’s most deadly mountain.
Conefrey, M. 2020. The Last Great Mountain: the first ascent of Kangchenjunga.
Conrad, R. 2014. Mount Hood: Adventures of the Wy’east Climbers, 1930-1942.
Cordes, K. 2014. The Tower.
Craig, M. 2013. Shackles of convention: women mountaineers before 1914.
Crocket, K. 2015. Mountaineering In Scotland: the early years.
Davis, W. 2012. Into The Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest.
Denny, G. 2007. Yosemite in the Sixties.
Douglas, E. 2017. The Magician’s Glass: character and fate.
Earle, J. 1981. Springs of Enchantment: climbing and exploration in Patagonia.
Echevarria, E. 2018. The Andes: the complete history of mountaineering in high South America.
Engel, C. 1950. Mountaineering in the Alps.
Engel, C. 1952. They Came to the Hills.
Fidelman, D, Long, J & Alder, T. 2015. Yosemite in the Fifties: the iron age.
Flemming, F. 2001. Killing Dragons: the conquest of the Alps.
Goulding, P. 2020. Slatehead – The Ascent of Britain’s Slate-Climbing Scene.
Hall, A. 2014. Denali’s Howl: the deadliest climbing disaster on America’s wildest peak.
Hankinson, A. 1972. The First Tigers: the early history of rock climbing in the Lake District.
Hankinson, A. 1977. The Mountain Men: a history of early rock climbing in North Wales – from its beginning to 1914.
Hankinson, A. 1988. A Century on the Crags: the story of rock climbing in the Lake District.
Hankinson, A. 1990. Camera on the Crags: a portfolio of early rock climbing photographers by the Abrham Brothers.
Hanson, P. 2013. The Summits of Modern Man: mountaineering after the Enlightenment.
Isserman, M. 2016. Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering.
Isserman, M, Weaver, S & Molenaar, D. 2008. Fallen Giants: a history of himalayan mountaineering from the age of empire to the age of extremes.
Jones, C. 1976. Climbing in North America.
Jones, D. 1991. The Power of Climbing.
Jones, D. 1993. Rock Climbing in Britain.
Jones, T & Milburn, G. 1986. Welsh rock: one hundred years of climbing in north wales.
Keay, J. 1977. When Men and Mountains Meet: the explorers of the Western Himalayas 1820-75.
Kelly, P, Hoey, G, Barker, G et al. 2013. Peak Rock: the history, the routes, the climbers.
Krakauer, J. 1990. Eiger Dreams: ventures among men and mountains.
Long, J. 1994. Rock Jocks, Wall Rats, and Hang Dogs: rock climbing on the edge of reality.
Lunn, A. 1957. A Century of Mountaineering, 1857-1957.
Macfarlane, R. 2003. Mountains of the Mind.
McDonald, B. 2012. Freedom Climbers: the golden age of Polish climbing.
McDonald, B. 2015. Alpine Warriors.
Mcnee, A. 2016. The New Mountaineer in Late Victorian Britain: materiality, modernity, and the haptic sublime.
Mehall, L. 2013. Climbing Out of Bed.
Mellor, D. 2003. American Rock: Region, Rock, and Culture in American Climbing.
Milburn, G & Wilson, K. 1997. The First Fifty Years of the British Mountaineering Council: a political history.
Modica, G. 2016. 1865: the Golden Age of Mountaineering. An Illustrated History of Alpine Climbing’s Greatest Era.
Nicolson, M. 1997. Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: the Development of the Aesthetics of the infinite.
Noble, C. 2013. Women Who Dare: North America’s most inspiring women climbers.
Nugent, F. 2013. In search of Peaks, Passes & Glaciers: Irish Alpine pioneers.
Ortner, S. 1999. Life and Death on Mount Everest: Sherpas and Himalayan Mountaineering.
Perrin, J (editor). 1983. Mirrors in the Cliff.
Perrin, J. 1986. On and off the Rocks.
Phizacklea, A & Cocker, M. 2016. ‘Nowt but a Fleein’ Thing’: A History of Climbing on Scawfell.
Piana, P. 1998. Big Walls: breakthroughs on the free climbing frontier.
Preston, R. 2008. The Wild Trees.
Ring, J. 2011. How the English Made the Alps.
Roberts, D. 2000. True Summit: what really happened on the legendary ascent of Annapurna.
Roper, S (ed). 2003. Ordeal by Piton: Writings from the Golden Age of Yosemite Climbing.
Salkeld, A & Bermudez, J. 1993. On the Edge of Europe: Mountaineering in the Caucasus.
Sanzaro, F. 2013. The Boulder: a philosophy for Bouldering.
Schaumann, C. 2020. Peak Pursuits: The Emergence of Mountaineering in the Nineteenth Century.
Scott, C. 2000. Pushing the limits: the story of Canadian mountaineering.
Sherman, J. 1996. Stone Crusade: historical guide to bouldering in America.
Snook, J. 2019. Hangdog days: conflict, change, and the race for 5.14.
Symons, L & Andrew, J. 2013. To Ride the Mountain Winds: A History of Aerial Mountaineering and Rescue.
Tabor, J. 2007. Forever on the mountain.
Taylor, J. 2010. Pilgrims of the Vertical.
Thompson, S. 2010. Unjustifiable Risk? The story of British climbing.
Thomson, I. 1993. The Black Cloud: Scottish Mountain Misadventures 1928-1966.
Thorington, J. 2012. The Glittering Mountains of Canada: a record of exploration and pioneer ascents in the Canadian Rockies, 1914-1924.
Unsworth, W. 1986. Savage Snows: the story of Mount Blanc.
Unsworth, W. 1991. Everest.
Unsworth, W. 1994. Hold the Heights: The Foundations of Mountaineering.
Watson, J. 2007. Stone Play: The Art of Bouldering.
Wells, C. 2008. Who’s Who in British Climbing.
Whipplesnaith. 1937. The Night Climbers of Cambridge.
Williams, C. 1973. Women on the rope.
Wilson, K. 1978. Classic Rock.
Wilson, K. 1974. Hard Rock.
Wilson, K. 1987. Extreme Rock.
Wilson, K (editor). 1978. The Games Climbers Play.
Wright, J. 1958. Rock Climbing in Britain.
Historical Guides
Archer Thompson, J.M. 1909. The Climbs on Lliwedd.
Bancroft, S. 1977. Recent Developments.
Drummond, E. 1967. Extremely Severe in the Avon Gorge.
Eckenstein, O. 1896. The Karakorams and Kashmir.
Glynne Jones, O. 1897. Rock Climbing in the English Lake District.
Haskett Smith, W.P. 1894. Climbing the British Isles.
Laycock, J. 1913. Some Gritstone Climbs.
Stephen, L & Winthrop Young, G. 1871. The Playground of Europe.
Articles
Hansen, P. Albert Smith, the Alpine Club, and the Invention of Mountaineering in Mid-Victorian Britain (Journal of British Studies, vol.34, no.3 [1995]: 300-324).
Hansen, P. Vertical boundaries, national identities: British mountaineering on the frontiers of Europe and the empire, 1868–1914 (The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, vol.24 [1996]: 48-71).
Hollis, D. Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: the Genealogy of an Idea (Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, vol.26, issue 4 [2019]: 1038-1061).
Reidy, M. Mountaineering, Masculinity, and the Male Body in Mid-Victorian England (Osiris, vol.30, no.1 [2015]: 158-181).
Fiction
Bowman, W. 1956. The Ascent of Rum Doodle.
Chancy-Smart, D. 2016. Above the Reich.
Coxhead, E. 1951. One green bottle.
Dutton, G.F. 1984. The Ridiculous Mountains.
Fell, A. 1991. Mer de Glace.
Frison-Roche, R. 1949 (english translation). First on the rope.
Harrison, M. 1989. Climbers.
Hilton, J. 1933. Lost Horizon.
Long, J. 1987. Angels of Light.
Masters, J. 1957. Far far the mountain peak.
Mawer, S. 2003. The Fall.
Salkeld, A (editor). 1990. One Step in the Clouds: an omnibus of mountaineering novels and short stories.
Salter, J. 1979. Solo Faces.
Sauvy, A. 1991 (english translation). Flammes de Pierre.
Trevanian. 1972. The Eiger Sanction.
Ullman, J. 1945. The White Tower.
Ullman, J. 1954. Banner in the Sky.
Non English Language
Modica, G. 2011. Le roman des premières: Alpinistes français 1871-1914.
Oliver Keynes 