Books to Read for Armchair Mountaineers

If you can’t be on an adventure right now then you might as well be reading about one.

While we’re not mountaineers as such, for some reason we can’t resist books about mountaineering and rock climbing. It’s something to do with the fascination of the worlds highest mountain and the simplicity of expedition life. It’s also the focus and dedication that climbers have to their goal, and raw human experience.

Check out our Amazon store HERE for links to some of our book and magazine recommendations. As Amazon Associates, we may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.

Expeditions – Mt Everest, K2 and Annapurna etc

• Fallen – Mick Conefrey. George Mallory and the Tragic 1924 Everest Expedition
• Everest 1922 – Mick Conefrey. The epic story of the first attempt on the world’s highest mountain
• View from the Summit – Sir Edmund Hillary. An engaging story from the legendary New Zealander about the first summit of Mt Everest
• Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer. The well-known personal account of the 1996 Everest disaster. Also Eiger Dreams by the same author – a collection of writing on mountaineering.
• The Climb – Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston deWalt. The alternative account from the well-known Russian Kazakhstani mountaineer and high-altitude guide. Also by Anatoli Boukreev – Above the Clouds. A fascinating insight into his life beyond just the 1996 disaster.
• Doctor on Everest – Kenneth Kamler. An account of the 1996 Everest disaster from a doctor’s perspective – medicine at it’s extreme
• Dead Lucky – Lincoln Hall. Life after death with another Aussie mountaineer on Mt Everest
• Left for Dead – Beck Weathers with Stephen G. Michaud. There aren’t many adventures like the 1996 Everest disaster which have had so many books written from different perspectives – the more you read the more you appreciate the challenges of making life-or-death decisions in extreme conditions
• Annapurna – Maurice Herzog. A book which inspired many to become mountaineers. The remarkable story of the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950, beautifully told, it takes you on a true explorers journey through unmapped territory to find a route, the exhilaration of reaching the summit and the unrelenting challenge to make it back in one piece. For an alternative view of the story read True Summit by David Roberts – what really happened on Annapurna!
• Everest The Hard Way – Chris Bonington. The story of the 1975 British expedition to climb the South West Face of Everest.
• No Way Down – Graham Bowley. A dramatic story of the struggle for survival on the upper slopes of K2 in 2008
• The Snow Leopard – Peter Matthiessen. A 250 mile expedition through the Himalayas to the Crystal Mountain on the Tibetan plateau. Not only an exquisite book of natural history but an extraordinary account of an inner journey.
• I’ll Call You In Kathmandu – Bernadette McDonald. The Elizabeth Hawley story. She left America in the 1950s to travel the world and although she’s never climbed a mountain , she became one of the most important figures in Himalayan climbing history. 
• Everest from Sea to Summit – Tim Macartney-Snape. The story of the first complete ascent of Everest. You can also see the documentary film of this expedition here.
• Himalayan Dreaming – Will Steffen (Australian National University Press). Australian Mountaineering in the Great Ranges of Asia 1922-1990.
• Ascent of Nanda Devi – H.W. Tilman. (Included in ‘The Seven Mountain-Travel Books’ compilation.) Regarded as a classic, this is the 1937 story of the first ascent of the highest mountain to be climbed prior to the ascent of Annapurna in 1950.
• Himalaya Shuttlecock – Hans Kopp. A travelling-companion at one time or another of Heinrich Harrer. Kopp crossed the Himalayas by various means in all six times.
• Beyond the Snow Leopard – Bill Crozier. Seeking the snow leopard in the Himalaya (Ladakh, Nepal and Tibet), guided by the writings of Himalayan explorers and Buddhist monks over the centuries.

Climbing All 14 8000m Mountains

• No Shortcuts to the Top and Himalayan Quest – Ed Viesturs with David Roberts. The first American to climb all fourteen 8000m peaks
• Summit 8000 – Andrew Lock. The first Australian mountaineer to summit all the the world’s fourteen 8000m peaks

Mountain Books – Mountaineers

• Everest Inc – Will Cockrell. The Renegades and Rogues Who Built an Industry at the Top of the World
• Art of Freedom – Bernadette McDonald – the life and climbs of Voytek Kurtyka.
• Conquistadors of the Useless – Lionel Terray – the autobiography of one of the greatest alpinists of his time, and one of the finest and most important mountaineering books ever written.
• Starlight and Storm – Gaston Rebuffat. The record of a young man’s life devoted entirely to high mountains – one of the greatest climbers of all time.
• High Exposure – David Breashears – mountaineer and acclaimed filmmaker (including the IMAX movie Everest, filmed in 1996). This book invites readers into the subculture of climbing and the pursuit of excellence and quest for self-knowledge that comes with mountaineering at the extreme.
• Going Up Is Easy – Lydia Bradey – The first woman to ascend Everest without oxygen.
• Maverick Mountaineer – Robert Wainwright. George Ingle Finch, the wild colonial boy who took on the British Alpine establishment
• Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage – Hermann Buhl – The great mountaineering classic.
• Mountain Madness – Robert Birkby. An in-depth portrait of well-known American mountaineer and leader of one of the 1996 expeditions, Scott Fischer. This book also gives a much broader view than just the 1996 disaster.
• Where the Mountains Throw Their Dice – Paul Hersey. An insight into the Kiwi climbing psyche
• The Ledge – Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan. Achieving the impossible one step at a time – a dramatic escape from a crevasse on Mt Rainier. Also by Jim Davidson – The Next Everest – surviving the mountain’s deadliest day and finding the resilience to climb again.
• Dingle – Graeme Dingle – one of New Zealand’s well-known adventurers. Discovering the sense in adventure. Also by the same author – Wall of Shadows – the story of the New Zealand Jannu expedition.
• Sheer Will – Michael Groom. An Aussie mountaineer who survived frostbite and went on to climb the world’s highest mountains
• Breaking Trail – Arlene Blum. A pioneer who defied the climbing establishment of the 1970s by leading the first all-female teams on successful ascents of Mt McKinley (Denali) and Annapurna.
• Kiss or Kill – Mark Twight. Confessions of a serial climber.
• Postcards from the Ledge – Greg Child. A realistic slice of high altitude adventure.
• Tomaz Humar – Bernadette McDonald. The intense and penetrating biography of one of the brightest burning flames in modern climbing.
• Fear No Boundary – Lincoln Hall with Sue Fear. One woman’s amazing journey – the first Australian woman to summit Mt Everest via the North Ridge Route.
• Nine Lives – Robert Mads Anderson. Expeditions to Everest
• Everest: The Challenge – Francis Younghusband. Everest expeditions.
• One Way Ticket – Rolfe Oostra. Mishaps and mayhem in the world of adventure.
• Everest Mountain Guide – Guy Cotter. The remarkable story of a Kiwi mountaineer.

Rock Climbing

• Alone on the Wall – Alex Honnold with David Roberts. Perhaps the world’s best ‘free-solo’ climber – scaling impossible rock faces without ropes, pitons or any other support
• The Push – Tommy Caldwell. A rock climber’s journey of endurance, risk and going beyond limits
• The Tower – Kelly Cordes. A chronicle of climbing and controversy on Cerro Torre.
• White Spider – Heinrich Harrer. The classic account of the ascent of the Eiger.
• The Impossible Climb – Mark Synnott. The story of Alex Honnold’s historic ascent of El Capitan combined with an insider portrait of the elite climbing community.
• Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World – Lynn Hill with Greg Child. Autobiography, including the story of her first free ascent of the Nose on Yosemite’s El Capitan.

Antarctic Expeditions

• Alone on the Ice – David Roberts. The greatest survival story in the history of exploration. The story of Douglas Mawson’s 1913 Australian Antarctic Expedition.
• Edward Wilson of the Antarctic Naturalist and Friend – George Seaver. 1933.

Mountain Books – Collections and Stories

Life-Changing Adventure – Emma Huffam and Trevor Builder. Written by us! Be daring, be inspired. Adventure is waiting for you.

House of Snow – an anthology of the greatest writing about Nepal. Introduction by Ed Douglas. Foreward by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

To the Mountains – a collection of New Zealand alpine writing. Selected by Laurence Fearnley and Paul Hersey.

More Than It Hurts – and other stories of (mis)adventure by women who climb and mountaineer. Edited by Wendy Bruere and Emily Small.

Nanda Devi – Hugh Thomson. The story of an amazing journey to one of the remotest, most mysterious places on earth.

How the Hell Did I Get Here? – Pamela Lynch. A physical outward journey through the Himalayas and an inner journey that now sees her as a firm advocate for seeing, doing and experiencing life, as much and as often as we can.

Yak Girl – Dorje Dolma. The unusual memoir of a spirited girl in the inaccessible region of Dolpo, Nepal that was the setting for Peter Matthieson’s The Snow Leopard. If you like this book then watch this beautiful documentary about Dorje’s family – The Only Son.

In the Mountains – Ned Morgan. The health and wellbeing benefits of spending time at altitude.

Sherpa – Pradeep Bashyal & Ankit Babu Adhikari. Stories of life and eath from the forgotten guardians of Everest.

WHAT TO READ NEXT?

Use our mind map of related mountaineering books to help you find the next one to read.

For more reading here’s a list of adventure travel books we like, or try an adventure movie.

For Himalayan adventures, you can also read about our experience on the Everest Base Camp Trek, the Everest Circuit and Cho La Pass, or Mera Peak. Or for somewhere different try Mt Kinabalu in Borneo.