Seattle, Mountaineers, 2000 [1987]. 240 pp, b/w photos. Used softcover. Near Fine.
In 1976 Nanda Devi was climbed by a party including Willi and Nanda Devi Unsoeld, who was named after the peak. Unfortunately the younger Unsoeld died. Widely read and controversial, this book has been well-received..
* A mountaineering classic, back in print
* Written by world-famous climber John Roskelley
* Passionate, honest, and uncompromising.
In 1976, John Roskelley joined an expedition to climb Nanda Devi, a 26,645-foot peak in India's remote northwest frontier. What unfolded during this climb was a story of strong emotion, conflicting ambitions, death and victory, desire and regret.
This is the story of Willi Unsoeld, the expedition leader who supported the participation of his young daughter, who was named after the mountain they were climbing, and Nanda Devi Unsoeld, the idealistic, free-spirited woman determined to scale the mountain with her father. It is also the story of John Roskelley, who was instrumental in the success of putting three people on the top of Nanda Devi. Roskelley is outspoken and honest about an expedition that unraveled in the face of adversity, pulled itself together under tortuous circumstances to fulfill its ambitions and goals, yet ended tragically, high on the mountain. He speaks with the wisdom and authority born of tireless dedication and grueling preparedness. This is a story not to be forgotten.
In 1976, John Roskelley joined an expedition to climb the mountain called Nanda Devi in India. The story of that tragic climb, told with sensitivity and passion, is the subject of this long-awaited book.
It is a story of strong emotion-of conflicting ambitions and misplaced dedication, of death and victory, of desire and regret. It is the story of top mountaineer Willi Unsoeld, leader of the expedition, who supported the participation of his young, inexperienced daughter, whom he had named for the mountain he considered the most beautiful in the world. It is the story of Nanda Devi Unsoeld, the idealistic, free-spirited woman who was determined to scale the mountain for which she was named. It is the story of Ad Carter, who had been one of the team that climbed to the top of Nanda Devi for the first time, forty years before; of Lou Reichardt and Jim States, two of the three team members who reached the summit; of the other members of the climbing team and the Indian porters who participated in various parts of the climb.
But most of all, this is the story of John Roskelley, who led the summit party of three to the top of Nanda Devi, and who remains deeply affected by the memory of the climb and its tragic outcome.
Roskelley is outspoken and honest about what he considers an ill-conceived expedition that allowed unqualified climbers to participate in an ascent that was extremely serious and technically demanding. But if he seems uncompromising about the failings of others, the man widely considered to be America's-and possibly the world's-best mountaineer speaks with the wisdom and authority born of tireless dedication and grueling preparedness. This is a story and a man not to be forgotten.
