Grateful to Breashears and still dreaming of Mallory and Irvine
Greetings from Peaklessburg.
I hadn't thought of David Breashears as impactful on me until now. The mountaineer and filmmaker passed away this month at age 68.* I discovered Breashears through his IMAX film Everest from 1998. Then I started finding his name on books, including his memoir High Exposure, and Last Climb about Mallory and Irvine. The latter is a treasured volume of mine.
I suppose Breashears introduced me to climbing film before I found mountain literature. And his IMAX film introduced me to Ed Viesturs, an early and important hero in the 2000s, showed me and how commercial expeditions operated.
I am grateful for what he gave us and shared through his lens, no pun intended. He saw the world as a beautiful place once we overcame its challenges. And the images and art he shared has contributed, maybe even fueled, my pursuit of mountains, wilderness, and that old word that's so suitable here, the sublime.
RECENT POSTS, In case you missed them...
100 Years Since Mallory and Irvine Made Their Last Climb
It has been 100 years, this June, since George Leigh Mallory and Andrew “Sandy” Irvine made it to the summit of Everest. Well, if you like to believe they did, anyway. I consider this anniversary as odd and feature a book done jointly with the late David Breashears. Click here to read more.
Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman, M.D. Reviewed
Next month, Mimi Zieman, M.D.’s memoir of her journey from New York City to Mount Everest, Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, will be released. There is no reason you should know her, if you are focused on mountain literature. This is her first and probably only book on the subject. She worked and cared for Ed Webster, Robert Anderson, and Stephen Venables. It’s not your traditional mountaineering story. Tap Dancing on Everest is actually a feminist story of self-discovery, with a mixture of adventure and medicine, from Falcon Guides. And, yes, I wanted to read it despite the central objective being Mount Everest. Click here to read more.
NEW MOUNTAIN BOOK RELEASES FOR 2024
In addition to Mimi Zieman's Tap Dancing on Mount Everest (April 2, 2024) and Everest Inc. by Will Cockrell (April 16, 2024), which I addressed in my last newsletter, there are at least six more climbing books of note that you may want to know about.
Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges by Bernadette McDonald -- Released on February 20th, combines into one volume stories we know, stories we thought we knew, and stories that haven't been told from the perspective of "local" climbers too many stories referred to as porters and Sherpas. I am reading it now.
The Longest Climb: A Memoir of Love, Mountaineering and Healing by Paul Pritchard -- Coming out on April 16th, Pritchard tells of the aftermath of his traumatic injury and his enduring passion and affection for the mountains. I have my copy and will be reading this one shortly.
A Light through the Cracks: A Climber's Story by Beth Rodden -- In stores on May 1st. Rodden said on The Run Out podcast with Andrew Bisharat and Chris Kalous that she always knew that she would write a climbing book, but she didn't imagine this would be the outcome. Time shaped it, and so did the trauma of being held hostage and parenthood. (Interesting to me, it is printed by Little A, an imprint from Amazon Publishing of Amazon.com.)
Fallen: George Mallory: The Man, the Myth, and the 1924 Everest Tragedy by Mick Conefrey -- Also coming on May 1st, the documentary-turned author rehashes the same old, again. (No, I'm not excited. Click the link from the publisher if you want to know more.)
Mountains Before Mountaineering: The Call of the Peaks before the Modern Age by Dawn Hollis -- Available on May 4th, Hollis' book is the culmination of her PhD thesis and a remarkable and refreshing view on humanity's view, at least in Europe, of the mountains. I have read her thesis and a manuscript and I think it is required reading for anyone trying to understand our relationship with the peaks.
Survival is Not Assured: The Life of Climber Jim Donini by Geoff Powter -- It will be released on June 1st and I plan to get my own copy. This biography is of the great Donini and by an author and climbing historian I have admired for some time.
Thanks for reading.
Andrew
*About David Breashears age of death, I have said, and so have many others too, that he died too young. And I really believe that. He was! Reports are that he died of natural causes, but at 68 today that seems odd to me. Of course heart disease and a heart attack could have been the culprit; it kills over 60 percent of people over 65 in the U.S., according to the Center for Disease Control. He did outlive the average of someone born in 1955, which was 66.7 years, according to University of California, Berkeley. But, I guess Breashears met the target, in a way, by being above average.