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Not Set In Stone: The passion and consequence of a mountain life
The autobiography of David Vass who was one of New Zealand's leading mountaineers before an accident in 2016 left him with a broken neck and incomplete tetraplegia.
236 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 10, 2023
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46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 3, 2023
A wonderful account of a man's journey in the mountains and how the lessons learned there can apply in everyday life. Thanks, David, for sharing your story. It moved me greatly.
March 25, 2025
What an incredible story, and beautifully written. I was completely gripped with this raw account of his life in the mountains.
July 7, 2023
This book would earn 5 stars as an adventure travelogue and 5 stars as an unlikely inspirational look into what we take and give to life as the earth gives and takes away. The combination makes it one not to be missed. Thank you David for sharing your story.
July 18, 2025
Most climbing books leave me cold...this one, I could not put down. It is deeply moving, gorgeously written, profoundly honest. It's the first climbing book I've read that actually captures the beauty of and love of the alpine environment, the reasons why we go to these places. You feel you are actually there with David, and climbers will enjoy re-visiting wild places, faces, and ridgelines, and tasting challenges we may have only dreamed of.
David is such a gifted writer. The structure of the book is a masterclass, with a prologue that draws you into Aotearoa's unique alpine environs, and hints at what is to come. The chapter themes of rock types and geography for eras of his life was unique, and David's use of specific techniques is carefully selected and arresting ("It is Danny who....It is Danny who....").
Key themes of the book are meditations on the micro-detail of the mountains, which I adored (pitch by pitch descriptions of an epic route, recollections of watching sunsets and moon rises in tandem, detailed descriptions of the glassy, glowing, gloss of a mountain ramp late in the day); lifetimes within lifetimes; loss, and how to go on living.
Through David's stories of his incredible climbs to his devastating accident, I had tears running down my face for more than one reason. David has done something not every writer can: he has written a book that's never before on the shelf.
Not Set in Stone Deserves to win awards and be widely read. Such a soulful piece of Aotearoa's climbing history. Thanks David.
David is such a gifted writer. The structure of the book is a masterclass, with a prologue that draws you into Aotearoa's unique alpine environs, and hints at what is to come. The chapter themes of rock types and geography for eras of his life was unique, and David's use of specific techniques is carefully selected and arresting ("It is Danny who....It is Danny who....").
Key themes of the book are meditations on the micro-detail of the mountains, which I adored (pitch by pitch descriptions of an epic route, recollections of watching sunsets and moon rises in tandem, detailed descriptions of the glassy, glowing, gloss of a mountain ramp late in the day); lifetimes within lifetimes; loss, and how to go on living.
Through David's stories of his incredible climbs to his devastating accident, I had tears running down my face for more than one reason. David has done something not every writer can: he has written a book that's never before on the shelf.
Not Set in Stone Deserves to win awards and be widely read. Such a soulful piece of Aotearoa's climbing history. Thanks David.
April 19, 2024
Read this while road tripping the South Island. It was very cool to go to the mountains he spoke about climbing!
I wish he had spoke about the accident and the recovery for more of the book. The last 30 pages were heavy.
I wish he had spoke about the accident and the recovery for more of the book. The last 30 pages were heavy.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews