What do you think?
Rate this book
High Mountains and Cold Seas: The life of H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman: soldier, mountaineer, navigator
Harold William 'Bill' Tilman (1898 –1977) was among the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering mountaineer and sailor who held exploration above all else.
The son of a Liverpool sugar importer, Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI. After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and they began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi, the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, delved into Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor and explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration.
It was perhaps logical that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief, not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years he sailed Mischief and her successors in search of them—to Patagonia, where he made the first easterly crossing of the ice cap, to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh, to Greenland, Spitsbergen, and islands in the far Southern Ocean, before disappearing in the South Atlantic in 1977.
J.R.L. Anderson's High Mountains and Cold Seas draws on a wealth of personal correspondence between Tilman—a compulsive letter writer—and his immediate family and close friends, crafting the first detailed account of the extraordinary life of this remarkable, but very private individual.
The son of a Liverpool sugar importer, Tilman joined the army at seventeen and was twice awarded the Military Cross for bravery during WWI. After the war Tilman left for Africa, establishing himself as a coffee grower. He met Eric Shipton and they began their famed mountaineering partnership, traversing Mount Kenya and climbing Kilimanjaro. Turning to the Himalaya, Tilman went on two Mount Everest expeditions, reaching 27,000 feet without oxygen in 1938. In 1936 he made the first ascent of Nanda Devi, the highest mountain climbed until 1950. He was the first European to climb in the remote Assam Himalaya, delved into Afghanistan's Wakhan Corridor and explored extensively in Nepal, all the while developing a mountaineering style characterised by its simplicity and emphasis on exploration.
It was perhaps logical that Tilman would eventually buy the pilot cutter Mischief, not with the intention of retiring from travelling, but to access remote mountains. For twenty-two years he sailed Mischief and her successors in search of them—to Patagonia, where he made the first easterly crossing of the ice cap, to Baffin Island to make the first ascent of Mount Raleigh, to Greenland, Spitsbergen, and islands in the far Southern Ocean, before disappearing in the South Atlantic in 1977.
J.R.L. Anderson's High Mountains and Cold Seas draws on a wealth of personal correspondence between Tilman—a compulsive letter writer—and his immediate family and close friends, crafting the first detailed account of the extraordinary life of this remarkable, but very private individual.
- GenresMountaineeringBiography
477 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 28, 2017
15 people are currently reading
41 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 24, 2022
Tillman was an accomplished explorer and a great character. He served with distinction in both world wars and achieved the first ascent of Nanda Devi. In later life, he adapted his Himalayan mountaineering to polar exploration, climbing and sailing to some of the world's most desolate places.
His writings are classics of travel even if his stoicism downplayed his most astonishing adventures. In his books, he's something of a psychological cipher and even in this biography his motivations are obscure. Perhaps this taciternity adds to his mystique.
His writings are classics of travel even if his stoicism downplayed his most astonishing adventures. In his books, he's something of a psychological cipher and even in this biography his motivations are obscure. Perhaps this taciternity adds to his mystique.
September 3, 2025
The most inspirational explorer of the 20th Century. This is a credible exposition of an incredible man. Tilman is brought to life as a humble, hard, man of action who baulks at no obstacle whether he is at war, climbing mountains, exploring the Himalayas, or sailing around the poles. It more than an adventure book, it is an account of what constitutes greatness in mankind.
April 24, 2020
If you are interested in hearing about a lifetime explorer then this is a good book for you. The sections about his experiences in both world wars was also interesting
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews