Summits and Secrets: The Kurt Diemberger autobiography

by Kurt Diemberger

'A book grows rather like a snow crystal. One doesn't write it from start to finish but, in greater or less degree, all at the same time … that is why my book is not in chronological order; for everything is of the present, held in the moment when thought captures it.' Kurt Diemberger 's Summits and Secrets is a mountaineering autobiography like no other. Writing anecdotally, Diemberger provides an abstract look into his life and climbing career that is both fascinating and awe-inspiring to navigate. Known for surviving the 1986 K2 disaster – an account described in harrowing detail in his award-winning book The Endless Knot – Diemberger provides a captivating insight into his earlier climbs in Summits and Secrets . From climbing his first peak in the Tyrol mountains of Austria , to the epoch-making first ascent of Broad Peak with Hermann Buhl in 1957, and then summiting Dhaulagiri in 1960, where he became one of only two people to have made first ascents of two mountains over 8,000 metres, Diemberger recounts his experiences with wit, honesty and an infectious 'Every climber knows the thrill … the unique inexplicable tension, which the regular shapes of the mountain world awake in huge pyramids, enormous rectangular slabs, piled-up triangles of rock, white circles, immense squares – the thrill of simplicity of shape and outline and the excitement of mastering them, to an unbelievable extent, by his own efforts, his own power … ' Summits and Secrets is a must-read for those wanting an insight into the life and achievements of one of the toughest high-altitude climbers the world has ever known.

468 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 8, 2019

About the author

Austrian mountaineer and author of several books.

Reviews

[Yiorgos Touma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summits & Secrets is an excellent narrative, a unique journey back to space and time, where Kurt Diemberger tells us about his first excursions with his grandfather's bike, the first time he used crampons and his first climbing adventures on the peaks of the Austrian Alps; his painful experience as a young alpinist of losing his climbing partner and later, matured, still passionate driven, and with more knowledge, the first time he met Hermann Buhl; his successful climb with him at Broad Peak, and the experience of his tragic loss; his successful climb to Dhaulagiri. The narrative of Diemberger is a colorful mosaic, from losses and successes, from joys and sorrows.
“Suddenly everything was so natural that I could laugh about it all, about the fears of all the others down below there, their fears about their lives, my own fear of a little moment ago. Now, for the first time, I was truly at one with the heights up there”.
His work portrays in detail and vividness the scope of physical effort that an alpinist has to make, the physical difficulties that must confront, the mental reserves that must utilize and, of course, the extraordinary emotions that he experiences on the mountains.

[Mark Humpage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summits and Secrets

Thoroughly good book great reading about his early years and his thoughts on climbing.
Not just a climbing book but interesting read on Kurt and his exploits a bit slow in places .Worth a read