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Nine Lives - Expeditions to Everest
Robert Mads Anderson is an elite mountaineer with a solitary goal: to conquer Everest. After nearly getting killed on his first expedition, he led a team up a new route on the Kangshung Face without oxygen or Sherpa support, climbed solo on the remote North Face, and finally guided a team to the top of the world.
Incorporating a who’s who of internationally recognised climbers, including Stephen Venables, Reinhold Messner and Chris Bonington, Nine Lives traces the story of Everest, from the big, nationally supported expeditions of the 1980s; through the small teams forging new routes and climbing solo; to the commercially guided expeditions of today.
Set against the majestic backdrop of the world’s tallest peak, Anderson’s nine Everest expeditions over eighteen years define what truly drives a human being to the greatest of heights. With a foreword by Peter Hillary and 32 pages of colour photography, in Nine Lives Robert Mads Anderson offers his personal account of the world’s highest mountain.
Incorporating a who’s who of internationally recognised climbers, including Stephen Venables, Reinhold Messner and Chris Bonington, Nine Lives traces the story of Everest, from the big, nationally supported expeditions of the 1980s; through the small teams forging new routes and climbing solo; to the commercially guided expeditions of today.
Set against the majestic backdrop of the world’s tallest peak, Anderson’s nine Everest expeditions over eighteen years define what truly drives a human being to the greatest of heights. With a foreword by Peter Hillary and 32 pages of colour photography, in Nine Lives Robert Mads Anderson offers his personal account of the world’s highest mountain.
204 pages, Paperback
Published September 10, 2020
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About the author
Robert Mads Anderson
7 books4 followersAnderson is the Author of four books: Nine Lives - Expeditions to Everest, Seven Summits Solo, To Everest via Antarctica and Antonovs over the Arctic - Flying to the North Pole in a Russian biplane.
He led the ascent of a new route on the Kangshung Face, Everest, climbing with a 4-man team including Paul Teare, Ed Webster and Stephen Venables, climbing without Sherpas or oxygen, before going on to ascend the remaining of the 7 summits solo.
More recently, in the Himalaya, he has guided ascents of Everest (twice), Shishipangma, Cho Oyu, and Makalu.
Nine Lives recounts moments of near death or life defining moments on each of his expeditions to Everest, with a cast of climbing characters from Chris Bonington and Stephen Venables, to Sibusisu Vilane and David Hamilton.
Seven Summits Solo covers his solo ascents of all the seven summits, in a large format coffee table book, also released in a private edition for Rolex Watch. To Everest via Antarctica was published widely, including pirated into a Slovakian edition with someone else on the cover - but the story is his.
Anderson has gone on to complete a number of new routes on Mt Vinson in Antarctica, spending the 2016-2020 seasons guiding on both the rarely visited East and the traditional West sides of the peak.
In 2018, he ascended Cartstenz Pyramid, climbing with Peter Hillary, completing the 8th of the 7 summits.
Anderson is a frequent lecturer for multi-national corporations, with talks and training seminars on leadership, team-building, motivation and achieving larger than life goals with smaller than expected teams. He lives in Dubai with his wife Josephine Clark.
He led the ascent of a new route on the Kangshung Face, Everest, climbing with a 4-man team including Paul Teare, Ed Webster and Stephen Venables, climbing without Sherpas or oxygen, before going on to ascend the remaining of the 7 summits solo.
More recently, in the Himalaya, he has guided ascents of Everest (twice), Shishipangma, Cho Oyu, and Makalu.
Nine Lives recounts moments of near death or life defining moments on each of his expeditions to Everest, with a cast of climbing characters from Chris Bonington and Stephen Venables, to Sibusisu Vilane and David Hamilton.
Seven Summits Solo covers his solo ascents of all the seven summits, in a large format coffee table book, also released in a private edition for Rolex Watch. To Everest via Antarctica was published widely, including pirated into a Slovakian edition with someone else on the cover - but the story is his.
Anderson has gone on to complete a number of new routes on Mt Vinson in Antarctica, spending the 2016-2020 seasons guiding on both the rarely visited East and the traditional West sides of the peak.
In 2018, he ascended Cartstenz Pyramid, climbing with Peter Hillary, completing the 8th of the 7 summits.
Anderson is a frequent lecturer for multi-national corporations, with talks and training seminars on leadership, team-building, motivation and achieving larger than life goals with smaller than expected teams. He lives in Dubai with his wife Josephine Clark.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 21, 2020
Nine Lives. Definitely a couldn’t put this book down. This book leaves you inspired at the determination, bravery and resourcefulness of Robert Mads Anderson as he rises to the challenge of climbing many different routes up Mount Everest. A wonderful read.
January 4, 2021
Anyone who embarks nine times on the summit if a mountain has dedication and determination. Nine lives provides an account of Robert Mads Anderson’s Everest attempts over an 18 year period.
This is real Everest and real mountaineering. Not the commercial guided expeditions with luxury, guides and porters. Anderson’s portrayal takes you to lesser frequented areas of Everest in his repeated attempts to make the summit.
While Anderson has done a great many other mountaineering trips and summits, this book purely focuses on his quest for the summit of Everest. From his start of the West Ridge Direct route in 1985, right through to his eventual summit via the South Col as he lead a Jagged Globe expedition in 2010.
While it’s easy to discount Everest these day’s due to the sheer volume of commercial expeditions now heading there, Anderson portrays how the mountain is still very much one where real mountaineering adventures can exist.
This is real Everest and real mountaineering. Not the commercial guided expeditions with luxury, guides and porters. Anderson’s portrayal takes you to lesser frequented areas of Everest in his repeated attempts to make the summit.
While Anderson has done a great many other mountaineering trips and summits, this book purely focuses on his quest for the summit of Everest. From his start of the West Ridge Direct route in 1985, right through to his eventual summit via the South Col as he lead a Jagged Globe expedition in 2010.
While it’s easy to discount Everest these day’s due to the sheer volume of commercial expeditions now heading there, Anderson portrays how the mountain is still very much one where real mountaineering adventures can exist.
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April 19, 2021Nine Lives: Expeditions To Everest by Robert Mads Anderson
I liked Nine Lives a lot. It’s a quirky account of one climber’s obsession with Everest. Anderson isn’t a household name, not a well known media personality yet he has done amazing stuff in the big hills of the world. Not a professional climber in the sense that it’s not his full time career, he has guided commercial trips on Everest but also holds down a job as an advertising executive and is obviously adept at garnering publicity and sponsorship and at the back of the book there’s a long list of sponsors ranging from British Airways to Rolex.
The author is probably best known for his ascent of the Kanshung Face on Everest with Ed Webster and Stephen Venables. As the title suggests, there are epics and survival situations galore culminating in every climber’s nightmare; being stuck high on a mountain and one of your team is ill or injured and totally dependent on you. In this case, one of the team lost their vision and had to be helped down, literally step by step, hand hold by handhold. In many ways the author was in a very privileged position. His boss at work had given him two months off work and even paid him whilst he was absent guiding a commercial expedition for Jagged Globe. Suddenly, high on Everest, he’s earning his double salary.
The writing is engaging, stories told warts and all, tales told just as they happened not prettied up for publication. Well crafted sentences encapsulate so much about the experiences; “They were wearing the Everest Smile. The smile shines through fatigue and grime and sunburn and no sleep in days and reflects reaching the top of the world. It was their happy hearts smiling…..”
There’s a great selection of photos as the book covers the full gamut of expeditions and styles ranging from big, sponsored climbs from the 1980s, to small 2 or 4 climber trips right through to modern commercial climber/tourist, big buck expeditions.
It wasn’t really a book I was expecting to enjoy overly but once started it was so well written and such a gripping and interesting read that I was surprised and impressed. Everest has become so commercial and there are so many books about it yet this one was different and stood out.
I liked Nine Lives a lot. It’s a quirky account of one climber’s obsession with Everest. Anderson isn’t a household name, not a well known media personality yet he has done amazing stuff in the big hills of the world. Not a professional climber in the sense that it’s not his full time career, he has guided commercial trips on Everest but also holds down a job as an advertising executive and is obviously adept at garnering publicity and sponsorship and at the back of the book there’s a long list of sponsors ranging from British Airways to Rolex.
The author is probably best known for his ascent of the Kanshung Face on Everest with Ed Webster and Stephen Venables. As the title suggests, there are epics and survival situations galore culminating in every climber’s nightmare; being stuck high on a mountain and one of your team is ill or injured and totally dependent on you. In this case, one of the team lost their vision and had to be helped down, literally step by step, hand hold by handhold. In many ways the author was in a very privileged position. His boss at work had given him two months off work and even paid him whilst he was absent guiding a commercial expedition for Jagged Globe. Suddenly, high on Everest, he’s earning his double salary.
The writing is engaging, stories told warts and all, tales told just as they happened not prettied up for publication. Well crafted sentences encapsulate so much about the experiences; “They were wearing the Everest Smile. The smile shines through fatigue and grime and sunburn and no sleep in days and reflects reaching the top of the world. It was their happy hearts smiling…..”
There’s a great selection of photos as the book covers the full gamut of expeditions and styles ranging from big, sponsored climbs from the 1980s, to small 2 or 4 climber trips right through to modern commercial climber/tourist, big buck expeditions.
It wasn’t really a book I was expecting to enjoy overly but once started it was so well written and such a gripping and interesting read that I was surprised and impressed. Everest has become so commercial and there are so many books about it yet this one was different and stood out.
November 18, 2020
A worthy addition to the annuals of Everest literature
Nine Lives is a fascinating portrait of Everest and one man's relationship with the mountain.
Enough background text is included within the book to clarify, to readers who may not know, that Robert Mads Anderson is an elite mountaineer with summit success in many other parts of the world, so Everest is not a mere obsession.
This book is not an autobiography of a life (or nine lives) in the mountains. Robert is still very active in the mountain and polar areas of the world so perhaps such a tome may well come when he's older. Instead, here, Robert focuses on Everest and shares the gripping accounts of his expeditions attempting to climb the mountain, leading finally to success.
Told over a period of 18 years you avoid (until the very end) the modern "trade routes" favoured by the guided parties and instead are dropped onto the remote, seldom or never before climbed faces and ridges. You experience small self contained or sole expeditions during times when it was not unusual to be the only party on the mountain. This was true exploratory mountaineering with the climbers really testing the unknown and seeking to understand what was possible and/or where limits existed.
A great read and a worthy addition to the annuals of Everest literature, especially as it brings to the wider public accounts of expeditions perhaps only otherwise held in climber's diaries or the pages of alpine club journals.
Well recommended.
Nine Lives is a fascinating portrait of Everest and one man's relationship with the mountain.
Enough background text is included within the book to clarify, to readers who may not know, that Robert Mads Anderson is an elite mountaineer with summit success in many other parts of the world, so Everest is not a mere obsession.
This book is not an autobiography of a life (or nine lives) in the mountains. Robert is still very active in the mountain and polar areas of the world so perhaps such a tome may well come when he's older. Instead, here, Robert focuses on Everest and shares the gripping accounts of his expeditions attempting to climb the mountain, leading finally to success.
Told over a period of 18 years you avoid (until the very end) the modern "trade routes" favoured by the guided parties and instead are dropped onto the remote, seldom or never before climbed faces and ridges. You experience small self contained or sole expeditions during times when it was not unusual to be the only party on the mountain. This was true exploratory mountaineering with the climbers really testing the unknown and seeking to understand what was possible and/or where limits existed.
A great read and a worthy addition to the annuals of Everest literature, especially as it brings to the wider public accounts of expeditions perhaps only otherwise held in climber's diaries or the pages of alpine club journals.
Well recommended.
April 4, 2022
This book is fascinating, managing to be about Everest, but also to be a tale of true exploration, avoiding the trade routes until the very end. Each of Anderson's visits to Everest is unique and interesting - by bringing them together, this book allows the reader to compare and contrast Anderson's changing attitudes and emotions towards the mountain.
Written with engaging honesty and humour, this book never makes light of the dangers and risks, and faces "failure" head on, recognising that in fact, returning safely despite not summiting is the greatest possible success. The fact that this book focuses on these decisions, and on the joys that Anderson found in his non-summiting explorations, rather than summiting at all costs or on "successes" is laudable and refreshing.
A highly enjoyable and interesting read.
Written with engaging honesty and humour, this book never makes light of the dangers and risks, and faces "failure" head on, recognising that in fact, returning safely despite not summiting is the greatest possible success. The fact that this book focuses on these decisions, and on the joys that Anderson found in his non-summiting explorations, rather than summiting at all costs or on "successes" is laudable and refreshing.
A highly enjoyable and interesting read.
February 3, 2022
'Nine Lives' offers a really compelling catalogue, not just of the author's many expeditions on Everest over a long span of time, but also of the developments in Everest mountaineering over those two decades. Honest, personal and never hyperbolic, the book had me rooting for Anderson and eager to see how each new journey would play out. A lovely quote at the end of a solo attempt: "Owning your one life gives you the right to choose a few more."
July 19, 2024
I'm always fascinated by books and movies about Everest. This wouldn't be the very best book of it's kind that I've read, but I did enjoy it. Structured around the authors 9 expeditions to Everest and the close escapes he had, it makes for interesting reading, as he describes the hold that the world's highest mountain has on those that dream of reaching the summit.
August 31, 2022
Well written accounts of some lesser known expeditions by a serious Himalayan mountaineer. He is a true mountain explorer with the climbs really taking him into the unknown and seeking to understand what was possible, and sometimes what wasn't.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews