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High Risk: Climbing to Extinction
Co-winner of the 2022 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature
Winner of the Boardman Tasker Award.
Winner of the Kekoo Naoroji Book Award.
Winner of the NZMFF Mountain & Adventure Narrative Award.
‘Dazzling adventures recalled with wisdom and affection.’ -Stephen Venables
The golden age of Himalayan mountaineering, from the mid 1970s to the ‘80s, brought forth a generation of radical young climbers. With tiny budgets and high ambitions they pioneered small scale, Alpine-style expeditions on mountains such as Jannu, Nuptse, Everest, and K2.
In High Risk , Brian Hall recalls the outrageous adventures of eleven of his climbing friends who risked, and too often lost, their lives to stand on some of the world’s highest peaks at a turning point in mountaineering history.
Winner of the Boardman Tasker Award.
Winner of the Kekoo Naoroji Book Award.
Winner of the NZMFF Mountain & Adventure Narrative Award.
‘Dazzling adventures recalled with wisdom and affection.’ -Stephen Venables
The golden age of Himalayan mountaineering, from the mid 1970s to the ‘80s, brought forth a generation of radical young climbers. With tiny budgets and high ambitions they pioneered small scale, Alpine-style expeditions on mountains such as Jannu, Nuptse, Everest, and K2.
In High Risk , Brian Hall recalls the outrageous adventures of eleven of his climbing friends who risked, and too often lost, their lives to stand on some of the world’s highest peaks at a turning point in mountaineering history.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published September 15, 2022
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85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 18, 2023
Intimate portraits of some great climbers, realised by a close friend and fellow elite mountaineer. Some of those included definately suffered from summit fever and eventually didn't come back. Hall doesn't hold back from outlining various character faults in his subjects either. A good read.
February 17, 2025
For anyone who knew any of these climbers, this will be an emotional read as memories of wonderful times and people flood to the surface. For others, this is a breathtaking record of high altitude, alpine climbing, and its attendant risks. Alan and Mick, I cried for your families as I read your stories again. Thanks for the CUMC memories and beyond.
December 24, 2022
Author Brian Hall was one of a small group of elite mountaineers who, between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, changed the way mountains were climbed. Spurning the use of bottled oxygen, high-altitude porters, and multiple camps connected by fixed ropes, they climbed Himalayan peaks the same way they climbed in the Alps: from the bottom up. This new ethical approach to mountaineering became known as alpine style. Rather than pummelling the mountain into submission with expensive siege-style expeditions, lightweight alpine style attempts depended on courage, skill, and luck. They gave the mountain a chance. And—fortuitously, as the climbers had limited financial resources—they were far less costly.
But the mountains imposed their own cost.
High Risk is a brave and heartfelt examination of the price paid by the cream of British mountaineering during those years of pushing the boundaries of what was possible. There is no one better than Brian Hall to tell this story, for he was in the thick of it, but unlike many of his peers, he survived. Now in his 70s, Hall laments the loss of so many of his friends. Likening high-altitude climbing to Russian roulette, he wrestles with the questions any sane onlooker would ask: Why? and, Was it worth it?
Whether he answers these questions is a matter of perspective. Just as, ‘Why climb?’ is best answered by, ‘If you need to ask, you’ll never know the answer’, it depends on your attitude to risk versus reward, where the reward is an ethereal thing that touches on ego and the need to prove your self-worth. The stronger it is, the greater the risk you’re prepared to take.
High Risk is cleverly structured. Anchored in Brian Hall’s own life story, each chapter tells the story of a friend who—with the exception of a chapter about Andy Parkin and the author himself—has died: seven of them on the mountains and four from natural causes. As their individual stories run concurrently, timelines are interweaved between chapters, allowing the reader to build a fuller picture as they progress from tragedy to tragedy. Yet each chapter can be read as a stand-alone story, each of them a tribute to a great mountaineer yet often flawed human being.
Brian Hall has written a book worthy of his subject matter and those he describes. It is well researched, calls upon numerous friends and lovers of the deceased to show us the humanity behind the hero, and handles their memory with great care and sensitivity. Hall shows us the brutal truth with a light touch that stops short of sentimentality. Yet there are sections that made me choke up.
In High Risk, we have an insightful and moving tribute to the human beings behind the heroism and the selfishness of their ‘morbid pursuit’, and a telling glimpse of the price paid by those they’ve left behind. Brian Hall should be proud of his literary achievement, and we should be grateful that the mountains spared him so he could write it.
High Risk is the joint winner of the 2022 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.
See also: https://www.stevebellwords.com.au/sin...
But the mountains imposed their own cost.
High Risk is a brave and heartfelt examination of the price paid by the cream of British mountaineering during those years of pushing the boundaries of what was possible. There is no one better than Brian Hall to tell this story, for he was in the thick of it, but unlike many of his peers, he survived. Now in his 70s, Hall laments the loss of so many of his friends. Likening high-altitude climbing to Russian roulette, he wrestles with the questions any sane onlooker would ask: Why? and, Was it worth it?
Whether he answers these questions is a matter of perspective. Just as, ‘Why climb?’ is best answered by, ‘If you need to ask, you’ll never know the answer’, it depends on your attitude to risk versus reward, where the reward is an ethereal thing that touches on ego and the need to prove your self-worth. The stronger it is, the greater the risk you’re prepared to take.
High Risk is cleverly structured. Anchored in Brian Hall’s own life story, each chapter tells the story of a friend who—with the exception of a chapter about Andy Parkin and the author himself—has died: seven of them on the mountains and four from natural causes. As their individual stories run concurrently, timelines are interweaved between chapters, allowing the reader to build a fuller picture as they progress from tragedy to tragedy. Yet each chapter can be read as a stand-alone story, each of them a tribute to a great mountaineer yet often flawed human being.
Brian Hall has written a book worthy of his subject matter and those he describes. It is well researched, calls upon numerous friends and lovers of the deceased to show us the humanity behind the hero, and handles their memory with great care and sensitivity. Hall shows us the brutal truth with a light touch that stops short of sentimentality. Yet there are sections that made me choke up.
In High Risk, we have an insightful and moving tribute to the human beings behind the heroism and the selfishness of their ‘morbid pursuit’, and a telling glimpse of the price paid by those they’ve left behind. Brian Hall should be proud of his literary achievement, and we should be grateful that the mountains spared him so he could write it.
High Risk is the joint winner of the 2022 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.
See also: https://www.stevebellwords.com.au/sin...
August 30, 2022
This book was brilliant. I just couldn't put it down and I had to read it in one sitting. That I loved the most is how long it was. There was plenty of very interesting trips. It was so fascinating and exciting and there was also some rather shocking moments. It was so well wrote it had me totally engrossed from the start. It was an amazing and thrilling insight into the life of a mountaineer. The author starts his career in the 70's and he has travelled the world with his addiction of the thrill. Which made for a very interesting book. Coming from Manchester uk I found there was plenty of his friends who came from around this area. Who doesn't like a book that has people from and area they lived. It was unbelievable and very sad just how many friends he lost during his climbing journey. I loved reading about how climbing changed over the years. There was many heart stopping moments that had you on the edge of your seat. I just couldn't get enough of this book. I can't recommend it enough. If you love reading about mountaineering or just want a thrilling journey across the world then this book I'd for you. I also learnt so much from reading this book. I just love reading about different life experiences wishing I could do something similar.
Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting life in the mountains. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this amazing author who has definitely lived a spectacular life.
Only the highest of praise goes out to the author and publishers for bringing us this very interesting life in the mountains. I will definitely be looking out for more books by this amazing author who has definitely lived a spectacular life.
August 1, 2023
This is a very good book, which, through a series of mountaineering biographies (which overlap and criss-cross each other through the chapters), the author conveys a broader picture of the emergence of alpine climbing in the UK from the 1970s onwards. Hall captures very well this new breed of mountaineer, as well as showing (for UK readers) just how international climbers start and build their careers - as University students going rock climbing locally. It's a warts and all account, which doesn't hide tensions and conflicts. Yet, remarkably, Hall is modest about himself. Indeed, there are parts of the book where you forget he is actually there. It's also a wonderful tribute to his lost climbers.
March 16, 2023
I have mixed feelings about this book: on the one hand, it is an excellent account of the dawn of alpinism in mountaineering and particularly the Greater Ranges. However, most of these stories are told through each chapter dedicated to a friend who has died in the mountains.
The expeditions are astounding and the personal remembrances are insightful and touching, but the structure is just too disjointed. There’s stories and individuals can’t help but overlap, many of them being on the same trips together, but the repetitive nature of some of the chapters is frustrating.
Still, a decent read and insight into the lives of people who truly are the sharp end of alpine climbing.
The expeditions are astounding and the personal remembrances are insightful and touching, but the structure is just too disjointed. There’s stories and individuals can’t help but overlap, many of them being on the same trips together, but the repetitive nature of some of the chapters is frustrating.
Still, a decent read and insight into the lives of people who truly are the sharp end of alpine climbing.
April 1, 2024
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is a journey through the authors life as a high altitude climber, viewed through the prism of eulogies to his friends who have died along the way. It was really interesting to read about the lives of so many different people, all told in a clear and understanding way of. I would recommend this book to anyone who remembers the golden age of high altitude climbing in the 1970s and 1980s.
August 11, 2023
This was such a fascinating book to read. I have read books of or watched documentaries about some of the climbers mentioned in this book . This author and friends went through such a golden era of mountaineering, it's sad he lost is friends in such tragic circumstances.
January 26, 2025
A fantastic read.
November 29, 2025
Very tragic but powerful
March 25, 2025
Every chapter of this book is about one friend of Brian Hall who ended up dying, most of them while climbing mountains. He takes the reader, not into a journey of tragedies, sacrifices and extreme adventures as one would expect from the title (which was one of the reasons I wasn’t really attracted to read it before), but into getting to meet this characters and understanding deeply their friendships and relationships with Hall. Without focusing much in himself, the author tells a lot about his nature: a humble and understanding guy, capable of describing positive aspects of someone without excessive praise, and flaws without demonizing. I loved the book from beginning to end, the stories are compelling, the superstar-climbing generation depicted is described in a very humane way, and the risks discussions are valuable. I’ve read before some of the stories mentioned in the book, but the author always gave some extra to them that transformed them in such a way that I replaced the older versions in my head with his. It’s beautifully written, Brian’s experience and maturity is evident and I’m still getting surprised thinking: how is it that most British mountaineers write so well? I really hope this gets translated to Spanish soon so I can recommend it around in Chile.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews