![](https://daniellight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/blog-too-scaled.jpg)
![](https://daniellight.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/White_Ladder_Book-1024x1024.jpg)
It was not always Everest.
Chimborazo. Nanda Devi. Kangchenjunga. K2. Each, at one time, was believed to be the highest mountain in the world.
And with record-breaking mountains came record-breaking mountaineers.
Conquistadors and captains, scientists and surveyors, alpinists and adventurers – the first men and women to go higher ‘on the backs of mountains’ than anybody had gone before.
The White Ladder is their story.
From the smoking volcanoes of South America to the great snowy ranges of the Himalaya, it follows a cast of extraordinary characters onto the slopes of the world’s highest mountains, tracing the epic rise of mountaineering’s world altitude record.
As it does so, a larger drama unfolds. Rivalries emerge, friendships form, forged in the cold furnace of the icebound heights. The urge to explore becomes a journey inward; each new adventure, a voyage of self-discovery.
And, around the centenary of the 1924 Everest expedition – a campaign that would cost George Mallory and Sandy Irvine their lives – new details emerge to cast fresh light on the age-old question…
Why?
A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering ‘before Everest’, full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton
*
Wonderful… a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.
Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence
*
Thrilling… stories that are poetic, spiritual and astonishing.
Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance
*
Vivid, nicely paced and beautifully written… The White Ladder neatly bridges a lacuna in the history of mountaineering.
John Keay, author of Himalaya
*
Superb… highly readable, informative and beautifully researched with a lightness of touch entirely in keeping with its subject matter.
Julie Summers, author of Fearless on Everest
*
With the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller, this is a book to curl up with in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.
Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants
Pre-order UK Hardback – 5 Sept. 2024
Pre-order US Hardback – 19 Nov. 2024
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, 5 Sept. 2024
Tuesday, 10 Sept. 2024
Sunday, 15 Sept. 2024
Thursday, 17th Oct. 2024
Wednesday, 30 Oct. 2024