The Fury of the Bear

http://www.amazon.com/Fury-Bear-ebook/dp/B0034KZ1ZM


When Bear Ryan and his mountain rescue team are approached by a beautiful and mysterious woman for a salvage job in the Andes Mountains, the recovery of a piece of paper at the site of a plane crash turns into an international treasure hunt and a race against forces of evil.

http://www.amazon.com/Eric-Shipton-Six-Mountain-Travel-Books/dp/0898865395/

Eric Shipton: The Six Mountain-Travel Books:
Nanda Devi, Blank on the Map, Upon That Mountain, Mountains of Tartary, Mt Everest Reconnaissance, Land of Tempest.

Not really an obscurity but seems less well known than many more recent books.

http://www.amazon.com/Mountain-Fear-Wilderness-Narrative-Mountaineering/dp/0898862701/

David Roberts: The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative

A classic and not really obscure at all. Why does it have only two reviews on Amazon? I don't have any idea why the copies on Amazon are so expensive, it's not a rare book.

All Elevations Unknown: An Adventure in the Heart of Borneo by Sam Lightner is a great read that I found at a used-book sale a few years ago for $1.50. It alternates chapters about a trek to climb an obscure rock in the heart of headhunter territory in Borneo and an account of Austrailian military forces who were stationed there and fought the Japanese in WWII with the help of the headhunters.

The writing is brillant! This reawakened a desire to travel the Silk Road.



The travel monologues into Haiti & S. America are uplifted and ever more poignant by the factual & statistical info and insights into cultures that most people only know through cinema. Absolutely fascinating.

Mark Doiron wrote:... A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. --mark d.

Mark, the same Bill Bryson that wrote "A short history of nearly everything"? If so, that ought to be a very good read. He is a very entertaining author.

thigbee wrote:...What else ya got?

I REALLY enjoyed "Listening to Coyote" by William Sullivan. He walked across Oregon from SW to NE and wrote an interesting book about his journey. Mom sent it to me about 20 years ago, and it's a keeper.

moonspots wrote:

Mark Doiron wrote:... A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. --mark d.

Mark, the same Bill Bryson that wrote "A short history of nearly everything"? If so, that ought to be a very good read. He is a very entertaining author.

"A walk in the woods" is one book that had me laughing out loud.

BCJ wrote:All Elevations Unknown: An Adventure in the Heart of Borneo by Sam Lightner

+1

Also, Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole. An extensive history of expeditions to reach the North Pole "back in the day."

"Feeding the Rat", by A. Alvarez. Its the biography of Mo Antione, an fairly unknown British climber. Some hilarious stories, some dramatic stories, and some interesting observations of others (more famous folks) he climbed with. Still available on Amazon here in the USA.

"The Last Place on Earth" by British journalist Roland Huntford (also known as "Scott and Amundsen" in its original British printing). A detailed analysis of the Scott/Amundsen race to the South Pole. Highly detailed with planning and logistics info, so not for those looking for a good dramatic read. Very controversial when it came out in the 1980s since it tarnished the "heroic British explorer" image that Scott had at the time. A few used copies on Amazon.

I'm kinda partial to the old adventure books from the19th and 20th centuries - things like Whymper's books or Scott's diary or Clarence King's Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.

I like to get my hands on the original book, I have quite a collection.

Sierra Ledge Rat wrote:I'm kinda partial to the old adventure books from the19th and 20th centuries - things like Whymper's books or Scott's diary or Clarence King's Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada.

I like to get my hands on the original book, I have quite a collection.

I just finished reading (again) Scott's diary. I found most of it pretty boring. Not too many ways to make sitting around camp for a few months sound that interesting.

National Geo Adventure came out with a list a while back with their take on the 100 best outdoor novels. Probably pretty easy to track down. I've given their no. 1 choice, The Worst Journey in the World, by Cherry Aspell-Gerard (sp?) but haven't found the time to read it myself. Just too many good books out there.

rmick25 wrote:On a seperate note I would also recommend "Of Men and Mountains" by William O. Douglas. Especially for those who live in the Pacific N.W. It's one of my favorites.

I just started reading "Beyond the High Himalaya" by Douglas (another of the 60 year old first editions I've been "finding"). Interesting so far, but I'm only a couple chapters in.

"We Aspired: The Last Innocent Americans", by Pete Sinclair

This is one of my favorite climbing books, and it's incredibly well written. Pete Sinclair writes about his experiences as a climbing ranger at Grand Teton National Park in the 1960s and his climbing experiences that led up to his park job. A lot of Teton legends from that time period appear in the book.

Here's the link to National Geo Adventure's 100 best list: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adven ... books.html

I've read several of these and haven't been disappointed.