Stones and Feathers

An unforgettable memoir about love loss and living free at the wild edge of the mountainsKate Ballard is a child of the mountains. Born to celebrated British mountaineer, Alison Hargreaves, Kate's parents travelled the world in the pursuit of open skies and sharp peaks, vowing to raise Kate and her brother with that same spirit of adventure. But when Kate was just four, her mother was tragically lost in a storm on K2. Growing up in the shadow of this great grief, Kate followed her father and brother to the raw, ice-capped beauty of the Swiss alps, carving out a life out of doors and a promise, to honour her mother's legacy and the call of wild places. It was a promise that carried Kate through hard times - through depression, addiction and turmoil, and through the repetition of history as tragedy struck her family once more. Stones and Feathers is a story of survival - of love, loss and a life less ordinary. Of how Kate pulled herself out of the darkness and back into the mountains she loves, and how nature's fierce power at the world's sharpest edges can save us, again and again.