Eric Shipton – författare

The area around the Indian mountain Nanda Devi is wild and isolated. This is a fascinating insight to the men who explored this region long before GPS and satellite photography, the men who climbed mountains with maps and theodolites in hand. Eric Shipton was one of a band of famous climbers and here presented is the lecture he gave on his return. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• One of the greatest explorers of the 20th century• Shipton’s Everest explorations set the stage for its conquest by Edmund Hillary Eric Shipton was an adventurer when adventure meant traveling to places for which no maps existed, scaling mountains whose heights were uncalculated, and encountering people whom no westerner had ever met. That Untravelled World, originally published in 1969, is his autobiography, written near the end of his career, when the passing of time had deepened his reflections on his many accomplishments and companions. Shipton’s story begins with his early childhood, his first climbs in the Alps, his decision to be a coffee farmer rather than attend university, and his early climbs in Africa. He recounts his introduction to Bill Tilman, through a letter Tilman sent asking for advice about climbing Mount Kenya. This introduction lead to one of the most famous climbing partnerships in history—as bonded in pursuit of adventure as Holmes and Moriarty were in solving crimes. In 1951 Shipton led an expedition to explore the south side of Everest. His small party of four (plus Sherpas) explored Everest’s Western Cwm to determine if the South Col could be climbed from there. In 1952, unable to get a permit to climb Everest, Shipton and his team climbed “eleven mountains between 21,000 and 23,000 feet, and a number of smaller peaks.” Shipton was expected to be named the leader of the momentous 1953 British Everest expedition but, surprisingly, John Hunt was chosen instead. Of the slight, Shipton wrote, “I had often deplored the exaggerated publicity accorded to Everest expeditions and the consequent distortion of values. Yet, when it came to the point, I was far from pleased to withdraw from this despised limelight; nor could I fool myself that it was only the manner of my rejection that I minded.” So disappointed was Shipton in being overlooked to lead the Everest summit expedition that he left Britain for South America. He never again returned to the Himalaya yet, as this book reveals, his adventures were far from over.

‘It is often from our setbacks, even our weaknesses, that we derive some of our greatest blessings.’That Untravelled World is the autobiography of one of the greatest adventurers of the twentieth century. Eric Shipton was a pioneering explorer, journeying to places that did not feature on maps and to unexplored mountains, such as the High Dauphiné.Shipton describes early childhood days filled with adventures; his first encounter with the high mountains on a visit to the Pyrenees, and the onset of his climbing career inspired by travels in Norway with a friend. He reminisces on first meeting infamous explorer H.W. ‘Bill’ Tilman, and their first expedition together to Mount Kenya. Tilman and Shipton were later to become one of the most famous climbing partnerships of all time.Filled with anecdotes from different periods of his life, Shipton takes us on his journey from Kilimanjaro and Mount Stanley alongside Tilman, his discovery of the route to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, summiting Mount Kamet with mountaineering icon Frank Smythe, and multiple expeditions to Everest.First published in 1969, That Untravelled World is the story of an adventurer who, inspired by Edward Whymper, travelled to feral landscapes across the globe, and has in turn inspired generations of climbers and mountaineers.

'As I studied the maps, one thing about them captured my imagination - Across this blank space was written one challenging word, "Unexplored"' In 1937 two of the twentieth century's greatest explorers set off to explore an unknown area of the Himalaya, the breath-taking Shaksgam mountains. With a team of surveyors and Sherpas, Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman located and mapped the land around K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. It was their greatest venture, and one that paved the way for all future mountaineering in that area of the Himalaya. For Shipton and Tilman, exploration was everything, with a summit a welcome bonus, and Blank on the Map is the book that best captures their spirit of adventure.With an observant eye and keen sense of humour, Shipton tells how the expedition entered the unknown Shaksgam mountains, crossing impenetrable gorges, huge rivers and endless snow fields. There's a very human element to Shipton's dealings with his Sherpa friends, and with his Balti porters, some of whom were helpful, while some were less so. The expedition uncovers traces of ancient cultures and visits vibrant modern civilisations living during the last days of the British Empire. Only when all supplies are exhausted, their clothes in tatters and all equipment lost do the men finally return home. A mountain exploration classic.

Upon that Mountain is the first autobiography of the mountaineer and explorer Eric Shipton. In it, he describes all his pre-war climbing, including his Everest bids of the 1930s, and his second Karakoram survey in 1939, when he returned to Snow Lake to complete the mapping of the ranges flanking the Hispar and Choktoi glacier systems around the Ogre.Crossing great swathes of the Himalaya, the book, like so many of Shipton’s works, is both entertaining and an important addition to the mountain literature genre. It captures an important period in mountaineering history – that just before the Second World War – an ends on an elegiac note as Shipton describes his last evening at the starkly-beautiful snow lake, before he returns to a ‘civilisation’ about to embark on a cataclysmic war.

Land of Tempest reveals Eric Shipton at his best - writing with enthusiasm and humour about his explorations in Patagonia in the 1950s and 1960s.He is an astute observer of nature and the human spirit, and this account of his travels is infused with with his own zest for discovery and the joy of camaraderie. Undaunted by hardship or by injury, Shipton and his team attempt to cross one of the great ice caps in Patagonia. It’s impossible not to marvel at his determination, resilience and appetite for travel and adventure, be it climbing snow-clad mountains, or walking in forested foothills. Shipton takes a reader with him on his travels, and the often-inhospitable places he visits are a stark contrast to the warmth of the people he encounters.Land of Tempest is essential reading for anyone who loves nature, mountains, climbing, adventure or simply the joy of discovering unknown places.

'When a man is conscious of the urge to explore, not all the arduous journeyings, the troubles that will beset him and the lack of material gains from his investigations will stop him.' Nanda Devi is one of the most inaccessible mountains in the Himalaya. It is surrounded by a huge ring of peaks, among them some of the highest mountains in the Indian Himalaya. For fifty years the finest mountaineers of the early twentieth century had repeatedly tried and failed to reach the foot of the mountain.Then, in 1934, Eric Shipton and H. W. Tilman found a way in. Their 1934 expedition is regarded as the epitome of adventurous mountain exploration. With their three tough and enthusiastic Sherpa companions Angtharkay, Kusang and Pasang, they solved the problem of access to the Nanda Devi Sanctuary. They crossed difficult cols, made first ascents and explored remote, uninhabited valleys, all of which is recounted in Shipton's wonderfully vivid Nanda Devi - a true evocation of Shipton's enduring spirit of adventure and one of the most inspirational travel books ever written.