Mick Fowler – författare

‘If we were guaranteed success in everything we tried then life would be pretty boring.’Mainstream news reports about climbing are dominated by action from the world’s highest mountains, more often than not focusing on tragedy and controversy. Far removed from this high-altitude circus, a group of visionary and specialist mountaineers are seeking out eye-catching objectives in the most remote corners of the greater ranges and attempting first ascents in lightweight style.Mick Fowler is the master of the small and remote Himalayan expedition. He has been at the forefront of this pioneering approach to alpinism for over thirty years, balancing his family life, a full-time job at the tax office and his annual trips to the greater ranges in order to attempt mountains that may never have been seen before by Westerners, let alone climbed by them.In No Easy Way, his third volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasure and On Thin Ice, Fowler recounts a series of expeditions to stunning mountains in China, India, Nepal and Tibet. Alongside partners including Paul Ramsden, Dave Turnbull, Andy Cave and Victor Saunders, he attempts striking, technically challenging unclimbed lines on Shiva, Gave Ding and Mugu Chuli – with a number of ascents winning prestigious Piolets d’Or, the Oscars of the mountaineering world.Written with his customary dry wit and understatement, he manages challenges away – the art of securing a permit for Tibet – and at home – his duties as Alpine Club president – all the while pursuing his passion for exploratory mountaineering.

‘There is something very special about finding a spectacular objective, looking forward to it for a long time and then achieving exactly what one has set out to do.’Newly retired and immersed in the logistical and bureaucratic maze of planning an expedition to Chombu – an unclimbed Himalayan peak in the Indian state of Sikkim – Mick Fowler’s life is turned upside down by a cancer diagnosis.In Eternal Alpinist, his fourth volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasure, On Thin Ice and No Easy Way, Mick describes – with his trademark dry wit – his determined and at times frustrating attempts to regain ‘mountain fitness’ and return to the places he loves most. Reaching Chombu with his climbing partner Victor Saunders becomes a constant focus during treatment and recovery.Known for seeking out mountaineering challenges that are remote, eye catching and unclimbed, Mick continues to pursue objectives far from the ordinary. Along with Chombu, he takes us to sea stacks in County Kerry, Spitzkoppe in Namibia, Yawash Sar in Pakistan and Patkhor in Tajikistan.Follow Mick, one of mountaineering’s most engaging storytellers, as he adapts to new limitations while continuing to pursue the challenges and adventures that have shaped his life.

On Thin Ice is Mick Fowler's second set of climbing memoirs, following Vertical Pleasure. Here, the celebrated mountaineer records his expeditions since 1990 where, despite work and family commitments, he maintained a regular series of 'big trips' to challenging objectives around the world with a sequence of major successes. The combination of exotic travel with major climbs provides the ultimate adrenalin-soaked holiday experience that Mick Fowler has mastered to the full. We are transported from the cliffs of Jordan to remote peaks in deepest Asia via Taweche and Changabang in the Himalaya, with jaunts to the Andes and Alaska thrown in for good measure. That Fowler has organised this routine for years, while holding down a conventional nine-to-five job with the Inland Revenue, has constantly amazed his peers. In this, his second book, he has also mastered the skills of amusing travel-writing to entertain us as a preliminary to the finale of a titanic struggle on each of his fiendishly demanding climbs.His ascent of Siguniang in 2002, with Paul Ramsden featured hard ice climbing on a fabulous face in deepest China and was so admired by the international climbing community that it won the US Golden Piton and the French Piolets d'Or, both awards given for the finest alpine achievements in the world during that year. Fowler describes his travels in the great traditions, with engaging modesty and wit, but the climbs themselves are frequently so dramatic that the anxiety and tension forces its way to the surface to be matched by a corresponding relief and triumph when success and safe descent is achieved.