Stephen Venables – författare

Like the swallows, our son Ollie came in the spring and left in the autumn. Dancing, singing, swooping - there was something birdlike about his energy, joy and laughter - but also the fleeting, enigmatic quality of his life. When he was two he lost all his speech, as autism turned his life - and ours - into a baffling challenge. Then at four he had to face a new challenge when he almost died from leukaemia. But chemotherapy worked its magic and he made a full recovery. He was a tough survivor and nothing seemed to dim his spirit: he could light up a room and energize everyone around him. So it was a huge shock, after several cancer-free years, when a fatal brain tumour was discovered. This time his body had had enough and he died very suddenly. He was twelve. Ollie had extraordinary courage and endurance. Time after time he bounced back, determined to enjoy life. He was obstinate, mischievous, playful, flirtatious, quixotic, funny. He generated - and continues to generate - huge amounts of laughter. And he was very beautiful. We always felt that if autism had not unravelled the wiring of his neural pathways, he would have achieved extraordinary things. This is the story of the journey we made with Ollie. Unlike a mountaineer, pursuing extreme experiences out of choice, he had difficulty thrust upon him: he was forced to be brave. For me, too, the journey was far more compelling than any expedition.

High and wild places have dominated Stephen Venables' life and now he has written a full autobiography which explores how and - more importantly - why he became a mountaineer, and reveals a series of never-recorded adventures on four continents. At its climax he revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest's history and by Lord Hunt as 'one of the most remarkable ordeals from which men or women have returned alive'. As Venables writes: 'Although we didn't go seeking deliberately an epic near-death experience, it did turn out that way - the ultimate endurance test for which all the previous adventures seemed, retrospectively, to be a preparation.'

Every day, the path up the South Col route to the summit of Everest becomes a little more worn by the tread of dozens of package-tour climbers, but few dare to try the East, or Kangshung, Face, a sheer, avalanche-swept wall of snow and ice only first conquered in 1983. Five years later, Stephen Venables intensified the challenge by leading three unknown American climbers up the East Face - this time without oxygen. The question to most climbing experts wasn't whether they would summit, but whether they would live. They nearly didn't Everest: Alone at the Summit is Venables' rousing account of one of the greatest feats of twentieth century mountaineering, a triumph over doubt, the elements and the limits of human endurance that has never been repeated. "Climbers or not, all will be interested in this mountaineering thriller of a tiny band pulling off an incredible victory-an account so stirring it will be put down only to obtain a moment's breather." - American Alpine Journal

‘The mountains are crystal under the blue sky, as we climb up our untouched peak. This is why we climb.’In this fast-paced, refreshingly honest account, Stephen Venables invites you on an adventure like no other. Delving deeply into the unknown, the unclimbed and the undiscovered, Painted Mountains details the stories of two very different expeditions: the first ascent of 6,000-metre Kishtwar-Shivling in the Indian Himalaya alongside Dick Renshaw, before embarking on an Indo-British Expedition led by Harish Kapadia to Rimo: the Painted Mountain.‘Most of us are content to settle for some sort of compromise between the desire to survive and the desire to retain an element of uncertainty.’Venables – the first Briton to climb Everest without oxygen – does not shy away from the obvious challenges that come hand-in-hand with tackling expeditions such as these; this account details the highs and the lows, the dropped equipment, the toll of extreme conditions and the shining successes of reaching a summit – all while retaining a sense of humour and an unwavering enthusiasm for the thrill of the climb. Venables’ get-up-and-go attitude makes this a delightful read; he is never one to shy away from an opportunity, be it arisen from a year-long dream or a spontaneous invite.Painted Mountains is an invaluable education for anyone who is interested in the greater mountain ranges explored in this book, as well as an inspirational tale of the commitment to a dream, the birth of new friendships and the innumerable rewards of time spent in the mountains.