Wilfred Thesiger: A centenary exhibition

Next month sees the centenary of the birth of explorer, Wilfred Thesiger. On June 3 1910, he was born in a mud hut in Addis Ababa, part of the "barbaric splendour" of the Abyssinian Empire.

To celebrate the centenary, Wilfred Thesiger in Africa, a major new exhibition at the Pitts Rivers Museum, Oxford, will show a wide selection of the great man's photographs - many for the first time. These relate to his life and travels in the continent and will also include objects he donated to the museum. There is an accompanying book, comprising of his photographs and a collection of essays. Alexander Maitland, Thesiger's authorised biographer, is one of the editors. Read an article about the exhibition here.

The above photograph is by Jane Bown, the Observer's legendary photographer. For more information see a previous Thesiger posting.

Explornography

What was supposed to be a quick visit to the Stanfords on Long Acre, to buy a map, turned into a half-hour browsing session, yesterday. It's always the same. I go in for one thing and end up being seduced by all those shelves groaning with guidebooks, tales of exploration, derring-do etc. Glancing around at others doing likewise though, I couldn't help but chuckle as the word explornography came to mind. Meaning "The vicarious thrill of exploring when there is nothing left to explore", it was coined by John Tierney in his 1998 New York Times article Going Where A Lot of Other Dudes With Really Great Equipment Have Gone Before. Now hailed as a classic, read the article before the NY Times throws a paywall around its content (although it will probably always be easy to find something like this).

The BBC Archive and exploration

The BBC Archive is a collection of 12 million artefacts including 600,000 hours of television content and 350,000 hours of radio, not to mention thousands of documents and photographs, built up over 80 years of broadcasting. Now, a small part of it has been made available through BBC Archive. Collections, range from a series of programmes about the Berlin Wall, apartheid, to playing Shakespeare's Hamlet.

What about exploration? Well, there is section on the moon landings, but little else - at least for now. However, I did come across a radio feature on Chris Bonington, the mountaineer who is probably best known for leading the British 1975 Everest 'The Hard Way' expedition up the mountain's south-west face. In a programme recorded in 1988, Bonington recalls the significant expeditions and places in his life while climbing on Goat Crag in the English Lake District.

Bonington features a number of times in The Guardian Book of Mountains, including The Social Climber, an in-depth interview with him from March 1973. At the time he was promoting The Next Horizon, the second volume of his autobiography, and was well on his way to becoming a household name. His study is described as being full of all "the latest in audio-visual equipment," an indication that the former tank commander was one of the first, and probably most successful, mountaineers to use writing and lecturing to fund their sport.

What is often forgotten amidst all the tales of mountaineering exploits is that during the mid 1960s, Bonington was an adventure journalist, writing and photographing expeditions such as John Blashford-Snell's attempt to make the first ever descent of the Blue Nile, in 1968. Many of these stories later appeared in the best-selling Quest for Adventure, a very good collection that aimed, as he put it in the introduction, to explore 'The what and the why of adventure', as well as 'the how'.

Ripping Yarns.com to close

Ripping Yarns.com, the independent specialist publisher of adventure books, has announced that it's winding up operations. Ian Robertson, its founder, said on UKClimbing:

"In 2003 I started 'Ripping Yarns.com', republishing some classic adventure and mountaineering titles. We also published the much needed guidebook "Walks and Scrambles in Norway". However, it's now time for me to move on. Ripping Yarns.com didn't make any money last year: selling books to climbers in a down-turn ain't easy!"

Peter Hodgkiss

The Independent reports the death of "Peter Hodgkiss: Mountaineer and publisher whose Ernest Press extended the scope and ambition of climbing literature." A book with the distinctive Ernest Press screw press logo on the spine was always a guarantee of a unique outdoor literature reading experience. They also produced a good set of UK mountain biking guidebooks.

Book lists of outdoor literature

Writing as someone who is always on the look out for new book suggestions, I was intrigued to come across Ron Watters's Best book lists of outdoor literature. This includes lists covering UK and US climbing as well more general outdoor books.

First in line is Tony Astill's Top 100 British Mountaineering Books. Last time I mentioned this it was still a work in progress but now seems to be fixed. More about Astill on Les Alpes Livres. Watters also includes the reading list for an Outdoor Literature Class he teaches at Idaho State Universtity. Sounds like a fine way to spend a few months.

Cycling Home From Siberia

In an age when 'solo' adventure usually means having a film crew and support team in tow, it's refreshing to come across someone who really did explore totally on their own. Back in 2004, Rob Lilwall booked a one-way plane ticket to far eastern Siberia and then start cycling home. For most of the journey it was just him and Alanis, his ten-year old steel-framed mountain bike.

Thirty thousand miles, and three and half years later he finally arrived back in London after surviving a Siberian winter, the jungles of Papua New Guinea, and war-torn Afghanistan. Cycling Home From Siberia is the tale of his adventure.

The former geography teacher's original plan was to get through Russia and then make his way back via the most interesting route he could find. He ended up taking a major detour around Australia and heading through Tibet, Afghanistan, Iran and eventually Europe. His friend, Alastair Humphreys accompanied him on the first stretch, and Lilwall would occasionally cycle with others but he was on his own when it came to carrying equipment, sorting out visas, arranging boats etc. With transport costs almost non-existent and accommodation either a tent by the roadside or staying with kindly strangers, the final cost of the - self-funded - trip was around £8,000. He also raised money for the children's charity Viva.

While it must be said that literally dozens of adventure travel books are published each year, Lilwall does have an original story to tell. Where others usually include a yarn or two about drunken scrapes with locals, he recounts visiting remote churches and joining congregations in prayer. This though can be an eye-opening stuff as it's rare to hear about persecuted Christians in China or the bullet dodging pastors in remote Papua New Guinea.

Lilwall has the odd tipple too and a story about drinking illicit wine with some teenagers in Iran provides a different view of the country. Above all he is good at creating a sense of place and maintains the momentum and excitement of life on the road through a very long trip.

The most exciting sections are when the intrepid cyclist is under pressure. In Siberia the sheer physical challenge of cycling through freezing temperatures and the race to reach the border before his visa expires, avoiding the 'rascals' in Papua New Guinea or crossing Tibetan checkpoints in the middle of the night. When cycling through Afghanistan you can almost feel Lilwall's fear. After being held at gunpoint in Russia, he quotes Humphreys as saying that when you travel solo, you are seen as a nomad. As soon as you start travelling in a pair, you begin to look like tourists - and tourists are usually the ones that get robbed.

Lilwall was constantly planning the next stages of the trip and updating his blog in internet cafes. These, he notes are to found in almost every town in the world, and that they’re all the same “full of clunky computers and pre-teenage boys playing zombie games”.

Cycling Home From Siberia is a mixture of adventure/endurance book, tale of a slightly eccentric Englishman abroad, a rite of passage, and spiritual journey, but most of all it's simply a great travel book that challenges you to get out of the armchair and onto your bike. Rob Lilwall is still using Alanis to get around London - probably the most dangerous cycling of his life.

Exploration books of the decade

‘Tis the season for making lists. December is a time when newspapers fill their pages with end of year reviews, lists of celebrity divorces and outrageous quotes, and all the best films, books, CDs etc. This year the Guardian/Observer Research & Information team has been extra busy compiling end of the decade lists.

With this is in mind I've put together a list of a few of the books from the past decade that have left some sort of impression.

The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Journey to Antarctica (1999)

by Caroline Alexander

OK, so this came out at the end of 1999 but it made an impact in 2000. In 1914 Sir Ernest Shackleton set out on an audacious expedition to cross the Antarctic by foot. However, his ship, The Endurance, became frozen in pack ice and so Shackleton and his crew spent months drifting across the icy continent. When supplies ran low and tensions high, a small group set sail in one of the ship's lifeboats in search of rescue. After crossing 800 miles of the South Atlantic, the world's most tempestuous stretch of ocean, they finally reached the island of South Georgia. Help was near but only after Shackleton and two colleagues crossed over the island's uncharted mountains.

It is one of the 20th Century's greatest feats of endurance and while the story has been told many times, Caroline Alexander’s expert recounting of it, along with her intimate portraits of the characters, brings the events to life. It is of course Frank Hurley’s brilliant photographs, combined with her words that make this such an inspiring book.

The Beckoning Silence (2002)

by Joe Simpson

With the death of a close friend, Joe Simpson decides to turn his back on climbing big mountains - that is after he has done one last big one, the North Face of the Eiger. The Touching the Void author brilliantly splices his own experience with the stories and legends of the 'Mordwand', along with meditations on the deaths of friends and heroes. Above all though, he is a master at conveying the fear and exhilaration of actually climbing. At the beginning of the route you sense the joy of moving well and the thought that Simpson and his climbing partner might actually succeed.

This soon disappears when - halfway up the north face - they are hit by a thunderstorm. During the deluge, Simpson hears a strange, muffled sound: only later does he discover that this was the noise of the two climbers above him falling to their deaths. The couple retreat and perhaps for the first time he feels no sense of failure. He recognises, however, that the mountains will continue to exert their siren call: "There is about the mountain the beckoning silence of great height."

The book awakened an interest in the Eiger and on finishing it I re-read Heinrich Harrer’s The White Spider. A few years later I also enjoyed John Harlin’s The Eiger Obsession, especially the sections about his father, who died while attempting the North Face Direct in 1966. For a taste of the Beckoning Silence see John Crace's digested read.

The Villain: The Life of Don Whillans (2005)

by Jim Perrin

The 'warts and all' biography of Don Whillans, one of Britain's greatest, if most controversial climbers. As Jim Perrin puts it in the introduction "This is a tale of squandered talent, and a life that was to far too great an extent soured by resentment." It was a life though that saw great achievements on rock, and, even if Whillans’s high altitude expeditions often ended in failure, friend and foe acknowledged his brilliance - as well as being a firm hand in dangerous situations.

The Villain is a great book in part because it is a history of British climbing over the past 50 years. But Perrin's meticulous research (not to mention detailed footnotes), knowledge of the subject plus sublime writing ensures that it sets new standards in biography writing.

Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home (2006)

by Nando Parrado

The story of how a team of Uruguayan rugby players survived a plane crash in the remote snowy peaks of the Andes, in October 1972, is well know. Piers Paul Read's Alive is the definitive book about the ordeal but Nando Parrado's first person account more than complements it. Even though I knew what happened and how, of course, the team survived, it was - cliche coming – very hard to put down. The tale made it into Those Who Dared in part because of the cannibalism, but more because of Parrado's amazing climb over an Andean peak to seek rescue.

We Cannot Fail (2007)

by Geoff Powter

Geoff Powter, a practicising clinical psychologist, examines the lives and motivations of 11 would be heroes using previously unpublished evidence. The list includes Robert Falcon Scott, Donald Crowhurst, and John Franklin, as well as lesser known figures.

Powter points out that throughout history, literature has painted its greatest adventure heroes ‘not as invincible heroes, but as flawed souls redeemed by the hardship of their passage’. The troubled can be ‘drawn by the promise of heroics, redemption and acclaim’. Most interesting are the chapters on Aleister Crowley, the occultist and rather good climber, and Maurice Wilson, an Englishman who, in 1934 , died trying to climb Everest on his own.

High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed (2008)

by Michael Kodas

While Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air shed light on the darker side of the Everest industry, High Crimes is a fully blown expose. In Michael Kodas's view the slopes of the mountain are rife with theft and drug use while base camp is like a lawless wild-west town complete with prostitutes. High up on the mountain incompetent guides ignore dying climbers so eager are they to plant their flags on the summit.

High Crimes is by far the most depressing book I've ever read about mountaineering. I didn‘t particularly enjoy it, but acknowledge that Kodas’s account acts as a counterbalance to many of the triumphalist tomes of the genre.

A Corkscrew is Most Useful: The Travellers of Empire (2009)

by Nicholas Murray

Whether they were going for fame, adventure, religious reasons, or to sample foreign brothels, countless travellers used the British Empire as the reason for exploring the globe. Drawing on their own unique and colourful accounts, Nicholas Murray presents the world as seen through Victorian eyes.

All the big names of the era - Livingstone, Stanley, Burton etc - are included but it's the lesser known figures who make this book such a delight. It also includes a number of female explorers. A highly entertaining read that provided a number of suggestions for Those Who Dared.

I also enjoyed Robert Macfarlane’s Mountains of the Mind and The Wild Places. Finally, Ronald Turnbull’s The Book of the Bivvy, a pocket-sized guide that could possibly stand you in good stead if ever forced to survive in the open. Oh, and, as I’ve mentioned before, The Fall is a fine novel.