The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering

The true story of the thrill-seekers, map-makers, soldiers, occultists, artists and porters who paved the way for modern mountaineering. WINNER OF THE 2025 NATIONAL OUTDOOR BOOK AWARD FOR HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY ‘A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering “before Everest”, full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.’ Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton Beautiful, remote and dangerous – for generations we have looked to the mountains in awe. Yet, for most, that is where the fascination ends. For a rare few, however, the allure of the peaks proved irresistible. There are the devout Incan priests who, scaling the Andes’ icy slopes to pay tribute to each mountain’s ‘Great Lord’, travelled higher than any European would for centuries. The Gurkha riflemen who joined their commanders in canvassing the Karakoram, admiring the distant summits of Broad Peak and K2 with gleeful anticipation. The tweed-clad mountaineers who made the first serious assaults on Everest, hauling yards upon yards of battered rope through the cold. Tracing the world altitude record from the ashy slopes of the sacred volcano Llullaillaco to the icy crags and crevasses of the Karakoram, Daniel Light takes a panoramic journey through the storied history of mountaineering before Everest. Joining a cast of colourful characters, The White Ladder offers an ode to mountains’ capacity to enthral, and the fundamental human drive to climb higher and higher. *** 'Thrilling... Daniel Light delivers stories that are poetic, spiritual and astonishing in their courage and drive.' Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance ‘Daniel Light guides the reader through a mountain-scape that stretches from the Alps to the Himalaya... with the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller. This is a book to curl up with on a cold dark night in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.’ Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants ‘Wonderful… a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.’ Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence

About the Author :
Daniel Light grew up in Godalming, a stone’s throw from the family home of George and Ruth Mallory. He has been climbing for twenty years, indoors and out. Dan writes from an office at a climbing wall in East London, where he climbs regularly with his daughters Lola and Ruby. He lives in Hackney.

Review :
‘A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering “before Everest”, full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.’ —Sir Ranulph Fiennes ‘Wonderful… a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.’ —Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence 'Hugely entertaining... The tone is brisk, chummy and companionable: the reader feels safe on the end of Light’s rope... Light is above all a storyteller, and anyone who loves mountains will enjoy this book, especially if they prefer to experience the rasp of thin air from a base-camp armchair.' —Spectator 'An engaging and agreeably ornate history of earlier mountaineering... paints a vivid picture of this seemingly innate need and those who first heeded its call.' —New York Times 'Why did mountaineers of old risk life and limb to break new ground and scale new summits? In his thrilling answer to this question, Daniel Light delivers stories that are poetic, spiritual and astonishing in their courage and drive. True climbers remain an esoteric breed but perhaps now they are finally more understandable.' —Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance 'Vivid, nicely paced and beautifully written... The White Ladder neatly bridges a lacuna in the history of mountaineering, tracking the trials and achievements of the little-known climbers who preceded and inspired the great Himalayan expeditions of the mid-twentieth century.' —John Keay, author of Himalaya and When Men and Mountains Meet ‘Daniel Light guides the reader through a mountainscape that stretches from the Alps to the Himalaya... with the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller. This is a book to curl up with on a cold dark night in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.’ —Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants 'Returns readers to an era when alpine progress was measured in steps closer to the sun rather than seconds on the stopwatch or likes on social media. … a thoughtful, nuanced, engaging history.' —Wall Street Journal 'Superb... highly readable, informative and beautifully researched with a lightness of touch entirely in keeping with its subject matter. I recommend it to anyone who dreams of taking a tilt at the world's highest peaks.' —Julie Summers, author of Fearless on Everest 'A panoramic journey through the global history of mountaineering before it became mountaineering.' —Trail 'Much of this well-written and prodigiously researched book describes the mountaineering exploits of those who first set their sights on reaching the Himalayan summits... As a lively and entertaining introduction to nineteenth and early twentieth century mountaineering history this work has much to recommend it.' —Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal