The Boardman Tasker Omnibus: Savage Arena and Everest the Cruel Way; The Shining Mountain and Sacred Summits

Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were at the cutting edge of mountaineering during the 1970s and early 1980s. Talented writers as well as climbers, they left two legacies. One was their great endeavour, their climbs on high peaks with bold, lightweight and innovative methods; the second and more lasting achievement was the books they wrote and left behind. The Boardman Tasker Omnibus brings together four books in which the two men describe their remarkable climbs, expeditions and first ascents. The books have become mountaineering classics; incredibly popular and brilliantly written accounts that set the standard for mountaineering literature. Tasker's Everest the Cruel Way is the story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth by a new route - a climb which proved too much for a group of Britain's finest mountaineers. And in Savage Arena, Tasker vividly describes his participation in the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, his first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang with Boardman and his attempts on K2 and Kangchenjunga. The Changabang ascent was described by Sir Chris Bonington as 'a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, it'll be the hardest thing that's been done in the Himalayas.' Boardman's account of the climb - very different to Tasker's - is recounted in The Shining Mountain, whilst in Sacred Summits he combines the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains as he describes the remarkable ascents he made during one single climbing season. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in Pete and Joe's honour, and is presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit www.boardmantasker.com

About the Author :
Peter Boardman was born on Christmas Day in 1950 and became one of Britain’s most-respected high altitude mountaineers. He was a mountaineering instructor at Glenmore Lodge in the Cairngorms, and National Officer of the British Mountaineering Council before being appointed Director of the International School of Mountaineering in Leysin, Switzerland. He was part of Chris Bonington’s 1975 Everest expedition, made an almost impossibly difficult ascent of Changabang with Joe Tasker in 1976 and went on to climb Kangchenjunga and to attempt to summit K2, being beaten back by poor weather and exhaustion. Mount Kongur followed in 1981 and, in March 1982, in a small expedition with Chris Bonington, Joe Tasker and Dick Renshaw, he attempted the previously unclimbed and highly difficult North East Ridge of Everest, where he and Joe Tasker tragically lost their lives. Peter and Joe left two legacies. One was their great endeavour, their climbs on high peaks with bold, lightweight innovative methods, the second and more lasting achievement is the books they wrote and left behind. Peter's talent for writing emerged through his climbing career. The success of his first book The Shining Mountain was immediate in the climbing world and won him wider acclaim with the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize for literature in 1979. Sacred Summits, published shortly after his death, described the climbing year of 1979, the trips to New Guinea, Kangchenjunga and Gaurisankar. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in Pete and Joes’ honour, and is presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit: www.boardmantasker.com Joe Tasker (1948-82) was a phenomenal mountaineer, an innovative pioneer of lightweight climbing with a real talent for writing. He died attempting a new route on Mount Everest with his friend Peter Boardman. Their deaths marked the end of a remarkable era in British mountaineering. Tasker began climbing in his teens. Increasingly drawn to mountaineering, he made several remarkable ascents in the Alps, including the first British winter ascent of the Eiger North Face. Progressing to the Himalaya, he began to tackle routes of extreme technical difficulty in a bold, lightweight style at a time when huge expeditions and siege tactics were still the mountaineering norm. Among his many climbs were the first ascent of the awesome West Wall of Changabang with Peter Boardman, the first ascent of Mount Kongur and an epic attempt on K2 with Boardman, reaching nearly 8,000 metres before being thwarted by unsettled weather. Tasker was a fantastic writer and the author of two books. The first was Everest the Cruel Way, an exciting account of his winter attempt on Everest. The second, Savage Arena, recounted his adventures in the ‘savage arena of the high mountains’ and was finished just before he left for Everest in 1982. Both have become mountaineering classics. Tasker and Boardman left two legacies: their innovative climbs and the books they wrote. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in memory of the two men by their family and friends. It is presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information, visit: www.boardmantasker.com

Review :
The most riveting book on climbing that I have ever read. – Sir Chris Bonington. A gripping story of tremendous courage and unbelievable endurance. – Sir Edmund Hillary.