The Six Mountain-Travel Books

by Eric Shipton

Books included Nanda Devi, Blank on the Map, Upon that Mountain, Mountains of Tartary, Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 1951 & Land of Tempest.

Genres: Mountaineering, Travel, Climbing, Nature, History, Adventure

800 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Eric Earle Shipton, CBE (1 August 1907 – 28 March 1977), was an English Himalayan mountaineer.
Shipton was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1907 where his father, a tea planter, died before he was three years old. When he was eight, his mother brought him to London for his education. When he failed the entrance exam to Harrow School, his mother sent him to Pyt House School in Wiltshire. His first encounter with mountains was at 15 when he visited the Pyrenees with his family. The next summer he spent travelling in Norway with a school friend and within a year he had begun climbing seriously.

Shipton, Eric. Nanda Devi. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1936.
Shipton, Eric. Blank on the map. Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1938.
Shipton, Eric. Upon That Mountain. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1943.
Shipton, Eric. The Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition 1951. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1952.
Shipton, Eric. Mountains of Tartary. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1953.
Shipton, Eric. Land of Tempest. Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1963.
Shipton, Eric. That Untravelled World. Charles Scribner and Sons, 1969. ISBN 0-340-04330-X (Hodder & Stoughton (1969))
Shipton, Eric. Tierra del Fuego: the Fatal Lodestone. Charles Knight & Co., London, 1973 ISBN 0-85314-194-0
Shipton, Eric. The Six Mountain-Travel Books. Mountaineers' Books, 1997. ISBN 0-89886-539-5 (A collection of the first six books listed – That Untravelled World duplicated much of the previous content.)

Reviews

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes when I read late 19th century and early 20th century exploration narratives, I struggle with the old-fashioned language. Not so here in these series of books written over the early part of the 20th century on the exploration of the Himalaya and Patagonia using the style of alpine climbing - light and fast with small parties. I do think that the narrative on the 1951 Everest recon expedition (which assessed the viability of doing the now-standard South Col route) could have benefited from being published more in its original style (as a descriptive picture book).

Shipton's description of the morning ritual of eating and getting ready to climb in a cramped tent (your snoring tent mate, bumping into them, spilling breakfast, etc.) is spot on with my experience...as his is description of the anticipation of planning a trip (reading travel guides, pouring over maps, etc.). I love that I can relate to this famous explorer with my rather mundane experiences.

[Richard Pett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece of exploration and climbing, the language is a tiny bit dated but it stands for me as a window into a different time written by a wonderful man with a consuming passion to see what is over the other side of the hill. I read it book by book over some time to break it up, in one go I would have struggled I suspect. Surprisingly to me I found the chapters in chile and Argentina the most engaging.

[Jon Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lesson to all modern explorers and adventure mountaineers. Shipton went there and did it all years ago. This collection of his most important writing has stood the test of time. Recommended.

[Douglas Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read so historic.

[Simon Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be read alongside H.W.Tilmams memoirs, two remarkable explorers both sharing an ethos of small is better, walking into the 'blank on the map' of the Karakorum, and the preliminary pre-war Everest expeditions. There are many adventures to be had here and many moments to savour. One of my desert island reads. Tilman eventually left mountaineering, which he percieved as become too crowded and departed on a series of remarkable ocean adventures, from which he finally never returned.

[Anni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book from goodreads and although it is not my normal selection of book I found it very interesting with detailed descriptions. I didn't read word for word but skipped around in no particular order.

[Jolyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. One of the very best collections on mountain exploration ever.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of books about traveling the world's high mountains and climbing them back in the day.