With Friends in High Places: An Anatomy of Those Who Take to the Hills

by Malcolm Slesser, Hamish MacInnes (Foreword)

This personal account of mountainclimbing spans a period of 66 years, during which time attitudes and technology have undergone vast changes. The motivation for mountain climbing is not risk; it is the joy of exploration of the vertical, whether it be a virgin summit, a lonely precipice, or simply a new line on a familiar rock face. It is to heighten the senses in lonely remote places. It is to remove all obstacles between the individual and nature. In With Friends in High Places, Malcolm Slesser recalls perilous situations, such as the ill-fated Pamir expedition of 1962, and unusual environments including the Arctic and the Tropics that he has experienced throughout his decades of mountaineering and exploring around the globe.

256 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

About the author

Malcolm Slesser trained as a chemical engineer and worked in industry for seven years before taking up academic appointments in Scotland, Brazil, the Netherlands and the USA. For three years he was seconded as head of systems analysis with the European Commission in Italy.

He created the Energy Studies Unit at Strathclyde University and became its first professor. He was advisor to the International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study on energy systems analysis and its application to self-reliant development.

In his role as a mountaineer and explorer he was awarded the Mungo Park medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, the Polar medal, and the USSR sports medal. He published nine books on exploration, technology and the environment.