num_pages: 288
description: What does it take to be one of the world's best high-altitude mountain climbers? A lot of fundraising; traveling in some of the world's most dangerous countries; enduring cold bivouacs searing lungs and a cloudy mind when you can least afford one. It means learning the hard lessons the mountains teach.Reinhold Messner calls Steve House the best highaltitude climber in the world today an honor he declines. Being called the 'best' says Steve makes me very uncomfortable. My intention is to be as good as I can be. Mountaineering is too complex to be squeezed into a competition. It is simply not something that lends itself to comparison. Climbing is about process not achievement. The moment your mind wanders away from the task of the climbing-at-hand will be the moment you fail.Steve House built his reputation on ascents throughout the Alps Canada Alaska the Karakoram and the Himalaya that have expanded possibilities of style speed and difficulty. In 2005 Steve and alpinist Vince Anderson pioneered a direct new route on the Rupal Face of 26600-foot Nanga Parbat which had never before been climbed in alpine style. It was the third ascent of the face and the achievement earned Steve and Vince the first Piolet dor (Golden Ice Axe) awarded to North Americans.Steve is an accomplished and spellbinding storyteller in the tradition of Maurice Herzog and Lionel Terray. Beyond the Mountain is a gripping read destined to be a mountain classic. And it addresses many issues common to nonclimbing life -- mentorship trust failure success goal setting heroes partnership -- as well as the mountaineer's heightened experience of risk and the deaths of friends. Beyond the Mountain is a window into the process of a man working to be the best he can be.
language: English
title: Beyond the Mountain
publisher: Patagonia