Paul Preuss: Lord of the AbyssAuthor :
Hardback
Published : Thursday 12 September 2019
Description
Shortlisted for the 2019 Boardman Tasker Award
Shortlisted for the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain Literature
An intriguing biography of the renowned Austrian alpinist Paul Preuss, who achieved international recognition both for his remarkable solo ascents and for his advocacy of an ethically "pure" alpinism (meaning without any artificial aids).
In the months before his death in 1913, from falling more than 300 metres during an attempt to make the first free solo ascent of the North Ridge of the Mandlkogel, Paul Preusss public presentations on his climbing adventures filled concert halls in Austria, Italy, and Germany.
George Mallory, the famed English mountaineer who died on Mount Everest in 1924, said "no one will ever equal Preuss."
Reinhold Messner, the first climber to ascend all fourteen 8000 metre peaks, was so impressed by the young Austrians achievements that he built a mountaineering museum around Preusss piton hammer, wrote two books (in German) about him and instituted a foundation in Preusss name.
Alex Honnold, the first and only person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, has thought about Preuss untimely and surprising death and imagined it to have likely been "the worst four seconds" of Preuss life.
Although he died at only 27 years old, modern climbing may never have developed the ethical, existential core that it has today if not for Preusss bold style. Even the most trenchant traditionalists remain unsure about whether to add him to their pantheon or dismiss him as at worst a lunatic or at best an indelicate subject better left ignored.
Smarts biography is the first English language volume to be published and is certain to bring the remarkable story of Paul Preuss to a whole new generation of climbers.
You may also like ...
by
Paperback
04 Apr 2023
Social counselling and advice services
€29.24
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Hardback
04 Apr 2023
Social counselling and advice services
€140.40
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Hardback
24 Sep 2020
Climbing and mountaineering
€26.90
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
by
Hardback
12 Sep 2019
Biography: general
€26.90
Extended stock – Dispatch 5-7 days
Reviews