The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering [Hardcover]

Winner of the 2025 National Outdoor Book Award (History/Biography) An engaging and agreeably ornate history of earlier mountaineering ... paints a vivid picture of this seemingly innate need and those who first heeded its call. Returns readers to an era when alpine progress was measured in steps closer to the sun rather than seconds on the stopwatch or likes on social media. & a thoughtful, nuanced, engaging history. A wonderful book. The author is familiar with, and has thought seriously about, the entire sweep of his subject, which is itself a very impressive bit of research. Equally important is his obvious passion for the subject. Its a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history. Daniel Light guides the reader through a mountainscape that stretches from the Alps to the Himalaya ... with the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the ?lan of a skilled storyteller. This is a book to curl up with on a cold dark night in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire. Why did mountaineers of old risk life and limb to break new ground and scale new summits? In his thrilling answer to this question, Daniel Light delivers stories that are poetic, spiritual, and astonishing in their courage and drive. True climbers remain an esoteric breed but perhaps now they are finally more understandable. A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering before Everest, full ofwonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut. Superb ... highly readable, informative, and beautifully researched with a lightness of touch entirely in keeping with its subject matter. I recommend it to anyone who dreams of taking a tilt at the world's highest peaks. A high-octane history of mountaineering ... a spirited, adventuresome chronicle.