| Biography/Autobiography |
| 50 years of Alpinism (1981) |
| Riccardo Cassin |
| Legendary Italian climber recounts mountaineering career of exceptional longevity in matter-of-fact retrospection. |
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| Alan Rouse: a mountaineer's life (1987) |
| Ed. Geoff Birtles |
| Slightly-cobbled-together-in-a-rush but entertaining collection of fond reminiscences of one of the leading lights (and 'lads') of 80s British climbing. |
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| Climbing Days (1935) |
| Dorothy Pilley |
| Climbing is simply ripping. A climbing memoir for the Angela Brazil generation. |
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| Creag Dhu Climber (1999) |
| Jeff Conor |
| Fascinating and thoroughly researched biog of the legendary Glasgow Hard Man John Cunningham which also throws light on the facts behind the myths of the infamous Craig Dhu. |
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| Deep Play (1997) |
| Paul Pritchard |
| An unconventional autobiography by a legendarily bold and universally respected climber. |
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| Don Whillans, portrait of a mountaineer (1971) |
| Don Whillans & Alick Ormerod |
| Anodyne ghost-written 'autobiography' of the British climbing legend. |
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| Doug Scott, Mountaineer (1992) |
| Doug Scott |
| Fabulously illustrated personal photographic scrapbook of the great man's climbing life, accompanied by philosophical musings and autobiographical snippets. |
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| Feeding the Rat (1987) |
| Al Alvarez |
| Literary scribbler & demon poker-player Alvarez hangs out with happy-go-lucky, couldn't-give-a-toss helmet manufacturer Mo Anthoine - for 30 years. There are lots of adventures. Lots of beer is drunk. Lots of helmets are manufactured. |
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| Geoffrey Winthrop-Young (1995) |
| Alan Hankinson |
| Masterful biography of the dashing one-legged pre-Great War alpinist and founder of the BMC. He still managed to get his leg over though despite everything. |
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| Gwen Moffat (1961) |
| Gwen Moffat |
| Pioneering post-war female climbing bum writes matter-of-factly about extraordinarily late 40s/50s Bohemian lifestyle (army desertion, single motherhood, promiscuous climbing etc). |
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| In High Places (1972) |
| Dougal Haston. |
| Almost revealing autobiography of charismatic laconic Scots climbing enigma. |
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| Journey after Dawn (1986) |
| Bill Peascod |
| Heartwarming autobiography of one of Britain's best loved inter-war rock climbers. |
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| Menlove (1985) |
| Jim Perrin |
| The tortured soul of Menlove Edwards, would-be psychotherapist, poet and rock climbing genius, is laid bare by Perrin's sensitive and sympathetic analysis of a man born before his time. |
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| My Life as a Mountaineer (1972) |
| Anderl Heckmair |
| Macho Munich mountain man Heckmair recounts his rocks to riches life story, from orphanage to the Eigerwand, to being feted by Adolf Hitler to toughing it out on the Walker Spur. And much much more! They simply don't make 'em like 'big nose' Heckmair any more. |
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| Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage (1956) |
| Hermann Buhl |
| The exhaustive and eloquent autobiography of Austria's greatest mountaineering legend. |
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| On the Heights (1961) |
| Walter Bonatti |
| Leading alpinist of his generation tells all about his epic early alpine career. He doesn't pull any punches. |
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| Regions of the Heart (1999) |
| David Rose & Ed Douglas |
| Compellingly voyeuristic portrayal of the vulnerable figure behind doomed Himalayan heroin, Alison Hargreaves |
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| Sacred Summits (1982) |
| Pete Boardman |
| Pete Boardman's sequel to Shining Mountain takes up the story after his triumph on Changabang. Life is never the same again as Boardman gets hooked on a never-ending series of expeditions to Big Mountains. |
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| Savage Arena (1982) |
| Joe Tasker |
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| Siegfried Herford: An Edwardian Rock-Climber (2000) |
| Keith Treacher |
| Scholarly and engrossing biography of the first rock athlete in the modern idiom. Treacher manages to pull off that rarest of tricks: the accessible cerebral biography. |
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| The Burgess Book of Lies (1995) |
| Al and Aid Burgess |
| Strapping Yorkshire Lookalike Lads recount tall tales and barrel-chested adventures from their rufty-tufty careers. |
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| The Coniston Tigers (1999) |
| A. Harry Griffin |
| Ancient Barrovian climber shows he's still young-at-heart with a climbing reminiscence stretching back 70 years. |
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| The Great Days (1971) |
| Walter Bonatti |
| Modestly titled second volume of autobiographical reminiscence from opining Italian alpine action man. He's getting more hacked off with the media and commercialism by this stage. |
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| The Mystery of Mallory & Irvine(1986) |
| Tom Holzel and Audrey Salkeld |
| The definitive account of the life and climbs of Mallory. Oh, and Sandy Irvine too. |
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| The Totem Pole (1999) |
| Paul Pritchard |
| Triumphant from winning #2000 on the Boardman-Tasker lottery Pritchard and partner head off whooping, on a round-the-world climbing orgy. At almost the first port of call a single brick dislodges from the top of a Tasmanian sea-stack and takes out half of Prtichard's brain. Life changes instantaneously. There follows a struggle to come to terms with changed circumstances both physically and mentally. |
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| This Game of Ghosts (1993) |
| Joe Simpson |
| Joe Simpson relives his memorable life of epics, accidents and back-of-a-beermat existentialism for the benefit of the gratefully armchair-bound. |
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| Total Alpinism (1971/1973) |
| Rene Desmaison |
| Direct and uncompromising autobiography from the great and controversial French alpinist. Frequently over-the-top description of epic battles on routes interspersed with bitter little outbursts against the media and other. No wonder they named him after a headache remedy. |
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| Vertical Pleasures (1995) |
| Mick Fowler |
| Untaxing reading as everyone's favourite Inland Revenue officer amiably takes a stroll though his amazing non-deductible climbing career. |
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| View from the Summit (1999) |
| Sir Edmund Hillary |
| First man to bag Everest writes a sports autobiography. Man of Action Hillary describes his energetic life with brisk, no-nonsense style. Lots of forthright opinions, mostly advertising how right Hillary is most of the time, and how wrong everyone else was. |
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| Welzenbach's Climbs (1980) |
| Eric Roberts |
| Scholarly biog of the German alpine trail-blazer who was a one-man ice-climbing revolution |
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| Younghusband (1994) |
| Patrick French |
| Rip-roaring biography of the 'forgotten hero' of the British Empire, most associated with practising Himalayan Great Gamesmanship and instigating the early Everest attempts. |
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