It was not always Everest.
Chimborazo. Nanda Devi. Kangchenjunga. K2. Each, at one time, was believed to be the highest mountain in the world.
And with record-breaking mountains came record-breaking mountaineers.
Conquistadors and captains, scientists and surveyors, alpinists and adventurers – the first men and women to go higher ‘on the backs of mountains’ than anybody had gone before.
The White Ladder is their story.
From the smoking volcanoes of South America to the great snowy ranges of the Himalaya, it follows a cast of extraordinary characters onto the slopes of the world’s highest mountains, tracing the epic rise of mountaineering’s world altitude record.
As it does so, a larger drama unfolds. Rivalries emerge, friendships form, forged in the cold furnace of the icebound heights. The urge to explore becomes a journey inward; each new adventure, a voyage of self-discovery.
And, around the centenary of the 1924 Everest expedition – a campaign that would cost George Mallory and Sandy Irvine their lives – new details emerge to cast fresh light on the age-old question…
Why?
A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering ‘before Everest’, full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton
*
Wonderful… a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.
Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence
*
Thrilling… 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.
Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance
*
Vivid, nicely paced and beautifully written . . . The White Ladder neatly bridges a lacuna in the history of mountaineering, tracking the trials and achievements of the little-known climbers who preceded and inspired the great Himalayan expeditions of the mid-twentieth century
John Keay, author of Himalaya
*
With the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller, this is a book to curl up with in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.
Maurice Isserman, co-author of Fallen Giants
UK Hardback – 5th Sept. 2024
US Hardback – 19th Nov. 2024