The Best Mountaineering And Climbing Books
“What are the best Mountaineering and Mountain Climbing Books?” We looked at 250 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 33 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Mountaineering” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 200+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Top 33 Mountain Climbing Books
33 .) A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush by Eric Newby
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Impossible World
Eric Newby describes his travels in the mountains of Afghanistan. He has also written “The Last Grain Race”, “Slowly Down the Ganges”, “Love and War in the Apennines” and “On the Shores of the Mediterranean”.
32 .) Blank on the Map by Eric Shipton
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Mark Horrell
- Winter Climb
In 1937 two of the twentieth century’s greatest explorers set off to explore an unknown area of the Himalaya, the breath-taking Shaksgam mountains. With a team of surveyors and Sherpas, Eric Shipton and H.W. Tilman located and mapped the land around K2, the second-highest mountain in the world. It was their greatest venture, and one that paved the way for all future mountaineering in that area of the Himalaya. For Shipton and Tilman, exploration was everything, with a summit a welcome bonus, and Blank on the Map is the book that best captures their spirit of adventure. With an observant eye and keen sense of humour, Shipton tells how the expedition entered the unknown Shaksgam mountains, crossing impenetrable gorges, huge rivers and endless snow fields.
31 .) Climbing in North America by Chris Jones
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Impossible World
Climbing in North America is the definitive, complete history of mountaineering in the United States and Canada, from the earliest days of the sport through the 1970s. In this climbing tribute, Chris Jones celebrates the climbers and their routes, peaks, and adventures, bringing them to life through anecdotes and historic black and white photos.
30 .) Everest The Cruel Way by Joe Tasker
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Winter Climb
“On 30 January 1981 Joe Tasker and Ade Burgess stood at 24,000 feet on the west ridge of Mount Everest. Below them were their companions, some exhausted, some crippled by illness, all virtually incapacitated. Further progress seemed impossible.
Everest the Cruel Way is Joe Tasker’s story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth – an attempt which pushed a group of Britain’s finest mountaineers to their limits. The goal had been to climb Mount Everest at its hardest: via the infamous west ridge, without supplementary oxygen and in winter. Tasker’s epic account vividly describes experiences that no climber had previously endured. Close up and personal, it is a gripping account of day-to-day life on expedition and of the struggle to live at high altitude.”
29 .) Ghosts of Everest: The Search for Mallory and Irvine by Jochen Hemmleb
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
“On May 1, 1999, the Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition found George Mallory’s body – astonishingly well preserved – high on the wind-swept North Face of Everest. But that is not all they found. In Mallory’s pockets, and elsewhere on the mountain, the researchers found answers to the question that has plagued historians and mountaineers alike: Did they make it? And if they did, what happened to them?
Ghosts of Everest is the exclusive inside story of what they found and, for the first time, what this new evidence tells us about Mallory and Irvine’s momentous last day”
28 .) Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Goodreads
- Winter Climb
In this magisterial work of history and adventure, based on more than a decade of prodigious research in British, Canadian, and European archives, and months in the field in Nepal and Tibet, Wade Davis vividly re-creates British climbers’ epic attempts to scale Mount Everest in the early 1920s. With new access to letters and diaries, Davis recounts the heroic efforts of George Mallory and his fellow climbers to conquer the mountain in the face of treacherous terrain and furious weather. Into the Silence sets their remarkable achievements in sweeping historical context: Davis shows how the exploration originated in nineteenth-century imperial ambitions, and he takes us far beyond the Himalayas to the trenches of World War I, where Mallory and his generation found themselves and their world utterly shattered. In the wake of the war that destroyed all notions of honor and decency, the Everest expeditions, led by these scions of Britain’s elite, emerged as a symbol of national redemption and hope.
27 .) Kiss or Kill: Confessions of a Serial Climber by Mark Twight
Lists It Appears On:
- Climbing
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
Kiss or Kill: Confessions of a Serial Climber is raw, unfiltered Twight. These author’s cut are the real deal, not the homogenized fluff offered up by magazine editors who are often unwilling to offend. Twight’s words make it clear that climbing is only distantly about the summit. Several of these pieces are new to U.S. readers. Twight edited all of the selections and appended each with a current author’s note; confessing his inspiration, events that followed, and lessons learned (or not learned, some might say). It adds up to a frightfully lucid look into Twight’s personal life as both man and hardcore alpine climber. The dissection scares me sometimes…
26 .) Left for Dead: My Journey Home from Everest by Beck Weathers
Lists It Appears On:
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
25 .) Minus 148 Degrees by Art Davidson
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Goodreads
- Summit Post
Minus 148° is Art Davidson’s stunning personal narrative, supplemented by diary excerpts from team members George Wichman, John Edwards, Dave Johnston, and Greg Blomberg. Davidson retells the team’s fears and frictions—and ultimate triumph—with an honesty that has made this gripping survival story a mountaineering classic for over 40 years.
24 .) Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills by The Mountaineers Club
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Goodreads
The best-selling instructional text for new and intermediate climbers for more than half a century. New edition – fully updated techniques and all-new illustrations. Researched and written by a team of expert climbers.
23 .) No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 by Graham Bowley
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
In the tradition of Into Thin Air and Touching the Void, No Way Down by New York Times reporter Graham Bowley is the harrowing account of the worst mountain climbing disaster on K2, second to Everest in height… but second to no peak in terms of danger. From tragic deaths to unbelievable stories of heroism and survival, No Way Down is an amazing feat of storytelling and adventure writing, and, in the words of explorer and author Sir Ranulph Fiennes, “the closest you can come to being on the summit of K2 on that fateful day.”
22 .) Savage Arena by Joe Tasker
Lists It Appears On:
- Climbing
- Impossible World
- The Guardian
“Joe Tasker was one of Britain’s foremost mountaineers. A pioneer of lightweight mountaineering and a superbly gifted writer, in Savage Arena he vividly describes his participation in the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger; his first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang with Peter Boardman – considered to be a preposterous plan by the established climbing world; the first ascent of the North Ridge of Kangchenjunga; and his two unsuccessful attempts to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world.
This is a story of single-minded determination, strength and courage in a pursuit which owes much of its value and compulsion to the risks entailed – risks which often stimulate superlative performances. It is also a story of the stresses, strains and tensions of living in constant anxiety, often with only one other person, for long periods in which one is never far from moments of terror, and of the close and vital human relationships which spring from those circumstances. It is a moving, exciting and inspirational book about the adventuring spirit which seeks endless new climbing challenges to face, alluring problems to solve and difficulties to overcome, for it is not reaching the summit which is important, but the journey to it.”
21 .) The Fall by Simon Mawer
Lists It Appears On:
- Climbing
- Impossible World
- The Armchair Mountaineer
Hearing that a childhood friend has died in a tragic climbing accident, Rob Ross rushes to comfort the man’s widow and finds himself reliving moments from his past, which was marked by a love triangle and a journey to the Alps.
20 .) Annapurna South Face by Chris Bonington
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
In 1970, Chris Bonington and his now-legendary team of mountaineers were the first climbers to tackle a big wall at extreme altitude. Their target was the south face of Nepal’s Annapurna: 12,000 feet of steep rock and ice leading to a 26, 454-ft. summit. As serious armchair climbers will tell you, Annapurna South Face is better than all but a handful of equally gripping classics. One could also argue that all that has happened in the big mountains in the past 30 years has come out of this expedition and out of this book. Bonington and his team—most of whom subsequently died in the mountains—represented a kind of “greatest generation” of modern mountaineers. They pioneered a new, bolder approach to high altitude climbing, and this book is about how they hit the big time.
19 .) Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains by Jon Krakauer
Lists It Appears On:
- Climbing
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
A compelling study of mountain climbing captures the determination, thirst for adventure and challenge, and obsession of the individuals who climb such mountains as Denali, K2, Everest, the Eiger, and other notable peaks throughout the world
18 .) K2: The Savage Mountain by Charles Houston and Robert Bates
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
When eleven climbers died on K2 on August 1, 2008, it was a stark reminder that the world’s second-highest mountain has, for more than a century, been regarded as the most difficult and dangerous of all—for every four people who reach the top, one dies in the attempt. K2, The Savage Mountain tells the dramatic story of the 1953 American expedition, led by Charles S. Houston, when a combination of terrible storms and illness stopped the team short of the 28,251-foot summit. Then on the descent, tragedy struck, and how the climbers made it back to safety is renowned in the annals of climbing.
17 .) The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Goodreads
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
In May 1996 three expeditions attempted to climb Mount Everest on the Southeast Ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Crowded conditions slowed their progress. Late in the day, twenty-three men and women – including expedition leaders Scott Fischer and Rob Hall – wee caught in a ferocious blizzard. Disoriented and out of oxygen, climbers struggled to find their way down the mountain as darkness approached. Alone and climbing blind, Anatoli Boukreey brought climbers back from the edge of certain death. This new edition includes a transcript of the Mountain Madness expedition debriefing recorded five days after the tragedy, as well as G Weston DeWalt’s response to Into Thin Air author Jon Krakauer.
16 .) The Crystal Horizon by Reinhold Messner
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
On August 20, 1980, Reinhold Messner, the world-renowned master of alpine-style climbing, became the first person to reach the summit of Everest solo and without supplemental oxygen. A vivid account of Messner’s expedition, The Crystal Horizon also reflects on how he explored his innermost thoughts while facing the most extreme physical challenge he had ever encountered. The furthest point for mind and body he calls his crystal horizon.
15 .) Annapurna: A Woman’s Place by Arlene Blum
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
“In August 1978, thirteen women left San Francisco for the Nepal Himalaya to make history as the first Americans—and the first women—to scale the treacherous slopes of Annapurna I, the worldâs tenth highest peak. Expedition leader Arlene Blum here tells their dramatic story: the logistical problems, storms, and hazardous ice climbing; the conflicts and reconciliations within the team; the terror of avalanches that threatened to sweep away camps and climbers.
On October 15, two women and two Sherpas at last stood on the summit—but the celebration was cut short, for two days later, the two women of the second summit team fell to their deaths. “
14 .) Beyond The Mountain by Steve House
Lists It Appears On:
- Climbing
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
“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.
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 26,600-foot Nanga Parbat, which had never before been climbed in alpine style. It was the third ascent of the face and the achievement earned Steveand Vince the first Piolet d””or (Golden Ice Axe) awarded to North Americans.”
13 .) Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage by Herman Buhl
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Summit Post
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
Autobiography of Hermann Buhl, whose solo, unaided climb of Nanga Parbat is thought to be a greater achievement than Hillary and Tenzing’s climb on Everest.
12 .) No Shortcuts to the Top: Climbing the World’s 14 Highest Peaks by Ed Viesturs
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Kandoo Adventures
- Summit Post
“For eighteen years Ed Viesturs pursued climbing’s holy grail: to stand atop the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, without the aid of bottled oxygen. But No Shortcuts to the Top is as much about the man who would become the first American to achieve that goal as it is about his stunning quest. As Viesturs recounts the stories of his most harrowing climbs, he reveals a man torn between the flat, safe world he and his loved ones share and the majestic and deadly places where only he can go.
A preternaturally cautious climber who once turned back 300 feet from the top of Everest but who would not shrink from a peak (Annapurna) known to claim the life of one climber for every two who reached its summit, Viesturs lives by an unyielding motto, “Reaching the summit is optional. Getting down is mandatory.” It is with this philosophy that he vividly describes fatal errors in judgment made by his fellow climbers as well as a few of his own close calls and gallant rescues. And, for the first time, he details his own pivotal and heroic role in the 1996 Everest disaster made famous in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. “
11 .) The Mountain of My Fear by David Roberts
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
In The Mountain of My Fear Roberts and Jensen come together again only a year after the Deborah climb. In this account, they and two other Harvard students attempt an ascent of Mount Huntington, for the first time via its treacherous west face. The summit had been reached only the year before, via one of its less dangerous ridges. The story is one of a magnificent achievement. But it is also the story of how a perfect adventure can turn into tragedy in a single instant.
10 .) The Mountains of My Life by Walter Bonatti
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Summit Post
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
Bonatti is one of the greatest mountaineers of all time, a man who continually reset the benchmark of human possibility by ascending routes that others dared not even contemplate. He climbed with an audacity and panache that epitomized the purest spirit of alpinism, and inspired an entire generation of climbers. Jon Krakauer calls him one of my heroes. He is not only a mountaineer of astonishing talent and vision, but one of the world’s most engaging writers about mountaineering.
9 .) No Picnic on Mount Kenya: A Daring Escape, A Perilous Climb by Felice Benuzzi
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Impossible World
- The Clymb
“In the shadow of Mount Kenya, surrounded by the forests and creatures of the savannah, life drags interminably for the inmates of POW Camp 354, captured in Africa during World War II. Confined to an endless cycle of boredom and frustration, one prisoner realizes he can bear it no longer.
When the clouds covering Mount Kenya part one morning to reveal its towering peaks for the first time, Felice Benuzzi is transfixed. The tedium of camp life is broken by the beginnings of a sudden idea–an outrageous, dangerous, brilliant idea.”
8 .) Starlight and Storm: The Ascent of the Six Great North Faces of the Alps by Gaston Rébuffat
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
Known for his lyrical writing and his ability to convey not only the dangers of mountaineering but the pure exaltation of the climb, Gaston Rebuffat is among the most well-known and revered Alpinists of all time. He rose to international prominence in 1950 as one of the four principal stalwarts in the first ascent of Annapurna, the highest mountain climbed at that time. Yet his finest feat as a mountaineer was to be the first man to climb all six of the legendary great north faces of the Alps–the Grandes Jorasses, the Piz Badile, the Dru, the Matterhorn, the Cima Grande di Lava-redo, and the Eiger.
7 .) The Shining Mountain by Peter Boardman
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Impossible World
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
“So spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unclimbed West Wall of Changabang – the Shining Mountain – in 1976. Bonington’s was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya and an ascent – particularly one in a lightweight style – would be more significant than anything done on Everest at the time. The idea had been Joe Tasker’s. He had photographed the sheer, shining, white granite sweep of Changabang’s West Wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year.
Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman’s story, which starts with acclimatisation, sleeping in a Salford frozen-food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in forty days of isolation on a two-man expedition; as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds.”
6 .) Conquistadors of the Useless by Lionel Terray
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- The Clymb
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
Frenchman Lionel Terray is one of mountaineering history’s greatest alpinists, and his autobiography, Conquistadors of the Useless, stands among the “100 Greatest Adventure Books of All Time”, according to National Geographic Adventure magazine. Following World War II, when France desperately needed successes to heal its wounds, Terray emerged as a national hero, conquering summits atop the planet’s highest mountains.
5 .) Everest: The West Ridge by Tom Hornbein
Lists It Appears On:
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Summit Post
- The Clymb
- Winter Climb
In 1963, Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit Everest via the South Col route. Roughly two weeks after Whittaker’s achievement, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, fellow American mountaineers on the same expedition, became the first climbers ever to summit the world’s highest peak via the dangerous and forbidding West Ridge—a route on which only a handful of climbers have since succeeded.
4 .) Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Desk to Dirtbag
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Kandoo Adventures
- Mark Horrell
- Summit Post
- Winter Climb
In 1950, when no mountain taller than 8,000 meters had ever been climbed, Maurice Herzog led an expedition of French climbers to the summit of an 8,075-meter (26,493-foot) Himalayan peak called Annapurna. But unlike other climbs, the routes up Annapurna had never been charted. Herzog and his team had to locate the mountain using crude maps, pick out a single untried route, and go for the summit. Annapurna is the unforgettable account of this heroic climb and of its harrowing aftermath, including a nightmare descent of frostbite, snow blindness, and near death. Herzog’s masterful narrative is one of the great mountain-adventure stories of all time.
3 .) Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Kandoo Adventures
- Summit Post
- The Clymb
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
“A bank of clouds was assembling on the not-so-distant horizon, but journalist-mountaineer Jon Krakauer, standing on the summit of Mt. Everest, saw nothing that “”suggested that a murderous storm was bearing down.”” He was wrong. The storm, which claimed five lives and left countless more–including Krakauer’s–in guilt-ridden disarray, would also provide the impetus for Into Thin Air, Krakauer’s epic account of the May 1996 disaster.
By writing Into Thin Air, Krakauer may have hoped to exorcise some of his own demons and lay to rest some of the painful questions that still surround the event. He takes great pains to provide a balanced picture of the people and events he witnessed and gives due credit to the tireless and dedicated Sherpas. He also avoids blasting easy targets such as Sandy Pittman, the wealthy socialite who brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. Krakauer’s highly personal inquiry into the catastrophe provides a great deal of insight into what went wrong. But for Krakauer himself, further interviews and investigations only lead him to the conclusion that his perceived failures were directly responsible for a fellow climber’s death. Clearly, Krakauer remains haunted by the disaster, and although he relates a number of incidents in which he acted selflessly and even heroically, he seems unable to view those instances objectively. In the end, despite his evenhanded and even generous assessment of others’ actions, he reserves a full measure of vitriol for himself. “
2 .) The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Kandoo Adventures
- Summit Post
- The Clymb
- Winter Climb
The White Spider dramatically recreates not only the harrowing, successful ascent made by Harrer and his comrades in 1938, but also the previous, tragic attempts at a wall of rock that was recently enshrined in mountaineer Jon Krakauer’s first work, Eiger Dreams. For a generation of American climbers, The White Spider has been a formative book–yet it has long been out-of-print in America.
1 .) Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man’s Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson
Lists It Appears On:
- Atlas & Boots
- Chessler Books
- Climbing
- Goodreads
- Impossible World
- Kandoo Adventures
- Summit Post
- The Clymb
- The Guardian
- Winter Climb
“Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death.
The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave.”
The 200+ Additional Best Mountaineering Books
| # | Book | Author | Lists |
| (Titles Appear On 2 List Each) | |||
| 34 | A Slender Thread: Escaping Disaster in the Himalaya | Stephen Venables | Summit Post |
The Guardian | |||
| 35 | Above the Clouds: The Diaries of a High-Altitude Mountaineer | Anatoli Boukreev | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 36 | All Fourteen Eight-Thousanders | Reinhold Messner | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 37 | Buried in the Sky: The Extraordinary Story of the Sherpa Climbers on K2’s Deadliest Day | Peter Zuckerman | Goodreads |
Atlas & Boots | |||
| 38 | Climbing Free: My Life in the Vertical World | Lynn Hill | Impossible World |
Summit Post | |||
| 39 | Climbing High: A Woman’s Account of Surviving the Everest Tragedy | Lene Gammelgaard | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 40 | Dark Summit: The True Story of Everest’s Most Controversial Season | Nick Heil | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 41 | Dead Lucky: Life After Death on Mount Everest | Lincoln Hall | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 42 | Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident | Donnie Eichar | Atlas & Boots |
| Goodreads | |||
| 43 | Denali’s Howl: The Deadliest Climbing Disaster on America’s Wildest Peak | Andy Hall | Goodreads |
Atlas & Boots | |||
| 44 | Epic: Stories of Survival from the World’s Highest Peaks | Clint Willis | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 45 | Everest Expedition To The Ultimate | Reinhold Messner | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 46 | Everest Summit of Achievement | Stephen Venables | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 47 | Five Miles High | Robert H. Bates and Charles S. Houston | Chessler Books |
Summit Post | |||
| 48 | Forever on the Mountain: The Truth Behind One of Mountaineering’s Most Controversial and Mysterious Disasters | James M. Tabor | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 49 | Freedom Climbers | Bernadette McDonald | Climbing |
Winter Climb | |||
| 50 | High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest | Edmund Hillary | Goodreads |
Winter Climb | |||
| 51 | High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed | Michael Kodas | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 52 | High Exposure: An Enduring Passion for Everest and Unforgiving Places | David Breashears | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 53 | Into the Wild | Jon Krakauer | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 54 | Jeffrey Moffatt: Revelations | Jeffrey Moffatt | Climbing |
Impossible World | |||
| 55 | My Climbs in the Alps and Caucasus | Albert Mummery | Chessler Books |
| The Clymb | |||
| 56 | Nanda Devi | Eric Shipton | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 57 | On The Heights | Bonatti Walter | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 58 | On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined | David Roberts | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 59 | One Man’s Mountains | Tom Patey | Climbing |
Impossible World | |||
| 60 | Postcards from the Ledge: Collected Mountaineering Writings | Greg Child | Atlas & Boots |
Summit Post | |||
| 61 | Psychovertical | Andy Kirkpatrick | Climbing |
Impossible World | |||
| 62 | Sacred Summits | Peter Boardman | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 63 | Scrambles Amongst the Alps | Edward Whymper | Chessler Books |
Summit Post | |||
| 64 | Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69 | Edward Whymper | Desk to Dirtbag |
Winter Climb | |||
| 65 | Seven Summits | Dick Bass | Chessler Books |
| Goodreads | |||
| 66 | Seven Years in Tibet | Heinrich Harrer | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 67 | Snow on the Equator | HW Tilman | Chessler Books |
Mark Horrell | |||
| 68 | Solo Nanga Parbat | Reinhold Messner | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 69 | Summit Fever | Andrew Greig | Chessler Books |
Summit Post | |||
| 70 | Summits and Secrets | Kurt Diemberger | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 71 | The Ascent of Denali | Hudson Stuck | Chessler Books |
Summit Post | |||
| 72 | The Ascent of Rum Doodle | WE Bowman | Chessler Books |
The Armchair Mountaineer | |||
| 73 | The Beckoning Silence | Joe Simpson | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 74 | The Boys of Everest: Chris Bonington and the Tragedy of Climbing’s Greatest Generation | Clint Willis | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 75 | The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2 | Rick Ridgeway | Chessler Books |
Summit Post | |||
| 76 | The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier | Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaugha | Atlas & Boots |
| Goodreads | |||
| 77 | The Lost Explorer: Finding Mallory on Mt. Everest | Conrad Anker and David Roberts | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 78 | The Naked Mountain | Reinhold Messner | Goodreads |
Winter Climb | |||
| 79 | The Other Side of Everest | Matt Dickinson | Goodreads |
Summit Post | |||
| 80 | Travels Amongst the Great Andes of the Equator | Edward Whymper | Chessler Books |
Mark Horrell | |||
| 81 | View From The Summit | Edmund Hillary | Chessler Books |
Winter Climb | |||
| 82 | A Life on the Edge: Memoirs of Everest and Beyond | Jim Whittaker | Summit Post |
| 83 | A Walk in the Sky | Clinch | Chessler Books |
| 84 | Aconcagua South Face | Ferlet | Chessler Books |
| 85 | Addicted to Danger | Jim Wickwire and Dorothy Bullitt | Summit Post |
| 86 | Alaska Ascents: World-Class Mountaineers Tell Their Stories | Bill Sherwonit | Summit Post |
| 87 | Alone on the Wall | Alex Honnold | Impossible World |
| 88 | Alpine Pilgrimage | Kugy | Chessler Books |
| 89 | Ascent: The Spiritual and Physical Quest of Legendary Mountaineer Willi Unsoeld | Laurence Leamer | Summit Post |
| 90 | Below Another Sky: A Mountain Adventure in Search of a Lost Father | Rick Ridgeway | Summit Post |
| 91 | Beyond the Limits: A Woman’s Triumph on Everest | Stacy Allison with Peter Carlin | Summit Post |
| 92 | Big Wall Climbing | Scott | Chessler Books |
| 93 | Boundless Horizons: The Autobiography of Chris Bonington | Chris Bonington | Summit Post |
| 94 | Breaking Point: Challenge on Alaska’s Mt. Hunter | Glenn Randall | Summit Post |
| 95 | Brotherhood of the Rope: The Biography of Charles Houston | Bernadette McDonald | Summit Post |
| 96 | Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber | Steve Roper | Impossible World |
| 97 | Camp Six | Smythe | Chessler Books |
| 98 | Canadian Rockies, New and Old Trails | Coleman | Chessler Books |
| 99 | Challenge of the North Cascades | Beckey | Chessler Books |
| 100 | Climb to the Lost World | MacInnes | Chessler Books |
| 101 | Climb: Stories of Survival from Rock, Snow and Ice | Summit Post | |
| 102 | Climb! The History of Rock Climbing in Colorado | Jeff Achey | Impossible World |
| 103 | Climbers | M. John Harrison | The Armchair Mountaineer |
| 104 | Climbing Days | Pilley | Chessler Books |
| 105 | Climbing Ice | Chouinard | Chessler Books |
| 106 | Climbing on the Himalaya | Collie | Chessler Books |
| 107 | Climbing the Fishes Tail | Noyce | Chessler Books |
| 108 | Climbs and Ski Runs | Smythe | Chessler Books |
| 109 | Cordillera Blanca | Kinzl & Schneider | Chessler Books |
| 110 | Cordillera Huayhuash | Kinzl & Schneider | Chessler Books |
| 111 | Crystal Horizon: Everest: The First Solo Ascent | Reinhold Messner | Goodreads |
| 112 | Danger Stalks the Land: Alaskan Tales of Death and Survival | Larry Kaniut | Summit Post |
| 113 | Dark Shadows Falling | Joe Simpson | Goodreads |
| 114 | Deborah | Roberts | Chessler Books |
| 115 | Der Alpinismus in Bildern | Steinitzer | Chessler Books |
| 116 | Detectives on Everest: The 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition Jochen Hemmleb | Eric Simonsson and Dave Hahn | Summit Post |
| 117 | Downward Bound | Harding | Chessler Books |
| 118 | Eiger Direct or Direttissima | Gillman | Chessler Books |
| 119 | Eiger: Wall of Death | Arthur Roth | Summit Post |
| 120 | Everest – The West Ridge | Thomas Hornbein | Kandoo Adventures |
| 121 | Everest 80 Years of Triumph and Tragedy | Gillman | Chessler Books |
| 122 | Everest The Kangshung Face | Venables | Chessler Books |
| 123 | Everest: Alone at the Summit | Stephen Venables | Summit Post |
| 124 | Extreme Alpine Rock | Pause | Chessler Books |
| 125 | Facing the Extreme | Ruth Kocour and Michael Hodgson | Summit Post |
| 126 | Fatal Mountaineer | Robert Roper | Summit Post |
| 127 | Feeding the Rat: A Climber’s Life on the Edge | Al Alvarez | Impossible World |
| 128 | Felice Benuzzi, No Picnic on Mt Kenya | The Guardian | |
| 129 | Fifty Classic Climbs of North America | Roper & Steck | Chessler Books |
| 130 | FIVA: An Adventure That Went Wrong | Gordon Stainforth | Impossible World |
| 131 | Four Against Everest | Sayre | Chessler Books |
| 132 | Free Spirit: A Climber’s Life | Reinhold Messner | Summit Post |
| 133 | Good Morning Midnight: Life and Death in the Wild | Chip Brown | Summit Post |
| 134 | Hermann Buhl:Climbing Without Compromise | Reinhold Messner | Summit Post |
| 135 | High and Wild: Essays and Photographs on Wilderness Adventures | Galen Rowell | Summit Post |
| 136 | High: Stories of Survival from Everest and K2 | Clint Willis | Summit Post |
| 137 | Holding Fast:The Untold Story of the Mt. Hood Tragedy | Karen James | Summit Post |
| 138 | I Come From The Stone Age | Harrer | Chessler Books |
| 139 | In Monte Viso’s Horizon | McLewin | Chessler Books |
| 140 | In the Shadow of Denali | Jonathan Waterman | Summit Post |
| 141 | In The Throne Room of the Mountain Gods | Rowell | Chessler Books |
| 142 | In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods | Galen Rowell | Summit Post |
| 143 | In the Zone:Epic Survival Stories from the Mounaineering World | Peter Potterfield | Summit Post |
| 144 | K2 – No Way Down | Graham Bowley | Kandoo Adventures |
| 145 | K2, Triumph and Tragedy | Summit Post | |
| 146 | K2: Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain | Ed Viesturs | Goodreads |
| 147 | K2: Triumph and Tragedy | Jim Curran | Winter Climb |
| 148 | K2:Life and Death on the World’s Most Dangerous Mountain | Ed Viesturs with David Roberts | Summit Post |
| 149 | K2:The 1939 Tragedy | Andrew J. Kaufman and William Lowell Putnam | Summit Post |
| 150 | K2:The Story of the Savage Mountain | Jim Curran | Summit Post |
| 151 | Karakoram | Maraini | Chessler Books |
| 152 | Karakoram and Kashmir | Eckenstein | Chessler Books |
| 153 | Karakoram and Western Himalaya | Filippi | Chessler Books |
| 154 | Land of Mountains: New Zealand | Radcliffe | Chessler Books |
| 155 | Last Season | Eric Blehm | Summit Post |
| 156 | Learning to Fly: A Memoir of Hanging on & Letting Go | Steph Davis | Impossible World |
| 157 | Lou Whitaker: Memoirs of a Mountain Guide | Lou Whitaker | Summit Post |
| 158 | Men Against The Clouds | Burdsall | Chessler Books |
| 159 | Missing in the Minarets: The Search for Walter A. Starr | Summit Post | |
| 160 | Mixed Emotions: Mountaineering Writings of Greg Child | Greg Child | Summit Post |
| 161 | Moments of Doubt: And Other Mountaineering Writings | David Roberts | Summit Post |
| 162 | Mont Blanc: The 100 Finest Routes | Rebuffat | Chessler Books |
| 163 | Mountain Madness | Robert Birkby | Goodreads |
| 164 | Mountain of My Fear | David Roberts | Climbing |
| 165 | Mountaincraft | Young | Chessler Books |
| 166 | Mountaineering in Scotland | Murray | Chessler Books |
| 167 | Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada | King | Chessler Books |
| 168 | Mountaineering Maps of the World | Yoshizawa | Chessler Books |
| 169 | Mountains of the Mind: A History of a Fascination | Robert Macfarlane | Goodreads |
| 170 | My First Summer in the Sierra | Muir | Chessler Books |
| 171 | My Vertical World: Climbing the 8000-Metre Peaks | Jerzy Kukuczka | Winter Climb |
| 172 | Nandi Devi: The Tragic Expedition | John Roskelley | Summit Post |
| 173 | Nine Out of Ten Climbers Make the Same Mistakes | Dave Macleod | Impossible World |
| 174 | Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire | Nicholas Howe | Summit Post |
| 175 | Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite | Michael P. Ghiglier and Charles R. Farabee | Summit Post |
| 176 | On Mount Hood: A Biography of Oregon’s Perilous Peak | Jon Bell | Atlas & Boots |
| 177 | On the Nose: A Lifelong Obsession with Yosemite’s Most Iconic Climb | Hans Florine | Atlas & Boots |
| 178 | One Man’s Mountains | Patey | Chessler Books |
| 179 | One Man’s Everest: The Autobiography of Kenton Cool | Kenton Cool | Impossible World |
| 180 | One Mountain Thousand Summits: The Untold Story Tragedy and True Heroism on K2 | Freddie Wilkinson | Goodreads |
| 181 | Pioneer Work in the Alps of New Zealand | Harper | Chessler Books |
| 182 | Rock Jocks, Wall Rats & Hang Dogs: Rock Climbing on the Edge of Reality | John Long | Impossible World |
| 183 | Round Kangchenjunga | Douglas Freshfield | Mark Horrell |
| 184 | Ruwenzori | Filippi | Chessler Books |
| 185 | Savage Summit: The True Stories of the First Five Women Who Climbed K2, the World’s Most Feared Mountain | Jennifer Jordan | Goodreads |
| 186 | Shattered Air: A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome | Bob Madgic | Summit Post |
| 187 | Solo Faces | Salter | Chessler Books |
| 188 | South Col | Noyce | Chessler Books |
| 189 | Surviving Denali: A Study of Accidents on Mount McKinley 1903-1990 | Jonathan Waterman | Summit Post |
| 190 | The Alps and Alpinism | Lukan | Chessler Books |
| 191 | The Ascent of Mount St Elias | Filippi | Chessler Books |
| 192 | The Ascent of Nanda Devi | Tilman | Chessler Books |
| 193 | The Calling: A Life Rocked by Mountains | Barry Blanchard | Climbing |
| 194 | The Climb Up to Hell | Jack Olsen | Summit Post |
| 195 | The Climbs of Norman-Neruda | Norman-Neruda | Chessler Books |
| 196 | The Conquest of Mount Cook | Du Faur | Chessler Books |
| 197 | The Eiger Sanction | Trevenian | The Armchair Mountaineer |
| 198 | The Endless Knot:K2, Mountain of Dreams and Destiny | Summit Post | |
| 199 | The Everlasting Hills | Waller | Chessler Books |
| 200 | The Exploration of the Caucasus | Freshfield | Chessler Books |
| 201 | The Falling Season: Inside the Life and Death Drama of Aspen’s Mountain Rescue Team | Hal Clifford | Summit Post |
| 202 | The Fight For Everest 1924 | Norton | Chessler Books |
| 203 | The Games Climbers Play: A Selection of 100 Mountaineering Articles | Ken Wilson | Impossible World |
| 204 | The Ghosts of K2: The Epic Saga of the First Ascent | Mick Conefrey | Atlas & Boots |
| 205 | The Glittering Mountains of Canada | Thorington | Chessler Books |
| 206 | The Hall of the Mountain King: The True Story of a Tragic Climb | Howard H. Snyder | Summit Post |
| 207 | The Hard Years | Brown | Chessler Books |
| 208 | The Highest Andes | Fitzgerald | Chessler Books |
| 209 | The Hill: A True Story of Tragedy, Recovery | Summit Post | |
| 210 | The Last Blue Mountain | Barker | Chessler Books |
| 211 | The Last of His Kind: The Life and Adventures of Bradford Washburn, America’s Boldest Mountaineer | David Roberts | Goodreads |
| 212 | The Mountain: My Time on Everest | Ed Viesturs | Goodreads |
| 213 | The Mountains of California | Muir | Chessler Books |
| 214 | The North Cascades | Miller & Manning | Chessler Books |
| 215 | The Philosophy Of Risk | Dougal Haston | Winter Climb |
| 216 | The Pioneers of the Alps | Cunningham & Abney | Chessler Books |
| 217 | The Playground of Europe | Stephen | Chessler Books |
| 218 | The Push | Tommy Caldwell | Impossible World |
| 219 | The Rescue Season | Bob Drury | Summit Post |
| 220 | The Savage Arena | Tasker | Chessler Books |
| 221 | The Scottish Himalayan Expedition | Murray | Chessler Books |
| 222 | The Shameless Diary of an Explorer | Dunn | Chessler Books |
| 223 | The Throne of the Gods | Heim & Gansser | Chessler Books |
| 224 | The Totem Pole: And a Whole New Adventure | Paul Pritchard | Climbing |
| 225 | The Tower: A Chronicle of Climbing and Controversy on Cerro Torre | Kelly Cordes | Atlas & Boots |
| 226 | The Vertical World of Yosemite | Rowell | Chessler Books |
| 227 | The Villan: a Portrait of Don Whillans | James Perrin | Summit Post |
| 228 | The White Death: Tragedy and Heroism in an Avalanche Zone | McKay Jenkins | Summit Post |
| 229 | The White Tower | James Ramsey Ullman | The Armchair Mountaineer |
| 230 | The Will to Climb: Obsession and Commitment and the Quest to Climb Annapurna–the World’s Deadliest Peak | Ed Viesturs | Goodreads |
| 231 | Thieves, Liars and Mountaineers: On the 8,000-metre Peak Circus in Pakistan’s Karakoram mountains | Mark Horrell | Atlas & Boots |
| 232 | Thin Air: Encounters in the Himalayas | Greg Child | Summit Post |
| 233 | This Game of Ghosts | Joe Simpson | Summit Post |
| 234 | Tibet’s Secret Mountain:The Triumph of Sepu Kangri | Chris Bennington and Charles Clarke | Summit Post |
| 235 | To Kiss High Heaven | Languepin | Chessler Books |
| 236 | To the Top of Denali | Bill Sherwonit | Summit Post |
| 237 | Touching My Father’s Soul: A Sherpa’s Journey to the Top of Everest | Jamling Tenzing Norgay | Goodreads |
| 238 | Travels Through the Alps of Savoy | Forbes | Chessler Books |
| 239 | True Summit: What Really Happened on the Legendary Ascent on Annapurna | David Roberts | Goodreads |
| 240 | Twenty Years in the Himalaya | Bruce | Chessler Books |
| 241 | Ultimate High: My Everest Odyssey | Goran Kropp | Summit Post |
| 242 | Vertical Mind | Don McGrath, Jeff Ellison | Impossible World |
| 243 | Wanderings Among the High Alps | Wills | Chessler Books |
| 244 | We Aspired: The Last Innocent Americans | Pete Sinclair | Summit Post |
| 245 | Where Four Worlds Meet | Maraini | Chessler Books |
| 246 | White Mountain and Tawny Plain | Hauser | Chessler Books |
| 247 | White Winds: America’s Most Tragic Mountaineering Expedition | Joe Wilcox | Summit Post |
| 248 | Why We Climb | Chris Noble | Impossible World |
| 249 | Wizards of Rock: A History of Free Climbing in America | Pat Ament | Impossible World |
| 250 | Women Who Dare: North America’s Most Inspiring Women Climbers | Chris Noble | Impossible World |
13 Best Mountaineer Book Sources/Lists
| Source | Article |
| Atlas & Boots | 25 BEST MOUNTAINEERING BOOKS EVER WRITTEN |
| Chessler Books | 100 Best Mountaineering Books |
| Climbing | Doctor of Climbology: 33 Must-Read Climbing Books |
| Desk to Dirtbag | The 10 Best Mountain Climbing Books of All-Time |
| Goodreads | Popular Mountaineering Books |
| Impossible World | 40+ Best Climbing Books To Read Before You Die (& Mountaineering Books). |
| Kandoo Adventures | TOP 7 MOUNTAINEERING ADVENTURE BOOKS |
| Mark Horrell | 5 great books about mountain exploration |
| Summit Post | Best Mountaineering Literature |
| The Armchair Mountaineer | 5 OF THE BEST MOUNTAINEERING NOVELS |
| The Clymb | 7 BEST BOOKS ABOUT CLIMBING |
| The Guardian | The top 10 books on Alpinism |
| Winter Climb | 100 BEST MOUNTAINEERING BOOKS EVER WRITTEN |
