Mick Fowler

Vertical Pleasure : Early climbs in Britain, the Alps, the Andes and the Himalaya Mick Fowler

Originally published in 1995, Vertical Pleasure is the first volume of climbing memoirs from Mick Fowler, one of Britain’s most inventive and widely travelled mountaineers. From teenage climbs with his father George to schoolboy adventures in London, from sea stacks and remote winter climbs in Scotland, to the greater ranges of the Alps, Andes and Himalaya, Fowler charts the making of a climber drawn less to the obvious classics than to the obscure, the committing and the bold. All this was achieved while balancing family life and a full-time career in the tax office, with major expeditions squeezed into the margins of annual leave.

Yet Fowler’s carefully chosen objectives produced some of the most admired climbs and first ascents of his generation. The three major alpine-style expedition first ascents chronicled in this book are Taulliraju in 1982 with Chris Watts, the Golden Pillar of Spantik in 1987 with Victor Saunders, and Cerro Kishtwar in 1993 with Steve Sustad. Warm, funny and deeply perceptive, Vertical Pleasure is a classic account of a mountaineering life lived with imagination, discipline and quiet audacity.