Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges

by Bernadette McDonald

Overview

2024 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in History
2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition Mountain Literature Winner - The Jon Whyte Award

"Alpine Rising is a fascinating history of the crucial and frequently tragic role of local Nepalis, Tibetans, and Pakistanis on mountaineering expeditions to the world’s highest peaks."— Jon Krakauer

The name of Maurice Herzog, the first man to reach the summit of Annapurna, is widely recognized, but how many know Ang Tharkay, leader of the Sherpa team who carried the seriously frostbitten Herzog on his back for miles? Although rarely mentioned in published accounts of early expeditions, local climbers have long been significant members of first ascents on the world’s tallest and most challenging peaks. In Alpine Rising, award-winning writer Bernadette McDonald sets the record straight by shining a light on these too often forgotten heroes.

Now, in the 21st century, it is often local climbers who are setting records. A Nepali team was the first to climb K2 in winter; they reached the summit while singing their national anthem. Pakistani climbers like Little Karim and Ali Sadpara devoted their lives to helping others survive and succeed on and off the mountains and their stories deserve to be more widely known. Not only a timely reminder of the need to recognize the contributions of local climbers and the importance of correcting the historical record, Alpine Rising is a celebration of a region’s local heroes.

Sales benefit the Khumbu Climbing Center (Nepal) and the ASCEND climbing program for girls (Pakistan)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680515787
Publisher:	Mountaineers Books, The
Publication date:	02/20/2024
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bernadette McDonald was the founding vice president of mountain culture at The Banff Centre and director of the Banff Mountain Festivals for 20 years. The author of more than a dozen books about mountaineering and mountain culture, she regularly lectures on a variety of topics for universities, festivals, and alpine clubs. McDonald lives in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Visit her at bernadettemcdonald.ca.

Editorial Reviews

Timely and important, Alpine Rising is an authoritative and nuanced addition to mountaineering history. It evokes precious personal memories of time spent in the hills with Pertemba, Ang Phu, Little Karim, and so many others whose contributions are finally being fully acknowledged and celebrated.

author and mountaineer - Sir Chris Bonington

Bernadette McDonald has shown once again that she is the best equipped mountaineering author to give these irreplaceable people the credit they so fully deserve. Alpine Rising is a brilliant read and fills an important gap in the rich history of mountaineering literature.

mountaineering historian - Bob A. Schelfhout Aubertijn

Alpine Rising is a wonderfully written account of the truly unsung heroes of Himalayan climbing. The Indigenous Sherpa, Balti, and others of the region have for many years shouldered the brunt of burden and broken trail, often with little recognition, which led to the success of Western-based expeditions. Their tenacity and drive have allowed them to finally step out from the shadows, take the lead, and come to the forefront of alpine ascents and guiding across the globe. I’m honored to have worked with some of these climbers as teammates.

author of No Shortcuts to the Top - Ed Viesturs

This book is a fascinating and important account of what could very well be the last generation of Sherpa guides in Nepal.

first female IFMGA-certified mountain guide from Nepal - Dawa Yangzum Sherpa

Alpine Rising is a fascinating history of the crucial and frequently tragic role of local Nepalis, Tibetans, and Pakistanis on mountaineering expeditions to the world’s highest peaks. Bernadette McDonald sheds new light on the Himalayan and Karakoram villagers exploited for decades by Western climbers, who often seemed to regard them as little more than expendable servants and laborers. This important, engaging book explains how men and women from these underappreciated communities have recently won worldwide respect and admiration as cutting-edge alpinists, heroic climbing guides, successful entrepreneurs, and masters of their own destinies.

Jon Krakauer

A compulsively readable history of sky-high ventures…. Alpine Rising engages with courageous tales of ambition, triumph, suffering, and, yes, death. It deserves an audience as great as the mountaineering feats it celebrates.

Literary Review of Canada - Steven Threndyle

Adventure literature often focuses on the exploits of western climbers, but Bernadette McDonald rightly turns her attention locally, to the unsung heroes of mountaineering. Based on interviews and solid research, McDonald ably tells their side of the story, covering key personages and notable ascents from the early 1900s to the present.

2024 National Outdoor Book Awards Judges - Ron Watters

There is a tectonic shift happening in Himalayan mountaineering, and the tragic, happy and funny details from the earliest expeditions to climbing in the age of Instagram are in the pages of Alpine Rising.

Nepali Times - Kunda Dixit

McDonald lays bare the truth and doesn’t mince words, just as this subject matter demands…. At times painful, even infuriating, on other pages Alpine Rising is hilarious, sharp witted, tender, deeply insightful, and always, absolutely timely.

Gripped - Lynn Martel

In our climbs, communities and coverage, McDonald’s Alpine Rising helps us orient amid storms, altitude, inequities and grief.

Alpinist - Nathan Conroy

We Pakistani climbers are grateful for this important book about us, the unsung heroes of Pakistan. We are the new generation and we are ready for new challenges and our rightful place in climbing history. Alpine Rising shares our story.

Balti mountain guide - Sajid Sadpara

One of the first books to explore the pivotal roles played by Nepali and Pakistani climbers in shaping the future of high-altitude endeavours.

2024 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature Chair of

A future classic

Summit Journal - Michael Levy

Thoroughly researched, Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges fills in some crucial gaps in mountaineering history. The enthusiasm, passion, and genuine care for these men and women is palpable on every page. The book is a succession of exciting stories of true adventure.

ExplorersWeb - Angela Benavides

In this courageous book, McDonald documents how significant contributions by local climbers in the Greater Ranges have been consistently underappreciated, and underreported, throughout mountaineering history. She skillfully shows how relationships and dynamics between local and foreign climbers have evolved, creating a compelling, impactful, and long overdue story.

author of Karakoram - Steve Swenson

Bernadette McDonald’s Alpine Rising, arguably the most important book in her long and distinguished career, tells the unsung, heroic and sometimes tragic story of the Sherpas, the Baltis and other Indigenous peoples without whom no Himalayan peak could have been climbed. As truths emerge from the shadows of empire and they take their rightful place in their own world, she reveals the lives and humanity behind their dramatic stories, culminating in the all-Nepali first winter ascent of K2.

2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition Jury - Tony Whittome

Giving voice to local climbers from Tibet, Pakistan, Nepal, and India who have long enabled Westerners to tackle the world’s highest peaks, Bernadette McDonald shares their histories, perspectives, and present-day realities–including the high rate of attrition and the suffering of those left behind. Gripping, thought-provoking, and often shocking, Alpine Rising is an important addition to the canon of mountain literature.

author of Where the Mountain Casts its Shadow - Maria Coffey

The history of local climbers in Pakistan and Nepal is so robust and nuanced that rarely has anyone endeavored to tell it. Alpine Rising shares these often-overlooked stories of high-altitude workers with direct interviews, historical context, and modern perspective. It should be essential reading for anyone who has wondered how these mountains are climbed and, as importantly, why.

mountain guide and co-founder, The Juniper Fund - Melissa Arnot Reid

It’s taken far too long, but at last the local guides and porters who have contributed so much to Himalayan climbing for more than a century are having their achievements acknowledged more fully, along with the terrible human cost they suffered along the way. Bernadette McDonald tells this extraordinary story with great energy and understanding, making space not just for the famous Sherpas but other ethnic groups who are also overlooked.

author of Himalaya: A Human History - Ed Douglas

A ground-breaking examination of the contemporary mountaineering landscape. McDonald focuses on the pivotal roles played by Nepali and Pakistani climbers in shaping the future of high-altitude endeavours. The Author skilfully highlights the incredible achievements of these mountaineers, who have often gone unrecognised by their Western counterparts, thereby elevating the voices of these mountaineers to their rightful place.

2024 Boardman Tasker Award Judges

Bernadette McDonald has shown once again that she is the best equipped mountaineering author to give these irreplaceable people the credit they so fully deserve. Alpine Rising is a brilliant read and fills an important gap in the rich history of mountaineering literature.

Bob Schelfhout Aubertijn