No Place to Fall
is Victor Saunders’ follow up to his Boardman Tasker Prize winning debut book
Elusive Summits
. Covering three expeditions in Nepal, the Karakoram and the Kumaon, each shares the exhilaration of attempting new alpine-style routes on terrifyingly committing mountains.
In 1989
Victor Saunders
and
Steve Sustad
completed a difficult route on the West Face of
Makalu II
, only to be brought to a storm-bound halt above 7,000 metres while descending. Without food or bivouac gear, they endured a tortuous descent after a night in the open. Two years later the pair were with a small team in the
Hunza
valley exploring elusive access to a giant hidden pillar on the unvisited South-East Face of
Ultar
, one of the highest and most shapely of the world's unclimbed peaks.
In 1992
was part of a joint Indian-British team climbing various peaks in the
Panch Chuli
range. A happy and successful expedition narrowly avoided ending in tragedy when
Stephen Venables
broke both legs in a fall on the descent from
Panch Chuli V
Chris Bonington
survived another fall going to his aid. The dramatic evacuation of Venables, in which the author took a major part, forms an exciting climax to a story of cutting-edge, alpine-style climbing in the world's highest mountains.
offers enviable mountain exploration, enriched by sharing the lives of the mountain peoples along the way. Victor Saunders casts a perceptive, if bemused, eye over his fellow climbers and reflects on the calculation of risk that drives them back year after year to chance their lives in high places.