The Bond - Simon McCartney

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WINNER: 2016 BOARDMAN TASKER AWARD FOR MOUNTAIN LITERATURE

WINNER: Mountain And Wilderness Literature Award, 2016 BANFF MOUNTAIN BOOK FESTIVAL

WINNER: 'ITAS' Mountain Book Award, Mountain Festival, Trento, Italy, 2019

'This book portrays life at the very edge of existence.' - Graham Desroy, Chair of Judges, Boardman Tasker Award

'Recalled and written thirty years after the fact, The Bond is an intoxicating read told with an immediacy that transports one directly onto the face of the mountain. The word epic is the most overused word in the climbers lexicon but this is an epic tale in the true sense of the word.' - Paul Pritchard, 2016 Banff Mountain Book Competition Jury

‘Man, the only – only – good thing about that climb was that you were tied on to the other end of the rope.’

Simon McCartney was a cocky young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meeting in Chamonix in 1977 with Californian ‘Stonemaster’ Jack Roberts that would dramatically change both their lives – and almost end Simon’s.

Inspired by a Bradford Washburn photograph published in Mountain magazine, their first objective was the 5,500-foot north face of Mount Huntington, one of the most dangerous walls in the Alaska Range. The result was a route so hard and serious that for decades nobody believed they had climbed it – it is still unrepeated to this day. Then, raising the bar even higher, they made the first ascent of the south-west face of Denali, a climb that would prove almost fatal for Simon, and one which would break the bond between him and climbing, separating the two young climbers for over three decades. But the bond between Simon and Jack couldn’t remain dormant forever. A lifetime later, a chance reconnection with Jack gave Simon the chance to bury the ghosts of what happened high on Denali, when he had faced almost certain death.

The Bond is Simon McCartney’s award-winning story of these legendary climbs.

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