Higher Than The Eagle Soars: A Path to Everest

Venables has now written a full autobiography which explores how and – more importantly – why he became a mountaineer. Starting from childhood, he describes many previously unpublished adventures, including early alpine climbs, winter Scottish journeys, Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, the North Face of the Eiger and a fantastic journey through the heart of the Karakoram mountains, following in the steps of Eric Shipton and Bill Tilman. At the book’s climax Stephen revisits his dramatic success without oxygen on the Kangshung Face of Everest, described by Reinhold Messner as the most adventurous in Everest’s history and by John Hunt as ‘one of the most remarkable ordeals from which men or women have returned alive’.

Shortlisted for the 2007 Boardman-Tasker Award.