One Day As A Tiger

In the autumn of 1982, a single stone fell from high on the south face of Annapurna and struck Alex MacIntyre on the head, killing him instantly and robbing the climbing world of one of its greatest talents.

Although only twenty-eight years old, Alex was already one of the leading figures of British mountaineering’s most successful era. His ascents included hard new routes on Himalayan giants like Dhaulagiri and Changabang and a glittering record of firsts in the Alps and Andes.

Yet how Alex climbed was as important as what he climbed. He was a mountaineering prophet, sharing with a handful of contemporaries – including his climbing partner Voytek Kurtyka – the vision of a purer form of alpinism on the world’s highest peaks. Porter’s revelatory and poignant memoir of his friend Alex MacIntyre, shows mountaineering at its extraordinary best and tragic worst – and draws an unforgettable picture of a dazzling, argumentative and exuberant legend.

One Day as a Tiger is a brilliant read on so many different levels: a vivid and perceptive biography of one of the most talented and innovative climbers of his generation, but going much further to unveil a forgotten story which encompasses the breathtaking confidence of the anarchistic and dynamic climbing culture that grew up during the cold war on both sides of the Iron Curtain. - Chris Bonington

A meticulously researched history of a generation of climbers so fueled by ambition and adrenalin that they came close to climbing themselves into extinction, One Day as a Tiger is much more. In telling the story of Alex MacIntyre’s meteoric, too-short life, the author explores difficult questions that all climbers grapple with: the fickleness of luck, the fragility of friendship and the frailty of life. - Bernadette McDonald

Winner of both the Grand Prize and Mountaineering History Award at the 2014 Banff Mountain Book Festival. Shortlisted for the 2015 Boardman/Tasker Mountaineering Literature Award and 2015 British Sports Book Awards.