expedition book recommendations

Hi all
I'm looking for expedition books (mostly interested in climbing/mountaineering but suggestions from other adventure sports are also welcome) that talk about the dynamic within the team in terms of leadership, decision-making and getting along with each other.
Any ideas are welcome. Books current or past, teams succeeding or failing.
I'll look through books to see if they fit with what I'm after, but it'd be a huge help to get some suggestions of titles I may not know about.

The days of big climbing expeditions are over, so there isn't much relevant lately. The old classics like Annapurna, the White Spider, etc can be interesting reading for that.

River running would be a really good source since larger groups are much more common. Brothers on the Bashkaus is a really interesting read about a mixed American/Russian/Latvian team running a badass river in Siberia - truly wild team dynamics. There is a lot of literature around river running on the Grand Canyon. The Emerald Mile, There's This River, and Beyond the 100th Meridian would be good sources.

Polar exploration would be another good source - particularly books about Shackleton.

From a more academic standpoint (rather than historical accounts):

1. Something like the NOLS Leadership Book:
store.nols.edu/collections/…

2. The AMS's Outdoor Leadership Book:
amcstore.outdoors.org/amc-g…

They concentrate more on the "soft skills" of selecting team members, building a cohesive group, styles of leadership, risk management, etc.

Cathy:

In my own experience, there are two areas that are important in teams - personality types and leadership styles.

Personality types are very important in teams because they strongly influence how team members interact. Each type has their preferred method of communicating, approaching problems, etc. This can cause problems in teams but can also strengthen teams. The most important aspect is than team members are aware of the personality types, and even better if the personality type of each team member determined and communicate that to the team. This will improve communication in the team and allow leadership to assign tasks and projects to the suitable team member. The personality types are documented in Myers-Briggs personality types - many books on the topic out there.

Everyone has a default management style. But a different management style is required depending on the situation and the readiness of the people being led. Situational leadership advocate leaders be able to change their management style to fit the situation. If you are designing an expedition it is appropriate to get everyone in a discussion; however, if team members are buried in an avalanche, the leader should bark out instructions.

Dr. Hersey descibed this in his book Situational leadership. I also think it is important to have the team knowledgeable about situational leadership, too, so they will understand why a leader is using a particular style.

These topics are not specific to climbing, I think they apply to all teams and leaders.

I volunteered on Teton County SAR for 12 years and served on the board of directors for 6 years as Deputy Director/Training Diector. I had trainings on these topics and it helped the team. On the situational leadership training, I added in my own thoughts on being a good "follower", which is just as important as being a good leader.

I assume you are interested because you want to build great team dynamics for the expedition. I think this will help.

Also, in my career I managed teams of geophysicists, geologists, and engineers and found these concepts very useful.

Spufford's "I May be Some Time" is very analytical.

Huntford's Scott and Amundsen is biased towards Amundsen but still interesting.

Eric Shipton's Omnibus might have some insights into character and team philosophy.

Hope they help.

"The Hall of the Mountain King" by Howard Snyder
amazon.com/The-Hall-Mountai…

"White Winds" by Joe Wilcox
amazon.com/White-Winds-Amer…

Both of these books recount the 1967 Denali accident on the Muldrow Glacier route from the perspectives of two different expedition leaders who ended up on a combined expedition the ended with numerous fatalities. They're both pretty well written and provide a good picture of group dynamics and leadership. Reading them together proves quite interesting.

Thanks everyone for the interesting suggestions. Please keep them coming, I will continue to monitor the thread.
To clarify on some of the comments above - I'm not only interested in 'big' expeditions - any trip with three or more people involved that talks about how decisions were made and how agreements were reached (or not) is interesting.
I'm familiar with the leadership literature and am not trying to to work out how to lead an expedition myself - I'm primarily interested in actual examples where people talk about how it actually went down in their team.

In terms of getting along on expeditions, I suggest:

The Last Step: The American Ascent of K2

for how not to do it.

This: JAGGED RED LINE BY NICK WILLIAMS

It is very special, tells of a location not often covered, and talks of the team that forms after an event rather than the build up / base camp stuff.

I would recommend it to everyone.

Not a book, but a good video about risk:

tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Ris…

I just finished a recently published book The Ghosts of K2 , I would recommend it. Talks a lot about team dynamics, both good and bad.

I always liked "Expedition Behavior"

Endurance- the story of Ernest Shackleton's Antartic expedition covers everything that you mentioned. Also, Candice Millard's, River of Doubt, is a fantastic story of an expedition Teddy Roosevelt took after leaving politics.

Ryan Strickland wrote:I always liked "Expedition Behavior"

The Shameless Diary of an Explorer

Admittedly about a Denali expedition in 1903, but pretty forthright about expedition conflict/leadership issues.

goodreads.com/book/show/288…

Not a big expedition, but I have always though Glenn Randall's "Breaking Point" about the second ascent of thee SE Spur of Hunter as in a league of its own.

Also just came to mind:
The Journals of Lewis & Clark
No one reads the full journals, usually excerpts by different publishers like this one:
amazon.com/Journals-Lewis-C…
I don't think that's the version I have, but I'm sure it's similar.

Really amazing story. They traveled for something like two years through un-mapped territory and only one guy died, and I think it's speculated to have been appendicitis, which, at the time, probably would have killed him no matter where he was. Really good example of a well-lead expedition.

Oh, and the opposite:
Into the Labrador Wild. Two upper-class professionals hire a guide to take them exploring in northeast Canada. They're unprepared for an early winter and all goes to shite.

This book describes two climbs. One of them, "Deborah," really captures the feelings of two men stuck together for days, with the attendant irritations and dependence they felt.

It's an all-time classic:

amazon.com/Mountain-Fear-De…

+1 for the NOLS leadership book. If everyone's on the same page starting an expedition/extended climbing trip and has the same framework for mediation and group dymamics it's amazing how much smoother things go.

Also I'm a huge fan of "the rock warriors way" as a framework for risk assessment and commitment decisions.

Read "South", written by Shackleton himself.

For small groups, have you poked through the trip reports?

And, the Lewis and Clark journals are entertaining, also. The boys had their bacon saved by the locals many, many, times! I read the Idaho part unabridged, and was struck by how many times the same things kept happening, mostly involving the poor horses.

Old lady H wrote:Read "South", written by Shackleton himself. For small groups, have you poked through the trip reports? And, the Lewis and Clark journals are entertaining, also. The boys had their bacon saved by the locals many, many, times! I read the Idaho part unabridged, and was struck by how many times the same things kept happening, mostly involving the poor horses.