Books and biographies of other adventure sports

I'm teaching a course on applied philosophy next Spring focused on risk and adventure sports. Since I'm a climbing history dork, I already have tons of books and biographies on the history of mountaineering and climbing. I definitely have more than enough in that department to round out a whole semester if I wanted to.

However, since the focus isn't supposed to be only on climbing, we're gonna be talking about backcountry skiing, canyoneering, polar exploration, caving, scuba diving, etc. Polar exploration doesn't seem too hard to find some good source material, but what about the others? Is anybody aware of decent literature, biographies, etc in these other sports I could use to build up the syllabus a little more? 

Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan. An extraordinary autobiography of a life in surfing. It explores risk topics deeply, as associated with big wave surfing. One of the best books I've ever read. Won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. A must-include for that class. 

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If you are open to other (non-book) media, the 50 Project from Cody Townsend is a high quality ongoing video series on ski mountaineering. Very thoughtful and transparent on risk topics. The short film on their St Elias trip is a good starting point, but many gems throughout the series.  

https://youtu.be/AvwOJSHSe5I

Limits of the Known by David Roberts is a great book. He discusses pushing the envelope of adventure, as he did in Alaska in the 1960s, when he climbed unnamed mountains in uncharted territory and even named the mountain range (Revelation Mountains). He compares his adventures with modern limit-pushers. There are many unexplored caves and rivers today, so cavers and river runners are at the forefront of new exploration today. I believe this is also the book where he describes the first written record of a rock climb in Europe, which was in the 15th century.

Roberts wrote a lot of books, and they are all very well-researched. He cites many other books as he writes. This book will give you a lot of leads. This sounds like a fun class.    

2nd Barbarian days. Amazing book. I'm not a surfer, but it doesn't matter. 

Stories from the Dirt, by John long is a collection of essays about various adventurous pursuits. Only one or two stories are about climbing. There is basejumping, exploring jungles of New Guinea, cave exploring, snowmobiling frozen ocean ice, sliding down coolant tubes in hydroelectric plants, all types of wild stuff. 

I'd also highly recommend the book "Mountains of the Mind" by Robert MacFarlane. It's an exploration if the historic and literary underpinnings of western attitudes toward adventures in the mountains. Lots of talk of the sublime, Burke, Kant, Wordsworth, and all that. Well written, nice reading, and accessible for undergrad level students.  More of a broader analysis, than a biographical account.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/839157.Mountains_of_the_Mind

The John Branch book Sidecountry has a few essays that are quite on topic, about Dean and the avy at Tunnel Creek particularly.

Awesome, these are really helpful. I've put in some book orders and started watching the 50 project. Thanks

The Traddest Dad wrote:

Awesome, these are really helpful. I've put in some book orders and started watching the 50 project. Thanks

You're going to have a blast prepping for that course. So much awesome material already suggested.

+1 to the John Branch book suggested earlier in thread.

Here's a list of surfing books

• Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life

• Surf Is Where You Find It

• Caught Inside: A Surfer's Year on the California Coast

• Rockaway: Surfing Headlong into a New Life

• Kook: What Surfing Taught Me About Love, Life, and Catching the Perfect Wave

• On Surfing - A Collection of Interviews with Surf Luminaries.

• The Drop: How the Most Addictive Sport Can Help Us Understand Addiction and Recovery

• Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry into a Life of Meaning

• Surfing Places, Surfboard Makers: Craft, Creativity, and Cultural Heritage in Hawaii, California, and Australia

• The History of Surfing

• The World in the Curl: An Unconventional History of Surfing

• Empire in Waves: A Political History of Surfing

• The Best of Surfer Magazine

The Surfer's Journal is an excellent periodical, you can buy hardbound volumes of back issues. 

I just read Tracking the Wild Coomba, which is a good backcountry skiing book. Not my favorite writing but I was glued to the story. I second Barbarian Days & Mountains of the Mind (much more focused on the cultural why of mountain "climbing.") Same author wrote Underworld, which is about the human relationship with underground. You may not want to use the whole book but there are some interesting chapters on caving. If you want to throw in some women, Annapurna A Woman's Place is supposed to be really good. As for polar exploration, a really beautiful film called After Antarctica screened at Mountainfilm in 2021, about one of the team members of the first Antarctic crossing. A great reflection on science/ climate/ politics and personal philosophy of exploration if you can find it. 

You could also reach out to Scott Barnacle at Middlebury College! He used to teach a class with a similar premise when I was there. Sounds like a fun course. 

Surviving the tsangpo.(kayaking. First descent in the himalayas)

Beyound the comfort zone. Bruce generoux

Aligators and ice. Jon turk

Where the pavement ends(  solo bike trip from mongolia to Vietnam)

The dark side of the mountain,  maria coffee

Reviving this old thread to mention a very good book I just read: "Race to the Pole" by Ranulph Fiennes. About the Scott expeditions to Antarctica. Absolutely bonkers stories start to finish. Well written and engaging, and the author himself has extensive Antarctic expedition experience he draws on to explain elements of the Scott expeditions.

"Endurance" by Alfred Lansing.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=endurance+book&crid=2HF3SBNY2NV4W&sprefix=endurance%2Caps%2C139&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9

What a story! About Shackleton's ill-fated voyage to Antartica.

+1 for "Endurance" one of the greatest adventures of all time . . .

Check out "The Emerald Mile" by Kevin Fedarko. Very well written and researched, it tells the story of the fastest run through the Grand Canyon from Lee's Ferry to Lake Mead back in 1983. That was the last time Lake Powell was at full pool. The crisis at Glen Canyon Dam that summer is thoroughly described in the book. 

The river was eventually closed after a tragic mishap at Crystal Rapid. Not to be deterred, a group of 3 seasoned river guides launched their dory in the middle of the night in their quest to set the record for the fastest run through the Grand Canyon.

This adventure may have marked the end of the "golden age" of river running through the Grand Canyon. The culture among the guides reminded me of many of the stories and personalities we have read about in the history of climbing in Yosemite.

5 stars IMHO

A book I have read a few times about super caving is The Blind Descent. Really well written, follows two different explorers racing to get to the bottom of the deepest caves.

I second "The Emerald Mile" , it's a cool adventure but also encompasses a lot of area history particularly water and land management in the southwest. 

"South" by Shackleton himself. 

Although, this being October, and the op asking in June, hmmmm, maybe the bump wasn't exactly timely?? But, you did say spring, so...   I'll always recommend South, any time it fits!

H.

Check out “Escape Routes.” Another David Roberts joint but more of his non-climbing adventurous journalism. It’s a bit of an anthology of odds and ends, the lengths of which would be perfect for assigned reading in the academic arena. There’s one about caving in New Mexico that blew my mind. Also a chapter about them floating a stretch of virgin river in Africa that is nothing short of amazing. 

Hunting the Hunters by Rick Kinmon is an intense look into the world of Alaskan Predator guiding. Rick was one of if not the single best Wolf, Griz, and Lynx guide in AK in his time, offering a 100% get a shot guarantee on wolf, which is unheard of in the industry. He went to amazing extents to ensure his success ratio was at the top and talks about them in the book. Good read 

Loved The Emerald Mile. 

I think for short stories, John Long is hard to beat for entertainment value as well as being at the cutting edge of things at the time. While he is largely known for his climbing, his exploits across the globe kayaking, filming BASE jumping, etc. are pretty outrageous. "Stories from the Dirt" and "Icarus Syndrome" are both great books but have a decent overlap in content. The latter is much more somber and reflects more of the dark aspects of risk-taking.

Mike Horn's "Conquering the Impossible" was pretty mind-blowing to me. The book is about his journey around the Arctic Circle. Previously he swam down the Amazon river--I believe that book is only in French though. 

for anyone interested in sailing stories 

“A Voyage for Madmen” by Peter Nichols. an amazing account the first Golden Globe Race 1968-69 (around the world nonstop solo sail race) 312 days solo nonstop!

Fun facts- Golden Globe Race series continues even today, every 4 yrs. Rules don’t allow gps navigation. Only Celestial Nav w/sextant as the original race.
In June ‘23 Kirsten Neuschäfer (South Africa) was the first woman to win with a voyage of 293 days

Also 

“The Long Way” by Bernard Moitessier . His personal account of that ‘68-‘69 voyage. A truly epic voyage and tale!

Tristan Jones’ books are all also full of fun and nutty sailing adventures. A snarky old salt he was. “The Incredible Voyage” is the one that comes to mind.