No Place to Fall

<p><em><strong>No Place to Fall</strong></em> is Victor Saunders’ follow up to his Boardman Tasker Prize winning debut book Elusive Summits. Covering three expeditions in Nepal the Karakoram and the Kumaon each shares the exhilaration of attempting new alpine-style routes on terrifyingly committing mountains.</p><p>In 1989 <strong>Victor Saunders</strong> and <strong>Steve Sustad</strong> completed a difficult route on the West Face of <strong>Makalu II</strong> only to be brought to a storm-bound halt above 7000 metres while descending. Without food or bivouac gear they endured a tortuous descent after a night in the open. Two years later the pair were with a small team in the <strong>Hunza</strong> valley exploring elusive access to a giant hidden pillar on the unvisited South-East Face of <strong>Ultar</strong> one of the highest and most shapely of the world's unclimbed peaks.</p><p>In 1992 <strong>Victor Saunders</strong> was part of a joint Indian-British team climbing various peaks in the <strong>Panch Chuli</strong> range. A happy and successful expedition narrowly avoided ending in tragedy when <strong>Stephen Venables</strong> broke both legs in a fall on the descent from <strong>Panch Chuli V</strong> and <strong>Chris Bonington</strong> survived another fall going to his aid. The dramatic evacuation of Venables in which the author took a major part forms an exciting climax to a story of cutting-edge alpine-style climbing in the world's highest mountains.</p><p><em><strong>No Place to Fall</strong></em> offers enviable mountain exploration enriched by sharing the lives of the mountain peoples along the way. <strong>Victor Saunders</strong> casts a perceptive if bemused eye over his fellow climbers and reflects on the calculation of risk that drives them back year after year to chance their lives in high places.</p>