Daniel Light: The White Ladder

We are looking forward to be welcoming Daniel Light to the shop on Tuesday 15th October at 7pm as he discusses the true story of the thrill-seekers, map-makers, soldiers, occultists, artists and porters who paved the way for modern mountaineering, in his new book, .

It was not always Everest…

Chimborazo. Nanda Devi. Dhaulagiri. Kangchenjunga. K2. Each, at one time, was believed to be the highest mountain in the world. And with record-breaking mountains came record-breaking mountaineers.

There are the devout Incan priests who, scaling the Andes’ icy slopes to pay tribute to each mountain’s ‘Great Lord’, travelled higher than any European would for centuries. The Gurkha riflemen who joined their commander Charles Granville Bruce in canvassing the Karakoram, admiring the distant summits of Broad Peak and K2 with a gleeful anticipation. The tweed-clad mountaineers who first who made the first serious assaults on Everest, hauling yards upon yards of battered rope, fingers grappling with carabiners, frozen half-shut in the cold.

Tracing the world altitude record from the ashy slopes of the sacred volcano Llullaillaco to the icy crags and crevasses of the Karakoram, Daniel Light takes a panoramic journey through the storied history of mountaineering before Everest.

Joining a cast of colourful characters,The White Ladderoffers an ode to mountains’ capacity to enthral, and the fundamental human drive to climb higher and higher.

Daniel Light grew up in Godalming, a stone’s throw from the family home of George and Ruth Mallory. He has been climbing for twenty years, indoors and out. Dan writes from an office at a climbing wall in East London, where he climbs regularly with his daughters Lola and Ruby. He lives in Hackney with his family.

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Doors: 6.30pm, event starts: 7pm, please arrive early to secure a good seat.

Tickets are £3 and there is a Ticket & Book option which includes a signed copy of The White Ladder.

The bookshop has level access, events are seated and speakers use microphones. If you have any concerns about accessibility, please do get in touch and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

Refunds are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, we are unable to offer a refund after the event.

For more information or if you would like a signed copy because you can't make it to the event, please contact the Blackwell's events team on 0131 622 8222 or [email protected]

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Blackwell's Bookshop, 53-62 South Bridge, Edinburgh, United Kingdom