Books to Give Your TBR Some Height
Nonfiction books on rock climbing and mountaineering.
Recommendations welcome!
created by katfish
last updated August, 2026
Comments
Learning to Breathe and Thin White Line by Andy Cave, both are excellent. Learning to Breathe is a memoir starting from Andy's childhood in a coal mining village in England and his own time spent working deep underground in the mines to discovering rock climbing and taking him all the way to the first summit of the north face of Changabang (The Shining Mountain) in 1997, massively challenging and tragically very dangerous route. Lots of really harrowing events in climbing books, but Learning to Breathe is up there.
Thin White Line is the sequel to those events, with a lot of personal reflections and Andy Cave struggling with whether he should continue to climb or not after what happened on Changabang while including lots of great mountaineering in places like Patagonia.
katfishOP
Those both sound great! Iâll add them!
I hadnât come across The White Ladder until this list, and it was fantastic. Thanks for the recommendation!
If youâre open to suggestions, Everest, Inc. by Will Cockerell could be a good addition here. Itâs a history of the guiding industry on Everest and other major peaks, and I thought it was really interesting to see how this industry has evolved over the past several decades.
The titles you give to your lists are awesome, please don't stop making them!!
katfishOP
Thanks! Iâve been having so much fun thinking of them!
katfishOP
Everest, Inc sounds interesting, thanks for the rec!
