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The Bond: Two Epic Climbs in Alaska and a Lifetime's Connection Between Climbers
- Narrated by: RJ Bayley
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
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The Bond: Two Epic Climbs in Alaska and a Lifetime's Connection Between Climbers
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Summary
Winner: 2016 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature Winner: Mountain and Wilderness Literature Award, 2016 Banff Mountain Book Festival
Simon McCartney was a cocky young British alpinist climbing many of the hardest routes in the Alps during the late seventies, but it was a chance meeting in Chamonix in 1977 with Californian "Stonemaster" Jack Roberts that would dramatically change both their lives - and almost end Simon’s.
Inspired by a Bradford Washburn photograph published in Mountain magazine, their first objective was the 5,500-foot north face of Mount Huntington, one of the most dangerous walls in the Alaska Range. The result was a route so hard and serious that for decades nobody believed they had climbed it - it is still unrepeated to this day. Then, raising the bar even higher, they made the first ascent of the south-west face of Denali, a climb that would prove almost fatal for Simon, and one which would break the bond between him and climbing, separating the two young climbers. But the bond between Simon and Jack couldn’t remain dormant forever. A lifetime later, a chance reconnection with Jack gave Simon the chance to bury the ghosts of what happened high on Denali, when he had faced almost certain death.
The Bond is Simon McCartney’s story of these legendary climbs.
Critic reviews
"This book portrays life at the very edge of existence." (Graham Desroy, Chair of Judges, Boardman Tasker Award)
"Recalled and written thirty years after the fact, The Bond is an intoxicating read told with an immediacy that transports one directly onto the face of the mountain. The word epic is the most overused word in the climbers lexicon but this is an epic tale in the true sense of the word." (Paul Pritchard, 2016 Banff Mountain Book Competition Jury)
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What listeners love about The Bond: Two Epic Climbs in Alaska and a Lifetime's Connection Between Climbers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen
- 09-08-19
interesting book
The Bond is Simon McCartney’s story of these legendary climbs.
very interesting book enjoyed listening to the amazing journey
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 06-05-23
Different type of the climbing book
This book is interesting and sad, sometimes funny. Not typical climbing book, gets better towards the end. Pity that narration is not spot on, sometimes was hard to follow whose diary is read and sometimes narrator was over acting horribly. But despite that, we’ll recommend book to read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Heavy
- 07-01-23
What a tale well worth waiting for.
A great addition to ant Mountaineers library.pushing the limits to extreme and a very honest book.
Recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Girdle Traverse
- 12-04-22
A worthy winner of The Boardman Tasker award
A brilliantly written book well narrated. At times a harrowing story of 2 cutting edge climbs in Alaska interspersed with adventures in the lesser ranges, The Bond is ultimately a story of courage and friendship. This book is on a par with classics such as Touching the Void or The White Spider. The book brings out in detail just how the human mind and body are able to cope in adversity and the after effects that high altitude climbing has on one's physical self. Many books are read and listened to just once, but The Bond is one I have no doubt will be listened to again.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ed Challinor
- 31-03-22
The absolute best
A beautiful work of love and loss. More like a novel than a memoir. What a team.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- S. Dockrell
- 14-01-22
Loved it
Brilliant, maybe even my favourite in this genre. Kept me enthralled from start to finish
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bonney Starbird
- 29-06-23
Greatest climbing story of all time!
The recount of this climbing saga was utterly captivating and very difficult to put down. I would have read this book sooner if I'd known it existed. The final climb takes place in 1980. That was the year I lost a good friend on Denali. I have always wondered what this mountain was like back then, what did my friend face? And this book answered a lot of questions. Well-researched, with excerpts from personal journals, it tells of the compelled lives of extreme adventurers, how different they are from the rest of us and how very much the same. You don't have to be a climber to relate to this book. There is not a lot of technical language, but enough to make you feel truly there. This book will stay with you awhile. I feel that I have climbed Denali from my headphones. Given that my friend travelled to the mountain at the same time, I wondered whether there would be any clue or sign that their paths crossed. Near the end of the book, the last climber to leave the mountain spoke with 4 Canadian climbers before flying out of the base camp. Those four climbers were never found again, and one of them was my friend. And now I know a little bit more about what happened. Ever grateful to this author for taking the time to recount one of the greatest mountain climbing stories of all time.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Alexismichelle
- 05-02-21
Awful narration, too distracting to finish
Narrator’s accents (particularly his American and Southern accents) were abrasive and distracting. I’ve listened to hundreds of books and have never left a review commenting on narratation, yet this was so bad that I felt like other listeners ought to be forewarned. Disappointing, becauAw the story seemed super compelling.
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