UKH

I seem to have given myself a new year project of producing a survey of UK and US climbing-themed fiction.  I was intending it to be comprehensive, but it's turning out to be a bit bigger than I expected so I may have to get selective. Before I do, I want to check I haven't missed anything obvious. It will be more of an encouragement to read than a scholarly analysis, so I shall be avoiding spoilers that give the endings away. All suggestions for something I should add gratefully received. I'd be particularly interested in novels from earlier eras, though if there are quite a few I may have to make that a separate project. So far I have the following, in chronological order:

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022)

The White Tower - James Ramsey Ullman (1945)

Far Far the Mountain Peak - John Masters (1957)

sounds interesting. First couple of thoughts

I see you have Andrew Greig's 'Electric Brae' but would his 'Men on Ice' qualify for inclusion ? I know its a poem & possibly biographical but could be fiction.

The Ascent of Rum Doodle ?

Are you only interested in full length books ? There are many short stories eg the collection by Dermot Somers, the doctor stories by Geoff Dutton and the fairly long “Like Water and Like Wind” from David Roberts.

Black Car Burning by Helen Mort 2020

First on the Rope, Roger Frison-Roche (1942, republished by Vertebrate recently)

Short stories collections? The Mountain Weeps by Ian Mitchell 1997 and Mountains and other ghosts by Dermot Somers 1990

Good luck with the project

Dave

Another came to mind

North Wall by Roger Hubank, Vertebrate Publishing, 2019.

Peaks and Bandits, Alf Bonnevie Bryn, originally published in Norwegian in 1943, first English translation edition by Vertebrate Publishing 2021.

Dave

The Eiger Sanction - Trevanian (1972)

Herzog, Maurice (1952). Annapurna, First Conquest of an 8000-meter Peak

Mostly a fiction, I'm told.

in Graham Wilson's "A Rope of Writers" survey of climbing literature in the UK he devotes a chapter entitled 'Stranger than Fact' to climbing fiction which might point you to some other titles.

Dave

The Fall by Simon Mawer. Great novel which won Boardman-Tasker prize I believe

I think Joe Simpson wrote at least two.

By the guy whose animus spurted all over the page, half-way through his revisionist tract?

[To the OP] One Green Bottle. Elizabeth Coxhead. 

Mick 

June in Skye, 1938 by Elizabeth Coxhead.

One Green Bottle, 1951 by Elizabeth Coxhead.

Gabe's Fall (American) 1988 , a series of short climbing stories by Peter Lars Sandberg. 

Ha, beat me to it Mick.😉

Jeff Long has written several:

Angels of Light

The Ascent

The Wall

This old Alpine Journal piece has quite a comprehensive listing (up to 1980 I think):

http://www.alpinejournal.org.uk/Contents/Contents_1980_files/AJ%201980%2012...

There's also Audrey Salkeld and Rosie Smith's anthology, One Step in the Clouds. 

Again, to keep the project manageable I'm just going to include one novel as representative of a writer who's written several - so it will just be The Wall, though I'll mention the others.

Aye that’s the one!  

Good read though, if a little “of a different time” featuring some terms and attitudes that’s aren’t in keeping etc

In the interests of keeping the project manageable I'm going to stick to full-length novels and exclude poetry and short stories. However, I did write about Greig's excellent Men on Ice in a feature I did for Climber magazine a while back, with a couple of articles on climbing poetry, one historical and one contemporary (Jul/Aug & Sep/Oct 2020 if you want to check them out).

Rum Doodle should definitely be in - but I think I'm going to have to divide into pre- and post-70s.

I certainly need to check this out. Definitely one to do on kindle, since paper copies are going for prices in the hundreds.

Thanks, great link. That is an extremely useful article. Unlike the AC survey, I want to write about each novel I cover in a reasonable amount of detail, with a bit of analysis of themes, images and style - although it will be more or less depending on how "literary" it is. Given this will have to be within the word limits of one or two magazine articles I think I'm going to re-evaluate rapidly and stick to "modern" climbing fiction, which I'll date (arbitrarily!) from James Salter's outstanding Solo Faces.

North Wall does look very interesting and I will get round to reading it, but its original publishing date (1977) means it now misses what I've decided will have to be my start date if I'm to do the various novels justice. I'll have to leave out translations for the same reasons of manageability.

That has to be in. I'm surprised I haven't come across it.

Without wishing to be anything other than supportive, that's quite a big project you've taken on.  Whilst there's no shortage of suggestions already written by people known within the climbing world, climbing is used as a setting by many others.  Tracking these down might be a right pita.

Here's one such: Amy McCullough, Breathless.  It's won awards apparently.  First I heard of it was when BookBub suggested I invest 99p in it for the electronic edition, which I did but still haven't read.  There are others; there was one I bought a few years ago with a ghost story set on a Kangchenjunga expedition; it was so good that having finished it I immediately gave it to Oxfam.  I read a police procedural type book last year featuring a murder on Scafell Pike; a fell runner, I think, rather than a climber as such but you'll have to decide whether it's in or out of your survey (life's too short, I wouldn't include it).

So I don't envy the task you've set yourself, it's a big 'un.  Good luck!

T.

Many thanks to everyone who's contributed. This has been fantastically useful for giving me a realistic idea of what I should aim to cover and has rapidly clarified my thinking. As I said in an earlier reply, I want to treat each novel in a reasonable amount of detail, so I'm going to have to shorten (extremely significantly!) the time period I'll cover and use James Salter's superb Solo Faces as my starting point. I shall certainly still be reading some of the other suggestions but that will just be for my personal pleasure. It does strike me that the majority of the novels in the new list can stand as serious literature. Those that are less ambitious in their style might have to have more perfunctory treatments so I can fit into reasonable word limits.

So my revised list is:

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2004)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022)

Any more suggestions for climbing-themed UK & US novels (no short stories, poetry or translations) published since 1979?

Damn, I'd forgotten about Breathless, which I did see mentioned in a review of the excellent Native Air. I'll have to add that. You'll have seen from my most recent post that I've rapidly engaged retreat mode and abseiled away from my initial ambitions and my start date is now 1979!

Thanks for starting this thread. I’ve just downloaded One Green Bottle on to my Kindle and got to stuck into it. Loving it so far.

You’ve put me in mind of something I read about ten years back, but of which I’ve forgotten title and author. The climbing was in Cheddar gorge and I seem to remember there was a murder involved. Maybe someone else can fill in details.

Since many paths, though not often travelled, have nevertheless been trodden before:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/97995.Rock_Climbing_Fiction_and_Non_Fic...

https://armchairmountaineer.com/5-of-the-best-mountaineering-novels

https://www.cordee.co.uk/Fiction-prod-15-98-0.html

http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2945241/Good-Climbing-Fiction

A web search for 'climbing in fiction' pulled these links up.  They may help; but as I said, I think you've taken on a substantial job.

T.

Simon Mawer is a favourite author of mine, and I’d read a number of his other novels before finding The Fall. I can remember reading the first few pages which describes a climber soloing a major route. I kept thinking “this is written by a climber”, and was amazed to discover that he wasn’t. In many of his novels, his stories are placed in real locations at particular times. Two excellent examples are The Glass Room (Czechoslovakia in the Nazi era) and Swimming to Ithaca (Cyprus in the 1950s). One thing I like a lot is his choice to deal with unpleasant events like torture while leaving you to imagine the details.

Thanks for the links. It looks like I'll have to  check out The Everest Files and the Joe Simpson novel - but thankfully quite a few of those mentioned I've either already got in my list, or they fall into the fell-walking/mountain setting rather than rock/ice climbing category, or they're before before my new start date of 1979. But you're right - even with this much reduced time scale, there's still more stuff than I expected and it's going to take me a fair bit longer to read it all than I'd planned. Good job it's winter and my ice axes are rusting away in the loft!

I may be wrong (often am) but I thought Simon Mawer had been a climber, before giving up in the 70s after a serious accident on Ben Nevis. I agree, The Fall seemed authentic. 

Mick 

P.S. Which strangely reminds me of Mer de Glace, by Alison Fell. Haven't read it but I think it won the Boardman-Tasker.

Mick, I’m just as (probably more) likely as you to be wrong.

As The Crow Flies - I did try to forget it

As the Crow Flies by Damian Boyd

I'll add that to the list. It looks like it will make an interesting comparison with the US climbing thriller series that kicks off with The Edge of Justice. Can't ignore a novel that features a crime-fighting DI Nick Dixon!

For anyone coming new to the thread, my updated list is now as below. I think this gives an interesting variety, from challenging literary novels with differing degrees of climber autobiography through popular genre thrillers to young adult adventure.

Reading the Rock: Modern UK & US Climbing Novels

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2004)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011)

The Everest Files - Matt Dickinson (2014)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

Breathless - Amy McCullough (2022)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022)

Any more post-1979 novels?

I don’t remember it in detail, but I didn’t abandon it unfinished.

Thin Air by Michelle Paver (2016)

Equal parts climbing story and ghost story, but very good. 

Lots from Gwen Moffat, both pre and post-1979, e.g. the Miss Pink series. 

Mick 

Spot on. He talks about it as a life-changing moment. Many of us will recognise his portrait of 1970s Britain as "a sour, grey place" and the perennial lure for Northern Europeans of the "smells, bells, yells" of the Mediterranean means he is but one of many to have made this move over the centuries.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/28/simon-mawer-once-upon-...

I'd like to include a Miss Pink as representative of the series. Any chance you can point me at a specific title that's post-1979 and features rock/ice climbing, rather than just fell-walking/outdoors setting?

Hi Andy.

I think Lynn has at least a couple of hundred written by women on her book list spreadsheet (women in climbing and mountaineering writing). We are away on hols right now, so email me through my profile here if you are still interested for an update next month. The final edition of Jill Neate's magnum opus list book is cheapish on ABE and it lists all novels he knew of until that 1986 publication date (alongside all the non fiction).

https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/isbn/9780902363823/

Thanks for the link.  I hadn't read that piece before - worth a read.  I think he is a good writer, and keep recommending The Glass Room to people.

Cheers, I will. Cheeky request: could Lynn cast her eye over my list at some convenient point in the future and see if she thinks there are any egregious omissions? Since I'm aiming to write brief reviews cum lit. crit. analyses of each novel I cover, the project is going to take me some time (ie months)!

The final edition of Jill Neate's magnum opus list book is cheapish on ABE and it lists all novels he knew of until that 1986 publication date (alongside all the non fiction).

Since there isn't much overlap between my start date (1979) and that end date, I'm hoping I've now got all/most of the novels from that 7 year period covered.

Thanks for a very useful link. I'm intending to introduce each review with a very brief and selective climbing-related bio, so that will come in extremely handy.

There must be a post-1979 Miss Pink book with climbing, rather than just an outdoors setting but I can't think of it. 

Maybe ask Gwen Moffat herself? 

Mick 

There was one set in Glenbrittle, the Cuillin, a bit above fellwalking I suppose.  She rearranged the cottages and the river for that one.  30 years ago she was my neighbour and she lent me it to read.

Anyone recall HG Wells "Little Mother up the Morderburg"?

https://alpinist.com/features/little-mother-up-the-morderberg/

There is an account of a day rock climbing on Dow Crag in one of the children's Fell Farm Holiday series (iirc they are taken up by a local shepherd, Bill Wetherby?, who climbs), written a bit post war it could have been based on experience of growing up in the 1930s or 40s.

Possibly a bit out of scope but perhaps interesting.

That’s a great find - thank you. I thought I had researched the question “was Simon Mawer a climber” and drawn a blank (or even a negative). He is clearly a better writer than climber. 

Rockhead - American. Not awful, not outstanding. Good enough read esp for the classic American climbing roadtrip.

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman. Not as good.

Loved OGB and Native Air btw. Much more interesting portrayals of the human relationships than a lot of other climbing writing. First on the Rope was OK (only read in English). Can't remember if there's any fiction in A Feeling for Rock-? Prob not but is fab. Climbers I enjoyed a bit less, and definitely a few bits of its time (the reference to someone disabled really jarred for me) but appreciated the references to the local scene in the Peak.

Reviewing climbing fiction is something I've been very interested in (and would love to do) - are you writing this for publication or for yourself, OP? Be interested to see the final result. 

There's also a novel or two about nightclimbing if that fits within your theme - a Barbara Vine (Grasshopper?) and one or two set in Cambridge. Can't immediately remember the name. 

... It turns out there is at least one called The Night Climbers - Ivo Stourton. Can't remember much about it, which might be telling, or might not! 

I like the look of Rockhead and I'd better check out the Kalman. I reviewed A Feeling for Rock when it came out - great book, but outside the scope of this article, which will be novels only. I also included Sarah-Jane in my article on contemporary climbing poets for Climber magazine.

ETA: Just seen your expanded post. I'll probably omit Night Climbers on the grounds that it's buildering(!) - although when I was in my second year at Cambridge I had a garret room with a window that opened directly onto the roofs in the centre of the city. Sadly I was more into partying and practical criticism than climbing at the time so never made the most of what was right outside my windowsill!

I'm essentially writing this for myself, but if it goes ok and can be kept within reasonable word limits I hope it can appear in an issue or two of Climber.

If you're interested in reviewing climbing fiction you could pick a favourite, write it up and post it on here and see what response you get. I think you'd be on relatively safe ground - although UKC can be a bit of a tough crowd when it comes to original creative work - particularly poetry!

OK. Will try to help. One other thing, Lynn was a Banff judge so we met and saw photo exhibition work from the surge of recent Canadian women writers in 2019.

Thanks.

Yes, not nightclimbing when at Cambridge was one of my great regrets too, though fond memories of sneaking out onto the roof. Fwiw tangentially - I enjoyed Climbing Days as the only book I've come across that combined lit crit, climbing and Cantabrigiana (for want of a better word).

Best of luck. 

I really must read Climbing Days. Better get a few of these novels done first though I guess. I was at Caius in the early 70s, with Jeremy Prynne as my Director of Studies. The only thing since that has  come close to the adrenaline buzz of his tutorials is soloing at the edge of my technical ability!

Climbers, The Fall and Black Car Burning are all Brilliant.

Have you considered the following?

Hooker and Brown by Jerry Auld 2009

Hazards Way by Roger Hubank 2001

The Water People by Joe Simpson 1992

I’m following this thread with real interest, good luck unearthing some great fiction.

I was referring to the book by Pilley's descendent of the same name but I really ought to properly read both to be honest.

I remember reading someone saying something like, 'my years at the college were a time of personal growth and academic decline', and I think that was about right for me.

The Rope Dancer by Rob Leach (2005)

I read this in The Pines below Arapiles just after it was published - it was launched at the Nati Frinj a few days previous. All I can remember is that there was some link to Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra which probably went miles over my head. Passed it on to another of the campsite residents in return for Lance Armstrong’s autobiography.

That's interesting. I haven't got any Australian climbing writers on the list. I'll have to see if I can track down a copy without paying through the nose. Can't see my local library being able to get hold of it, unfortunately. Ah, The Pines - what a lovely place that was to chill out in between one great route after another.

ETA: Anyone got a copy of The Rope Dancer they wouldn't mind lending out?

Manda Scott wrote a trio of mystery/crime novels with protagonist Kellen Stewart.  At least one features some well written climbing scenes.  

Hazards Way by Hubank won the BT and is well worth including.

Aldous Huxley - Island. Features rock climbing as a religious sacrament. Bit surprising as Huxley was practically blind.

Charles MacHardy - the Ice Mirror. Sometimes there are flashes that he DID know what he was talking about...

Al Alvarez - Hers. I think this features a rock climber, but it's over 49 years since I read it.

All sound interesting, particularly the Huxley - but they now fall outside the scope of my project, which I've rapidly scaled back in the interests of self-preservation and leaving myself the odd moment to do some actual climbing as opposed to just reading  about it! It's now only "modern" climbing novels, arbitrarily defined as starting with Solo Faces in 1979, since it's such a good book I can't bear not to include it.

Cheers. I'll definitely add the first two - the Hubank does look very good. For the Simpson, I'll just mention it when reviewing The Sound of Gravity, which sounds like the stronger novel. I'm going to adopt this approach for anyone who's written more than one within the time frame.

Is Stronger than Death (1999) the one you're thinking of?

Probably, although I’ve read Nightmares as well.  

Provoked by your list-making activities, I started reading this.

I know that we all have different ideas about what makes a novel good or not, and I'm only about half-way through, but don't get your hopes up.  So far it's a bag of ridiculousness and cliches glued together by clunky prose.  Having waded this deep into it I will finish reading it but only because I'm a stubborn bugger.

The fact that this book has won an award of some kind rather beggars belief.

But, different strokes and all that.  You might think it's the very hedgehog's flea comb.  Rather obviously, I don't.

T.

I had assumed it was going to be a popular genre thriller, like a number of others in the list  - eg the ones with climbing detectives - so although I wasn't expecting any great literary heights, I hoped it might be fun. Oh well, I do read very fast so it needn't detain me too long. I'm clearly going to have to write very different amounts when reviewing serious literary efforts, as opposed to the more disposable genre productions. Eg I've written about 800 words on Solo Faces - but something like this will probably have to make do with 150/200. I'm now also thinking I should award stars as indicators of quality, as for routes - probably Scottish style, to give me up to four to play with.

Yes, it did. An affair between the young protagonist and an older woman, iirc. He ends up on the Yellow Edge ("A VS from heaven"). Climbing as salvation. 

'Not yours, my love

 Hers.'

Alvarez was a superb writer. 

Mick 

Not one of mine... I got an invite but declined  (I was seen on an occasional early morning climb over high locked gates with a unicycle hooked on my shoulder 'ice tool style'). It wasn't the climbing risk so much that bothered me, getting sent down would have been devastating for me, whereas for the rich and feckless it would be a bump in the road and a grand tale.

Since some time has elapsed since the last suggestion, I think we must be getting close to a definitive list, based on the collective knowledge of UKC. This is what I've got: 

Reading the Rock: Modern UK & US Climbing Novels (1979-)

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001)*

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2004)

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)**

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006) (+The Ascent - 1992)***

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011) (+The Water People - 1992)***

The Everest Files - Matt Dickinson (2014)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Breathless - Amy McCullough (2022)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022)

*North Wall, his first novel originally published in 1978, just misses out.

**If I can find a copy I'll extend the scope of the survey to include Australian novels.

***I'll mention the other novel(s) but I'll write about what looks the best.

If I can track down a Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria, I'll include that. More research needed.

Check back in a year or so for my top five reads of the modern era!

A good list, though personally I would choose Angels of Light as the Jeff Long book. It's a better yarn based on the Yosemite marihuana plane crash if I recall correctly (I'm away so no access to my library)

Good tip and I do prefer the sound of that, but I found an old ex-library copy of The Wall cheaply and I can't find a similar Angels of Light. I happened to be in the valley when they screened what I think was a preview of Valley Uprising and some of those involved were in the audience. Much cheering. Great fun.  I'll add Angels to the list and I'll keep looking. Cheers.

Happy to lend it if required.

Peter 

Thanks, that's very generous. If I can't track a cheap copy down over the next couple of months I'll get back in touch.

Alex Roddie's two novels, The Only Genuine Jones, 2012, and The Atholl Expedition, 2014 

Novels based on (some but not all) actual events - both quite entertaining.

Can't resist an adventure featuring Aleister Crowley. I'll add it to the list.

Found a copy in the Alpine Club Library - strangely, since the collection of climbing fiction is patchy.  Anyway, it's in and will get reviewed once I've made  a trip to London.

Fair. So did I, actually, back in the days when just including the word 'Whipplesnaith'* on very proto-fb led to furtive invitations. I was scared of being sent down, told off, and utterly lacking in physical courage, at least some of which I've retained. I since found that it was friends of friends who put the Santa hats on the statues halfway up the wall of Caius, though.

*The book was brought back into print when I was a Fresher I think. Obviously fantabulously exciting for an 18yo. Best I got was climbing out the window and going up the ladder onto the roof where the porters went to put the flag up at my college, and leaning into the wall hurriedly when I realised the Master could see right out of her window or the Porter was having a fag right below me. I regret not exploring all over those rooves, though perhaps now might (??) not have gone up there in snow.

The Burgess Book of Lies 😉

Every time I update the list it seems to lure another novel out of the hive mind, but I'm going to risk it again so it's as comprehensive as I can make it for anyone who wants to use it for reference.

Reading the Rock: Modern UK, US & Oz Climbing Novels (1979-)

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Angels of Light - Jeff Long (1987) (+The Ascent-1992 & The Wall-2006)*

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001)**

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2004)

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011) (+The Water People - 1992)*

The Only Genuine Jones - Alex Roddie (2012)

The Everest Files - Matt Dickinson (2014)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Breathless - Amy McCullough (2022)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022)

*I'll mention the other novels, but write about what looks best.

**North Wall, his first novel originally published in 1978, just misses out.

If I can track down a Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria, I'll include that. More research needed.

Check back in a year or so for my top five reads of the modern era!

Traverse of the Gods - Bob Langley (1982)  Yes, the Pebble Mill presenter, - enjoyable read.

That's quite a surprising one. I'll add it to the list.

Boris on the Mountain:  Nick Bruna

But does it meet my rock/ice climbing criterion or is it essentially fell-walking? I'm struggling to find a decent plot summary online.

I was watching this thread in case a book called "Survive!" turned up... I never did track it down. https://www.ukhillwalking.com/forums/culture_bunker/trying_to_find_a_book-7180...

Essentially fell-walking but he did do a winter one  - sorry, a silly moment - i have a copy above my desk! 

I realised it was an early reader when I checked it out, so my comment was rather tongue in cheek. In fact, it would be lovely to be able to include an early reader that did have actual climbing. Gap in the market? Boris Goes Bouldering? The youngest I've got is the young adult adventure of The Everest Files.

There is a lovely toddlers bouldering story from a female Japanese competition climber (with an English translation)... forgotten the names for now but the illustrations were glorious.

Got it:  Ashima Shiraishi's  'How To Solve A Problem'

There is also a 'Scratch & Co'  kids story about an anthropomorphic climbing cat. Only flicked through that so far but it was highly recommended by a friend who is big on climbing literature. Probably predates your '79 cut off though.

Just checked Rum Doodle is from the 50s.

Shit....my brain is so stuck on women's fiction I forgot Caff's first novel Eleri... the most recent climbing novel I've read (almost non stop)... I loved it: its like a modern graphic novel on the welsh climbing scene and troubled life in Snowdonia has been magically transformed into text. I can't see it winning awards but I found it totally compelling.

Top tip. I'm surprised I forgot about Eleri. That's a must to go in. I'll check out the early readers. Cheers.

You're right about the Scratch & Co book. Looks great fun - a sort of Rum Doodle with cats - but it was first published in 1968.

A Diadem anthology from the 1980s 'One Step in the Clouds' (ed Audrey Salkeld) has masses of climbing fiction, including four novels, and loads of short stories. Can be found second-hand online quite easily. It is much cheaper to obtain 'One Green Bottle' this way than to try to get the original book, which is rare. It also has a survey of climbing writing and huuuge bibliography.

'One Green Bottle' was condemned as immoral by the then Bishop of Chester, on account of its heroine's unorthodox way of obtaining her first pair of climbing boots.

Sounds like an excellent way of getting OGB. What are the other novels it includes?

North Wall by Roger Hubank; Solo Faces by James Salter; Vortex by David Harris.

I've got the anthology, but I haven't read those yet, just One Green Bottle and a number of the short stories.

Solo Faces is outstanding. Salter gets compared to Hemingway, but I think he's a better stylist.  And he has the advantage of not having that daft remark about mountaineering, sports and games attributed to him!

Vortex by David Harris (1990) is another one to add to my list. I assume it's based on the same Yosemite plane crash as Angels of Light, so will make for an interesting comparison. Hopefully I'm getting close to definitive now!

I'd be gobsmacked if that's true. I know there at least a few on Lynn's list and almost  certainly some Canadian women novelists have published new stuff since 2019 (the scene at Banff was impressive). You may even have missed some from Banff short lists; like Peak by Eric Sparling:

https://books.google.com/books/about/Peak.html?id=RLjmzgEACAAJ

Well, I'll keep adding to the list so it's a useful reference. As to writing mini-reviews of everything, I'll see if I can cover the first twenty years in an article or two. I'm doing Bloomsday in Dublin this year, and I need some time to re-read a bit of Joyce!

I've always had a soft spot for Solo Faces. When it was remaindered (the sad fate of so many good books), I bought every copy in the shop (about half a dozen) and gave them to people.

Having said that, I find Salter's bleak, emotionless prose too chilling. And changing his name to a WASP one, to more easily access the literary world?  A step too far, for me. 

But if you like him, read The Hunters, which is brilliant and aches to be filmed. It takes a cold, bitter look at American heroes - and the true heroes, so often dying alone and forgotten. 

Mick 

Vortex starts with the premise of the Yosemite plane crash but soon diverges away from the facts, as a novel is entitled to do of course. I would recommend Angels of Light as being more worthy of inclusion if you have to choose.

Thanks. I'll aim to include them both and perhaps draw a comparison. But since I've tracked down and bought a copy of Angels of Light it's definitely going in!

You may well already know this, but Solo Faces was originally commissioned as a film script by Robert Redford. When it was rejected it became the novel and some of the most dramatic scenes retain a cinematic quality. On a nerdy note, Salter was also the scriptwriter of Redford's ski move Downhill Racer, later immortalised as a gritstone E4 at Froggat. Which, sadly, I haven't done.

My understanding is that it wasn't rejected, per se. But, after the prominence of The Eiger Sanction, apparently Redford felt that another climbing film would be a bit like stale pudding. So, not Salter's fault and I gather that Redford and he remained on good terms. 

Downhill Racer is definitely worth doing. Best not to fall off though. Drummond had it as a party piece and one day, when he wasn't paying attention, he did fall off. Dusted himself off and got back on again. (Instead of limping away, as the rest of us would probably do.)

Mick 

P.S. A mate once fell off the nearby Long John's. Went to the doc for a sick note. The doc said, "Where does it hurt?" Dave muttered, "Everywhere!"

There are quite a few other YA novels. I haven't read any of them, so can't comment on quality, but if you want your list to be a definite one:

- Peak Marcello's Adventures - a series of 4 novels by Roland Smith

- The Art of Holding On and Letting Go by Kristin Lenz

- Valley Girls by Sarah Lemon

- Shadow of the Mountain by Anna MacKenzie, although I think she's not US/UK based.

- A couple of fantasy / climbing books by Heather Fawcett

That's fascinating. I didn't realise so much YA climbing stuff had been produced in the States. I think I'll sort out dates for them and then create a separate YA list. Hopefully I'll get round to reading a few - eventually! I always enjoyed doing so when I was an English teacher.

UK, US & NZ Young Adult Climbing Fiction (2000-)

The Shadow of the Mountain - Anna Mackenzie (2008)

Peak Marcello Adventures: Peak, The Edge, Ascent, Descent - Roland Smith (2008, 2015, 2018, 2020)

The Everest Files 1, 2 & 3 - Matt Dickinson (2014, 2016, 2017)

The Art of Holding On and Letting Go - Kristin Lenz (2016)

Valley Girls - Sarah Lemon (2018)

(Can't decide whether to include the Heather Fawcett fantasy novel Even The Darkest Stars (2017))

Heather Fawcett is NoLL (not on Lynn's list) so thanks for that!

My view is Sci-fi and Fantasy, like youth fiction, are superb media to express the feel of an activity, in a way that might seem forced in a novel.... much as The Weirdstone of Brisingamen did for caving. I'd read it and see how evocative the climbing is.

An very worthwhile project I think and I'd be interested to see what you have to say about the books and any strong recommendations. Having read a number of the titles mentioned, my own feeling has always been that they have fallen a bit short for me when measured against other fiction. This might sometimes be because the climbing has not rung true (I'm sure that, say, anglers might feel the same about much angling-based fiction!), or, conversely, they have been written by climbers who might have been better sticking to non-fiction; in fact I suspect that the remarkable wealth of outstanding climbing-based non fiction makes it hard for fiction to break through. I suspect the best of them are novels where the climbing is incidental rather than central to the book.

I did really enjoy James Ramsey Ullman's "The White Tower" as a great bit if escapism during lockdown though!

I'd recommend trying Jonathan Howland's recent Banff prize-winner Native Air (2022). It's a fine novel where the climbing is absolutely central and extremely authentic. Only published in US hardback, but available on Kindle. 

Thanks, shall look it up!

Glad you enjoyed it, Robert. I read it as an impressionable 12 year old and loved it. 

Back in the '70s, 'the golden age of splenetic reviewing' (well, at least in climbing literature), predictably it got trashed. Unfairly so, I thought. 

Mick

Fell's later novel 'Tricks of the Light' includes a lightly fictionalised account of her relationship with climber Dave Cook (and his sad death cycling in Turkey), and a few climbing scenes in Pembroke. He is renamed Al something in the book, I think.

Here's the latest update, incorporating recent suggestions. It now identifies novels that won the Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature (BT) and the Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize (BGP). Interestingly no fiction seems to have won the Boardman-Tasker since 2003.   I also take a pop at how I'll divide it up into different periods when I write the reviews. Part One will include a brief introduction, identifying some common themes. It no longer includes Young Adult novels, which will have a separate list. Any more for any more?

Reading the Rock: Modern UK, US & Oz Climbing Novels (1979-)

Part One: 1979-1989

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Traverse of the Gods - Bob Langley (1982)

Angels of Light - Jeff Long (1987) (+The Ascent-1992 (BT) & The Wall-2006 (BGP))*

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989) (BT)

Part Two: 1990-2003

Vortex - David Harris (1990)

Mer de Glace - Alison Fell (1991) (BT)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001) (BT) (BGP)**

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2003) (BT)

Part Three: 2004-2019

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011) (+The Water People - 1992)*

The Only Genuine Jones - Alex Roddie (2012)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

Part Four: 2019-

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Breathless - Amy McCullough (2022)

Peak - Eric Sparling (2022)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022) (BGP)

Eleri - James Mchaffie (2023)

*The novel in the main list gets reviewed, the others get mentioned. And yes, I have chosen the only Jeff Long not to win a prestigious prize, but I can't resist the story of the Yosemite marijuana plane crash!

**This looks like the only novel to have won both prizes, so I'm really looking forward to reading it.

If I can track down a Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria, I'll include that. More research needed.

Ah, I didn't know that. Thank you. 

Mick 

This should make for an interesting comparison with another recent supernatural chiller, Michelle Paver's Thin Air (2016), which is pretty good. Nice comparisons between two (fictional) British expeditions to Kanchenjunga, one in the heyday of Empire and one in its twilight. 

OK ...found an old emailed backup. I've no idea of the quality or fit for your task of most of these books, as the best known and most of those one or the other of us have read are already on your list.

I helped Lynn put this list together by copying titles from various lists, bibliographies, personal  recommendations etc. Your view on fit to your criteria will help her as she grows her collection prioritising the most relevant,  so she can recommend the best writing to highlight and inspire women writers (or, as she is from Yorkshire, can spot a bargain ). For fiction she only owns about a quarter of those on the list (less than that pre 1978).

Copying more than one title at a time is clunky on my tablet, and sometimes things will crash, so I'll just try and do A to D by surname in small groups, to give you an idea of scale, and get a better sorted list when we are back in the UK.

She has copies of these:

Andrews, Lucilla: The Crystal Gull, Harrap, 1978

Baker, Deborah: The Last Englishman: love, war & the end of empire, Graywolf, 2018

On the list (to F):

Barrie, Patricia:  Songs of Silence, Honno, 1999

Fell, Alison: Tricks of the Light, Doubleday, 2003

I know poetry and short story collections are out of your spec but there is so much good stuff there and they are much less common than novels.

Fewer than I remembered as most were pre '78 (and a few undated on the list... and I don't want to waste your time checking).

I've fixed on 1979 as my start date so I can kick off with Solo Faces. This genre romance just misses, but it looks like it's mountain setting that's important, rather than climbing per se.

This looks fascinating, but it's history and biography, rather than fiction. Could be a worthy companion/sequel to Wade Davis's magisterial Into The Silence. 

It looks like this is another where the mountain provides the setting, but not for climbing.

I'll be reviewing her Boardman-Tasker winning Mer de Glace, so I'll mention this then. Looks like the climbing might be quite incidental and confined to flashbacks. See kmsands comments above.

I wrote a couple of articles on climbing poetry, so I feel I've had my fun with that. The first was historical and featured Geoffrey Winthrop Young, Ed Drummond and Andrew Greig. It was selective in that it missed out Wilfred Noyce and David Craig - although his Native Stones is brilliant I could only find a couple of climbing-specific poems. The second was contemporary and featured Mark Goodwin, David Wilson, Helen Mort and Sarah-Jane Dobner. I'm sure Lynn will have all the stuff by the last two on her list. I've since reviewed John Porter's A Path of Shadows, which is an important addition to the genre. I'm leaving out short stories just to keep the project manageable.

Please keep the possibilities coming. Even if I'm only eliminating stuff, it's a valuable way to build confidence that the list is getting closer to comprehensive.

All fine.

Sorry, I thought the Baker book was a novel set in a historical context with real characters. Barrie's is I think set in Snowdonia (NZ published?).

As for modern poetry works, a notable extra is Faye Latham whom we saw presenting her erasure poetry at Kendal.

https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/literature/between_the_lines_of_british...

Argably the most important single author short story collections from women (post '78) are the three books from Anne Sauvy ('91 to '95)

Yes, I do like this. I'd certainly include her if I was doing the contemporary poets article now.

But they are translations from French & Andy has already ruled out translations.

speaking of mountaineering murder mysteries from the 90s there is Gillian Linscott's Widow's Peak set on the Chamonix side of Mont Banc complete with glaciers revealing bodies of Victorian era climbers from decades before.

Quite entertaining with a decent period feel I thought and read it at least twice.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Widows-Peak-Nell-Bray-Mystery/dp/0751513563

Sure, but that just seems a bit arbitrary when so many UK climbers have enjoyed them in English. If anything one could argue justifying hardback translations normally means better average literary quality. How many other great climbing fiction publications can you name that were translated into English, as a matter of interest?

I've only read them in French but haven't some of Roger Frison-Roche's novels been published in English ? Maybe 'Premier de cordée' ?

But its clear that only a small fraction of  non-English mountaineering fiction has been translated into English.

Sounds interesting and I'll add that to the list. I'm building up quite a sub-genre of mountaineering murder mysteries.

I get twitchy doing stylistic analysis on the basis of translations because I can't be sure I've got the true rhythms of the prose or all the nuances of any wordplay. It's only a tiny part of the project, but it is a part that matters to me, given my prat crit programming. Maybe I'll get to short stories and works in translation as a separate project - but that could be some time off!

Dermot Somers.

His short story collection 'Mountains and other Ghosts' is beautifully written. And there's another one 'At the Rising of the Moon', I've not read those.

He's written a mountaineering themed novel 'Buaic', in Irish, don't know if that counts, it appears not to have been translated into English.

Edit: looks like translations are out of scope anyway....

These look excellent, and I note he won the Boardman-Tasker for the latter, but I'm sticking to novels only, to keep things manageable. I may come back to short story collections - but it's going to take me a couple of years to work through all the modern novels.

Yes, I'm keeping it to novels originally written in English.

Has anyone mentioned The Condition Of Ice by Christopher Burns? : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Condition-Ice-Christopher-Burns-ebook/dp/B009S8HO1...

No - and if Kazuo Ishiguro thinks it's "beautiful" then it definitely needs to be in.

There haven't been any further suggestions for a few days, so I assume the list must be getting close to comprehensive. Here's the latest update.

Reading the Rock: Modern UK, US & Oz Climbing Novels (1979-)

Part One: 1979-1990

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Traverse of the Gods - Bob Langley (1982)

Angels of Light - Jeff Long (1987)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989) (BT)

Vortex - David Harris (1990)

Part Two: 1991-2003

Mer de Glace - Alison Fell (1991) (BT) (+Tricks of the Light - 2003)*

The Ascent - Jeff Long (1992) (BT)**

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

Widow's Peak - Gillian Linscott (1995)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001) (BT) (BGP)***

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2003) (BT)

Part Three: 2004-2018

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006) (BGP)

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011) (+The Water People - 1992)*

The Condition of Ice - Christopher Burns (2012)

The Only Genuine Jones - Alex Roddie (2012)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Part Four: 2019-

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Breathless - Amy McCulloch (2022)

Peak - Eric Sparling (2022)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022) (BGP)

Eleri - James Mchaffie (2023)

(BT) = Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature winner.

(BGP) = Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize winner.

*The novel in the main list gets reviewed, the others get mentioned.

**Decided I had to review all the Jeff Long novels, given that I couldn't resist the story of the Yosemite marijuana plane crash and the two subsequent novels were both prize winners.

***This looks like the only novel to have won both prizes, so I'm really looking forward to reading it.

If I can track down a Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria, I'll include that. More research needed.

Grounded with a dodgy stomach so time for a few more possibles, mostly thrillers & horror:

Jones, Susanna: When Nights Were Cold, Pan Macmillan, 2014 

https://www.amazon.in/When-Nights-Were-Cold-literary/dp/0330544845

Lotz, Sarah: The White Road 2017

McCulloch, Amy: Breathless,  2022?

Neel, Janet: Death on Site, 1989 .... climbing accidents one of which could be a murder

Simmons, Dan : The Abominable 2013 

Suppe, Isabel: Starry Night, Romeii, 2013... original in Spanish but translated by the author

Sorry I missed Breathless was already in.

The genre crime/thriller/horror works are starting to build up. At first I was surprised at how few there seemed to be .

Hails from my home town of Wolverhampton. Can't ignore anyone with such impeccable roots.

600+ pages and very divided reviews. Not sure I should thank you for this one but it has to be investigated.

From the scant information I've been able to find, this seems to be more autobiography than fiction (like Paul Pritchard's superb The Totem Pole?). I'll keep it in mind though.

Many thanks for the contributions. Please let me know when you've got to Z - I won't be able to relax until I know you have!

I think I'll abandon the idea of segmenting the project into rough decades and just approach it as a rolling programme. The list should be a useful reference for anyone who wants to save it. As to reviews, the genre novels where climbing exists primarily to supply an exciting context will have to get significantly less detailed treatments than the novels where the physical and emotional experience of climbing is central.

I've 'done the alphabet' from the list, except the novels where I have no date, and a few minor thrillers with no obvious climbing content.

The intro to this may explain a bit more about Simmons (and its a fair critique of Hyperion which initially I found facinating but became cynical about). He also wrote The Terror (turned into a TV series) an Arctic horror story with annoying appropriation and distortion from native tribal legends.

https://mythcreants.com/blog/building-hyperion-how-simmons-scattered-his-wo...

Cheers. I'll post an updated list later. 

I'm still undecided about this. It looks like an excellent read, which I need to get round to - but can you give me some idea of how big a part the climbing plays? Pretty much everything else on the list is either a literary novel where climbing and the climber's world are central, or a genre crime/thriller/horror where it provides an exciting context. I think I might feel a bit presumptuous knocking a star off the Helprin because it doesn't include "enough" climbing in its 800 pages - although I felt I had to do that with Electric Brae, given the context of the reviews.

Another Chris Kalman book. Sounds very interesting, beautiful, topical and hard to get hold of. Must be worth a mention.

https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201216155

Plus, Mysterium by Susan Froderberg

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36348560-mysterium

....and: Summit, Harry Farthing, 2017

Here's the latest update. I've abandoned the division into eras, so it's now a straightforward chronological bibliography. It's a real mix. On the one hand, we have literary novels where the physical and emotional experience of climbing, and the society of the climbers' world, are absolutely central. Often, these are written by authors with varying degrees of personal experience of rock climbing and mountaineering. On the other we have genre crime/thriller/horror, where climbing provides an exciting and unusual context for what can be fairly standard characters and plot devices. And we have a few novels that fall somewhere in between. Based on what I've read so far, some of the "literary" novels are not that great and some of the genre works are rather good.

I intend to review these on a rolling programme. The genre works will inevitably get a less detailed treatment since I'll be looking at them from a climber's point of view. I've decided to use a five star grading system (ie Scottish super). I've no idea yet how I'll go about publishing the reviews, but the list will hopefully be a useful bibliography for anyone interested. I'll be sending a copy to The Alpine Club Librarian fairly soon - so please let me have any last-minute recommendations.

Reading the Rock: Modern UK, US & Oz Climbing Novels (1979-)

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Traverse of the Gods - Bob Langley (1982)

Angels of Light - Jeff Long (1987)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989) (BT)

Death on Site - Janet Neel (1989)

Vortex - David Harris (1990)

Mer de Glace - Alison Fell (1991) (BT) (+Tricks of the Light - 2003)*

A Soldier of the Great War - Mark Helprin (1991)**

The Ascent - Jeff Long (1992) (BT)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

Widow's Peak - Gillian Linscott (1995)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001) (BT) (BGP)***

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2003) (BT)

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006) (BGP)

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011) (+The Water People - 1992)*

The Condition of Ice - Christopher Burns (2012)

When Nights Were Cold - Susanna Jones (2012)

The Abominable - Dan Simmons (2013)

The Only Genuine Jones - Alex Roddie (2012)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Summit - Harry Farthing (2017)

The White Road - Sarah Lotz (2017)

Mysterium - Susan Froderberg (2018)

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Damned If You Don't - Chris Kalman (2021)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022) (BGP)

Breathless - Amy McCulloch (2022)

Peak - Eric Sparling (2022)

Eleri - James Mchaffie (2023)

38 reviews (40 novels in all)

(BT) = Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature winner.

(BGP) = Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize winner.

*The novel in the main list gets reviewed, the other gets mentioned.

**This may have to be included for the beauty of its climbing passages, even if they only play a small part in the book as a whole.

***The only novel to have won both prizes.

Still haven't been able to track down a Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria.

His novels do look beautifully produced. Someone gave me a rather unimpressed review of his previous book, As Above So Below, although the blurb describes it as reminiscent of Solo Faces, which is high praise indeed. Will have to see for myself. I'll be sending the bibliography to the Alpine Club Librarian soon. The collection of climbing fiction could really do with improving, so hopefully they might splash out on some additions, including the Kalmans.

A novel that evokes the three books of Dante's Divine Comedy and whose heroine emerges as a Beatrice-like figure! Can't fault its ambition. Look forward to it. If I ever get round to some kind of proper publication of my own poems, one of my epigraphs will be from the Purgatorio:  ...la montagna che dirizza voi che'l mondo fece torti (the mountain which straightens you whom the world made crooked).

Since there haven't been any suggestions for a good few days, this is the slightly updated list I'm going to work from. I'll be sending an annotated  copy to the Alpine Club Librarian. I hope it will prove useful in ensuring that one of the world's greatest collections of mountaineering literature stays up to date. The only minor changes are a couple of additions that my continuing research has unearthed and the decision to review every novel separately, though in some cases these will be very brief summaries.

Reading the Rock: Modern UK, US & Oz Climbing Novels (1979-)

Solo Faces - James Salter (1979)

Calculated Risk - Dougal Haston (1979)

Take it to the Limit - Lucy Rees & Al Harris (1981)

Traverse of the Gods - Bob Langley (1982)

East of Everest - Bob Langley (1984)

Angels of Light - Jeff Long (1987)

Climbers - M John Harrison (1989) (BT)

Death on Site - Janet Neel (1989)

Vortex - David Harris (1990)

Mer de Glace - Alison Fell (1991) (BT)

A Soldier of the Great War - Mark Helprin (1991)*

The Ascent - Jeff Long (1992) (BT)

Electric Brae - Andrew Greig (1992)

The Water People - Joe Simpson (1992)

Widow's Peak - Gillian Linscott (1995)

Stronger Than Death - Manda Scott (1999)

Hazard's Way - Roger Hubank (2001) (BT) (BGP)

The Edge of Justice - Clinton McKinzie (2002)

The Fall - Simon Mawer (2003) (BT)

Tricks of the Light - Alison Fell (2003)

The Rope Dancer - Rob Leach (2005)

The Wall - Jeff Long (2006) (BGP)

Hooker and Brown - Jerry Auld (2009)

The Sound of Gravity - Joe Simpson (2011)

The Condition of Ice - Christopher Burns (2012)

When Nights Were Cold - Susanna Jones (2012)

The Abominable - Dan Simmons (2013)

The Only Genuine Jones - Alex Roddie (2012)

Taking Leave - Roger Hubank (2014)

As The Crow Flies - Damien Boyd (2015)

Thin Air - Michelle Paver (2016)

Summit - Harry Farthing (2017)

The White Road - Sarah Lotz (2017)

Mysterium - Susan Froderberg (2018)

As Above, So Below - Chris Kalman (2019)

Black Car Burning - Helen Mort (2019)

Rockhead - Sean Toren (2019)

Damned If You Don't - Chris Kalman (2021)

Native Air - Jonathan Howland (2022) (BGP)

Breathless - Amy McCulloch (2022)

Peak - Eric Sparling (2022)

Eleri - James Mchaffie (2023)

42 novels

(BT) = Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature winner.

(BGP) = Banff Mountain Book Festival Grand Prize winner.

*This may have to be included for the beauty of its climbing passages, even if they only play a small part in the book as a whole.

Still haven't been able to decide on a post-1979 Miss Pink mystery by Gwen Moffat that meets my criteria, despite reading through summaries of all the novels in the series. Any help gratefully received.