Daniel Light for The White Ladder

'A beautifully written and sure-footed history of mountaineering "before Everest", full of wonderful stories and spanning continents and centuries. A splendid debut.'

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, author of Shackleton

'Wonderful... a massive story with an enormous cast of characters, among them some of the most compelling figures of mountaineering history.'

Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence

We are delighted to welcome Daniel Light to the bookshop for his new book, The White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering.

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 Ladder offers 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.