Learning to Breathe [Hardcover]

"* 'A tale of split lives fused into one extraordinary story of adventure, laughter, tears and joy' - Joe Simpson * 'A brilliant book, well written, gripping, honest and very moving' - Chris Bonington * 'Andy Cave's compelling autobiography is, like Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, a gripping book on mountaineering that will appeal even to those who didn't know they were interested in climbing.... Cave is a talented writer who brings the emotional and physical aspects of mining and climbing to life in an understated but lyrical tone... Fascinating.' - Observer * 'The story of Andy Cave's transition from Yorkshire coal miner into one of Britain's best climbers echoes the heroic tones of Don Whillans or Joe Brown... Thoughtful and often gripping... Cave explains what it actually feels like to climb the kind of exceptionally dangerous routes that the rest of us, climbers or not, find unimaginable. There are few other climbers with the writing skills to be able to pull this off. There are fewer still who have led such an interesting and varied life as Cave.' - Scotland on Sunday" --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Joint Winner of the Boardman Tasker Prize 2005 and Winner of the Adventure Travel Award - Banff Festival 2005

The extraordinary autobiography of a brilliant young climber who began life as one of the last generation of British miners.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

At age sixteen, Andy Cave followed in his father's and his grandfather's footsteps and became a miner - one of the last recruits into a dying world. Every day he would descend 3,500 feet into the Grimethorpe pit - and for [pound]25, spend up to seven hours in thigh deep water, in the pitch black digging for coal. But at weekends Andy inhabited a very different world - thousands of feet above the pitheads of the colliery. Introduced to his local mountaineering club while a miner, he soon learned to cherish this new-found freedom, high above the slag heaps of his home town. Living through the strikes of the mid-eighties - the guilt, the broken friendships, the poverty - Andy continued to indulge his passion, and in 1986, after much soul-searching, he quit his job as a miner in order to take up mountaineering professionally. In the Himalaya in 1997 Andy achieved one of the hardest climbs ever recorded on one of the steepest and most difficult summits of the world - the north face of Changabang. Seventeen days later, he and two of his teammates - his best friend had already perished in an avalanche - crawled into basecamp, frostbitten and emaciated. His account of this terrifying experience provides a dramatic climax to this extraordinary story. Learning to Breathe is, first and foremost, a lively and humorous memoir, written with energy and insight, about two very different groups of men, each navigating equally inhospitable worlds. Finally, on a larger scale, it is an examination of our ability to draw on inner strengths and the strengths of others.

The extraordinary autobiography of a brilliant young climber who began life as one of the last generation of British miners.

A brilliant book, well-written, gripping, honest and very moving' Chris Bonington

'This passion of mine had started long ago when, as an inquisitive child, I scrambled up the local pit muckstack. Later, as a teenage coalminer disillusioned with the world of dirt and darkness, I had fallen in love with real mountain climbing. That night, approaching the tent on the knife-edge ridge of a Himalayan peak, little did I know that this love affair was about to end. The following four days would be the most harrowing of my life.'

'The story of Andy Cave's transition from Yorkshire coal miner into one of Britain's best climbers echoes the heroic tones of Don Whillans or Joe Brown... Thoughtful and often gripping... Cave explains what it actually feels like to climb the kind of exceptionally dangerous routes that the rest of us, climbers or not, find unimaginable. There are few other climbers with the writing skills to be able to pull this off. There are fewer still who have led such an interesting and varied life as Cave.' Scotland on Sunday

'Andy Cave's compelling autobiography is, like Joe Simpson's Touching the Void, a gripping book on mountaineering that will appeal even to those who didn't know they were interested in climbing.... Cave is a talented writer who brings the emotional and physical aspects of mining and climbing to life in an understated but lyrical tone... Fascinating.' Observer

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See above. Andy Cave was born into a mining family and is now a cutting-edge Alpinist with several formidable first ascents. He also is a University lecturer, with a PhD in the sociology of mining, and a qualified International Mountain Guide.