Product Description

Simon Yates, author of "Against The Wall", takes us back to his early years as a climber, the escapades and excitement of a young life lived on the edge and for the moment, when experience was all important and dramatic achievements and failures came as naturally as the hair raising risks themselves. A mountaineering travelogue of dazzling variety, "The Flame of Adventure" moves from the camaraderie of deprived Russian climbers in the little known peaks in the Tien Shan to the awesome rumbustious motorbike ride across Asia to hitchhiking across Australia with a psychotic lorry driver. We meet a remarkable gallery of climbers, from Doug Scott to Joe Simpson, and, when not exploring high mountains, we enter the bizarre world of rope access workers, mavericks balancing high above building sites on the London skyline.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20779 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Customer Reviews

Great read!
A book by the guy who cut Joe Simpson's rope! I missed his first book, 'Against the Wall' but I'll definitely be buying it because 'Flame of Adventure' was a gripping read. The mountaineering stories were varied and exciting, although I was amazed that Simon Yates chose to dedicate only about a paragraph to the famous events on Siula Grande when he cut the rope to which his climbing partner was attached. Maybe he felt his friend had said it all in 'Touching the Void'. I enjoyed Simon Yates' thoughts on political situations he learned about through travelling and learning about his feelings on third world countries and the situations their people find themselves in. It was also interesting to read about the Russian climbing philosophies and comparisons between the contrasts in climbing and societies and the relationships between them. The main thing I dislike about Simon Yates' style is he seems very detached from his experiences sometimes, almost cold. He tells a great story but he's no Jon Krakauer or Joe Simpson!

Doubts and Dilemma
The content of `The Flame Of Adventure' starts and finishes in the Khan Tengri area of Kazakhstan with explanations on Russians, their values and their rules, and in between there is coverage of experiences (successes and failures) at home and in the Alps, South America, Himalaya, Australia etc. together with reflections on other mountaineers and various characters met on his travels. There is no doubting Simon Yates' superlative skills as a mountaineer, and the exciting and exacting events embraced by his book equate well with the best of mountaineering material. An episodic nature is inevitable with this form of book, but additionally I find the author's writing style stilted and simplistic, and sometimes his explanations on techniques or ethics appear laboured. A more important criticism is that as an author Yates fails to balance a common dilemma faced by mountaineer writers as they grapple to avoid fatiguing readers by downplaying difficulties or deceiving readers by overstatement. In spite of his first-rate subject sources Yates sometimes glosses over his trials and tribulations, yet elsewhere he exaggerates, and this is particularly so for commentaries on his own behaviour. I do not understand him including self-inflicted health troubles, nor his descriptions of ignorant and arrogant attitudes and conduct in dealings with other cultures and customs (including Australians!). What a shame as Simon Yates has great tales to tell. Nevertheless `The Flame Of Adventure' provides a thrilling read, and it should be a welcome addition to the ever-increasing body of mountaineering literature.

Very good
Loved this book. The stories are incredible, and it is written in a pleasant, not overstated way. After all, Mr. Yates does not need overstatement to make us realise how incredible his experiences have been. Hopefully it will wake the world up to the fact that Simon Yates is a mountaineer, not some guy who cut Joe's rope. And a very good mountaineer at that - he deserves more recognition than he gets.