White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering

Daniel Light

Book cover for White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering
Book cover for White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering

White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering

White Ladder: Triumph and Tragedy at the Dawn of Mountaineering

Daniel Light

Member Benefits

  • 30% Off All Books - Savings that support storytellers, not stock prices.
  • Fight Book Bans - Every membership sends a book to LGBTQ+ youth in affected states.
Member Book Price
$21.99 $15.39
Non-Member Book Price $21.99

An annual membership will be billed at $48/year.

Discount applies to first-time members only. Already a member? Log in here.
View full details

Description

Whether in the name of conquest, science, or the divine, humans across the centuries have had myriad reasons to climb mountains. From the smoking volcanoes of South America to the great snowy ranges of the Himalaya, The White Ladder follows a cast of extraordinary characters--conquistadors and captains, scientists and surveyors, alpinists and adventurers--up the slopes of the world's highest peaks.

A masterpiece of edge-of-your-seat narrative history, The White Ladder describes the epic rise of mountaineering's world altitude record, a story of ever higher climbs by figures great and small of mountaineering during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Daniel Light describes how climbers used revolutionary techniques to launch themselves into the most forbidding conditions. The expeditions illustrate evolutionary changes in climbing style, the advancement of high-altitude science, and the development of mountain climbing as an industry.

Throughout, Light pays special attention to Incan climbers, Gurkha guides, Sherpa mountaineers, and many others who are often overlooked. He offers nuanced new perspectives on familiar characters, for example, calling out the famed female pioneer Fanny Bullock Workman for racism and for abusing her porters. He presents a complex new portrait of notorious occultist Aleister Crowley, who was at once a ruthless expedition leader, but also an innovative strategist who could read mountains and would risk everything trying to climb them. Light also makes bold new arguments about classic debates, for example, arguing that the much-maligned Jewish climber Oscar Eckenstein shaped mountaineering as we know it today.

A story of innovation, invention, and determination, The White Ladder immerses readers in a fascinating historical period. With their breathtaking exploits, these climbers laid the groundwork for the historic ascents of K2 and Everest that came after--and heightened the spectacle of their dangerous sport.

Critical Reviews

Daniel Light guides the reader through a mountainscape that stretches from the Alps to the Himalaya...with the sure footing of a serious student of climbing history, and the élan of a skilled storyteller. This is a book to curl up with on a cold dark night in a comfortable armchair before a bright fire.--Maurice Isserman, co-athor of Fallen Giants and author of Continental Divide

Why did mountaineers of old risk life and limb to break new ground and scale new summits? In his thrilling answer to this question, Daniel Light delivers stories that are poetic, spiritual, and astonishing in their courage and drive. True climbers remain an esoteric breed but perhaps now they are finally more understandable.--Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No Importance

The White Ladder neatly bridges a lacuna in the history of mountaineering. In elegant prose Daniel Light tracks the trials and achievements of the little-known climbers who preceded and inspired the great Himalayan expeditions of the mid-twentieth century.--John Keay, author of When Men and Mountains Meet

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 Cold and Shackleton

[An] ornate history of earlier mountaineering.--Charles Culkin "New York Times Book Review"

A wonderful book.--Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence

Superb...highly readable, informative, and beautifully researched with a lightness of touch entirely in keeping with its subject matter. I recommend it to anyone who dreams of taking a tilt at the world's highest peaks.--Julie Summers, author of Fearless on Everest

A high-octane history of mountaineering...a spirited, adventuresome chronicle.-- "Publishers Weekly"

A thoughtful, nuanced, engaging history.--Michael O'Donnell "The Wall Street Journal"

Publishing Information

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Pub date: 2026-01-06
Length: 432 pages

The Allstora Membership

Membership Perks:

  • Save 30% on all online store purchases
  • Exclusive access to author's content
  • You pay less, but authors still earn double

Membership Terms:

First Month: $0.00
Monthly price: $5.00
  • To access membership discount simply log in and add to cart, discount applied automatically.
  • One month free trial, cancel anytime. Membership renews on the 15th of each month.