"Tides describes Nick’s highs and lows, his peaks and troughs, the times when things go well and ambitions are fulfilled, and those occasions when failure, fear, self-doubt or grief are present. "
As I first approached Nick’s second account of his life as a professional mountain climber, I thought the title a little unusual. I wondered if, perhaps, it is a term peculiar to the world he inhabits. Not so, I discovered as I read. It is far more generic, and a more apt title for his story I could not imagine.
Tides describes Nick’s highs and lows, his peaks and troughs, the times when things go well and ambitions are fulfilled, and those occasions when failure, fear, self-doubt or grief are present.
I read Tides at a time when reports are coming in of climbers killed in India, of more deaths on Everest and, like many, I wonder what it is that drives people like these to push themselves to the very limits of human physical and mental endurance as they tackle such a perilous pursuit.
Tides answers this question. You will read not only about the achievement and the challenges but also the nature that surrounds the climber – something we, from our comfortable armchairs will likely never see. You will be transported to Nick’s world, to experience raw and inhospitable landscapes, to witness bravery and, in doing so, to enjoy it with him.
Read it. And thank people like Nick Bullock for bringing this world into ours.
| Primary Genre | Travel |
| Other Genres: |
Winner, Mountain Literature (Non-Fiction) Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018 Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick's second book, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut Echoes. Now retired from the strain of work as a prison officer, Nick is free to climb. A lot. Tides is a treasury of his antics and adventures with some of the world's leading climbers, including Steve House, Kenton Cool, Nico Favresse, Andy Houseman and James McHaffie. Follow Nick and his partners as they push the limits on some of the world's most serious routes: The Bells! The Bells! and The Hollow Man on Gogarth's North Stack Wall; the Slovak Direct on Denali; Guerdon Grooves on Buachaille Etive Mor; and the north faces of Chang Himal and Mount Alberta, among countless others. Nick's life can be equated to the rhythm of the sea. At high tide, he climbs, he loves it, he is good at it; he laughs and jokes, scares himself, falls, gets back up and climbs some more. Then the tide goes out and he finds himself alone, exposed, all questions and no answers. Self-doubt, grieving for friends or family, fearful, sometimes opinionated, occasionally angry - his writing more honest and exposed than in any account of a climb. Only when the tide turns is he able to forget once more. Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one's life to climbing.
Tides: A Climber's Voyage features in the following genres: Travel, Biographies & Autobiographies, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Biography, Literature and Literary studies
Tides: A Climber's Voyage is available in Paperback
Tides: A Climber's Voyage was written by Nick Bullock and published by Vertebrate Publishing
Tides: A Climber's Voyage has 256 pages
£13.46
