Learning to Breathe

Cave’s memoir takes us from his early days as a coal miner 3000 feet below the surface to his emergence as a high altitude climber. In 1986 he quit his job mining in order to take up mountaineering professionally. He attempted Ama Dablam (1987), Annapurna III (1988), and Gasherbum IV (1993). 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.

Co-winner of the 2005 Boardman-Tasker Award for Mountaineering Literature, Finalist 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival Best Book Mountain Literature, and Winner 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival Best Book Adventure Travel.