Thin White Line

In 1997, Cave returned from the Himalaya, having climbed the stupendous north face of Changabang, but losing his friend and climbing partner in the process. Traumatized by the ordeal, he examines his relationship with the mountains that have defined his life. Will he have the courage to undertake such a challenge again? Does he want to? Here he charts his struggle towards finding an answer. It is as much a journey into the mind of an extreme mountaineer as it is into the wild landscapes through which he travels.

In this narrative, set in Patagonia, Norway, and Alaska, Cave tackes the severest challenges modern Alpinism can pose. Juxtaposed with the stark beauty of the environment are the colorful characters populating his stories, from the adventurers around him, past and present, to the pioneer aviators who get him and his kind to those impossibly remote places. He vividly recreates the joy and despair of climbing, building the book to a desperate finale that lays bare the fragility of our carefully constructed convictions.

This is the sequel to ‘Learning to Breathe’, Cave’s bestselling debut which was 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.