Ep 19 - Tides Audiobook (Chapter 1) Artwork

Inspiring Adventure by Vertebrate Publishing

Inspiring Adventure is the official podcast from Vertebrate Publishing and we hope that our episodes help inspire you to seek your own adventures. We want to connect all – young and old – with the outdoors and the positive impact it can have on well-being. We think it’s particularly important that young people get outside and explore the natural world. At Vertebrate Publishing we publish award winning books to inspire adventure. It’s our rule that the only books we publish are those that we’d want to read or use ourselves; beautiful books that stand the test of time and that you’ll be proud to have on your bookshelf for years to come. Everyone in the Vertebrate Publishing team are driven by their own passion for the outdoors, for exploration and for the natural world. Now we're sharing that passion with listeners as well as readers! Our podcast host is Rae Helm. She spent her great swathes of her childhood out in the UK's first National Park, the Peak District, making escapades in the outdoors a favourite pastime. That could mean climbing with the family along Stanage, camping in Snowdonia or striding along the Cotswolds - she's always looking for the next adventure! Visit our website: https://bit.ly/2pDUU3n

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Inspiring Adventure by Vertebrate Publishing

Ep 19 - Tides Audiobook (Chapter 1)

May 06, 2020 • Season 1 • Episode 19

This week's episode features a chapter from the award winning Tides by Nick Bullock.

Winner: Mountain Literature Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018
Shortlisted for the 2018 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature

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! 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.