No Easy Way: The challenging life of the climbing taxman. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.No Easy Way: The challenging life of the climbing taxman

‘If we were guaranteed success in everything we tried then life would be pretty boring.’

Mainstream news reports about climbing are dominated by action from the world’s highest mountains, more often than not focusing on tragedy and controversy. Far removed from this high-altitude circus, a group of visionary and specialist mountaineers are seeking out eye-catching objectives in the most remote corners of the greater ranges and attempting first ascents in lightweight style.

Mick Fowler is the master of the small and remote Himalayan expedition. He has been at the forefront of this pioneering approach to alpinism for over thirty years, balancing his family life, a full-time job at the tax office and his annual trips to the greater ranges in order to attempt mountains that may never have been seen before by Westerners, let alone climbed by them.

In No Easy Way, his third volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasure and On Thin Ice, Fowler recounts a series of expeditions to stunning mountains in China, India, Nepal and Tibet. Alongside partners including Paul Ramsden, Dave Turnbull, Andy Cave and Victor Saunders, he attempts striking, technically challenging unclimbed lines on Shiva, Gave Ding and Mugu Chuli – with a number of ascents winning prestigious Piolets d’Or, the Oscars of the mountaineering world.

Written with his customary dry wit and understatement, he manages challenges away – the art of securing a permit for Tibet – and at home – his duties as Alpine Club president – all the while pursuing his passion for exploratory mountaineering.

**Mick Fowler** was introduced to alpine climbing by his father when he was thirteen and soon developed an unstoppable enthusiasm for the mountains. Every weekend through the winter climbing season he would make the long drive from London to tackle new winter routes in the Scottish Highlands, always managing to be back behind his desk in the tax office on Monday morning. His dedication paid off and his climbing career broadened to the extent that he has been at, or near, the top of the field in a wide variety of climbing disciplines. He was one of the first to rock climb at the E6 grade and established the first Scottish winter climb to have an undisputed grade of VI (*Shield Direct* on Ben Nevis). He has established major climbs throughout the UK on mountain cliffs, outcrops, sea stacks and sea cliffs not to mention a frozen drainpipe at London’s St Pancras station. Along the way, he achieved a reputation for mastery of loose rock and helped to develop a whole new style of climbing on the chalk cliffs of Dover. But it is for mountaineering that Fowler is best known. He has made challenging climbs across the globe, earning him a King Albert Award for ‘Outstanding Mountaineering Achievement’, three prestigious Piolets d’Or – the Oscars of the mountaineering world – and the title of ‘Mountaineer’s Mountaineer’ in a poll in *The Observer*. Remarkably, much of his climbing has taken place alongside a full-time job at the tax office, squeezing major mountaineering objectives into his holidays. He retired from life as a taxman in 2017 but his enthusiasm for exploratory climbing remains undimmed. Mick has served as president of the Alpine Club. He is a patron of the British Mountaineering Council, an honorary fellow of the University of Cumbria and an honorary doctor of the University of Derby. He is an ambassador for Berghaus, B. Braun and the Mountain Heritage Trust. He has written four volumes of memoirs: *Vertical Pleasure*, *On Thin Ice*, *No Easy Way* and *Eternal Alpinist*. Literary awards include the Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature (Banff, Canada), Best Book Prize at the Bormio Mountain Festival in Italy, and Best Outdoor Book at the Golden Rhino Awards in China.