Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker were at the cutting edge of mountaineering during the 1970s and early 1980s. Talented writers as well as climbers, they left two legacies. One was their great endeavour, their climbs on high peaks with bold, lightweight and innovative methods; the second and more lasting achievement was the books they wrote and left behind. The Boardman Tasker Omnibus brings together four books in which the two men describe their remarkable climbs, expeditions and first ascents. The books have become mountaineering classics; incredibly popular and brilliantly written accounts that set the standard for mountaineering literature. Tasker's Everest the Cruel Way is the story of an attempt to climb the highest mountain on earth by a new route - a climb which proved too much for a group of Britain's finest mountaineers. And in Savage Arena, Tasker vividly describes his participation in the first British winter ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, his first ascent of the West Wall of Changabang with Boardman and his attempts on K2 and Kangchenjunga. The Changabang ascent was described by Sir Chris Bonington as 'a preposterous plan.
Still, if you do get up it, it'll be the hardest thing that's been done in the Himalayas.' Boardman's account of the climb - very different to Tasker's - is recounted in The Shining Mountain, whilst in Sacred Summits he combines the excitement of extreme climbing with acute observation of life in the mountains as he describes the remarkable ascents he made during one single climbing season. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in Pete and Joe's honour, and is presented annually to the author or co-authors of an original work which has made an outstanding contribution to mountain literature. For more information about the Boardman Tasker Prize, visit