Virgin on Insanity Coming of Age on the World Toughest Mountains Steve Bell 9781910240830 Books
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Virgin on Insanity Coming of Age on the World Toughest Mountains Steve Bell 9781910240830 Books
Not just an impressive amount of quality climbing packed into his teens and early twenties , but also an honest revealing of some of the private torments that double as motivation , and the rollercoaster of emotions that come with learning to level things out.Nice work Mr Bell.
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Virgin on Insanity Coming of Age on the World Toughest Mountains Steve Bell 9781910240830 Books Reviews
I knew nothing of Steve Bell until invited by a friend to the recent informal book launch at The Moon in Stoney Middleton - haunt of the young author in his madcap days. His lively illustrated talk led to my enthusiastic purchase of his book. A slow careful reader, I devoured all nineteen gripping chapters in three days, even while fighting time for climbing, indoors and out; and the Tour de France live on TV, several hours each day.
The book is unusual, intriguing, and stimulating. He writes well and, like his climbing, he is determined to be articulate. Scene and excitement of major climbs come to life with vivid skill and telling detail - the Eiger North Wall in winter nearly a mountain too far. Motivation is constantly questioned, openly, with integrity. A life unconsidered is not worth living - Socrates and Montaigne would approve. Insight into numerous fellow climbers widens the human interest. For those who like novels and characterization, there is much here to pursue. His drive and ambition inspire ever harder climbs - at home, Alpine and in Alaska. His survival he ascribes to competent partners and luck. Too many of those who personally inspired him died in those few years - but never on his rope. The Lay of the Last Minstrel gained Sir Walter Scott his first great public success in 1805 - six editions in two years. The lay of the insane virgin climber merits a wide readership, worldwide, across age groups - and probably among non-climbers.
‘Virgin on Insanity’ by Steve Bell
I had been away from climbing and climbing literature for three decades. The reasons do not matter here but I came back to alpinism suddenly and like a coma patient awakened. I set about reading the books I should have read, that people told me I must read, if I was going to understand the state of climbing writing in 2016 (bear in mind I had last looked in 1981).
I had high hopes.
I went first for the most obvious and famous stories, by Krakauer and Simpson and they deserve their accolades.
I rediscovered the other familiar tales that drove me as a young climber within the pages of the holy ancient climbing scripture, anthologies of short stories, penned by heroes in Ken Wilson’s ‘Games Climbers Play’ .
Steve Bell was lurking within those tomes in spirit.
I hunted amongst the modern offerings and I hoped that I would find books that had parallel themes, not just hedonistic climbing memoirs, I optimistically hoped to find books worthy Heinrich Harrer’s ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ brilliant works of history that draw you in whether you have climbed or not.
I had been disappointed until I read, no devoured Steve Bell’s ‘Virgin on Insanity’.
Steve Bell and I have much in common, Like Harrer, we have both climbed the Eiger’s North face and both read Harrer’s seminal account of the first ascent of the ‘Wall of Death’ in his famous book ‘The white Spider’.
Climbing books rarely make you close friends with the author. At least not until I discovered Steve’s book. Read it and you will get to know a wonderful character.
Because Steve and I share parallel climbing careers I expected to find many common experiences and I was correct.
Indeed, we both climbed the Death Wall, in winter but Steve did so when he was just 20years old! I was positively middle aged by comparison when I climbed it.
Steve Bell has laid out his journey from callow youth to manhood against the backdrop of extreme alpine climbing. It is disarmingly honest and considering his age during his climbing exploits, he is far too modest in my view but therein lies the charm.
With no support he made his own way through the parallel torments of becoming the youngest and least assuming expert alpinists in the 1980’s whilst all the while wrestling with his inner demons associated with his coming of age with the fair sex.
Like the young warriors who fought for their king and country and lost their best friends in battle, Steve is a latter day young mountain warrior that grieves for the ghosts of lost his mountaineering friends. Simultaneously his book is a celebration of a life well lived.
His youth made the extreme adventures all the more difficult but he disarmingly writes this off as weakness.
I disagree. It is just his humble way of dealing with the things that befell him. Steve was the most precocious alpinist of his generation. He may have been the least precocious as a lad in other ways.
Be prepared for the most charming adventure and take the day off when you start to read this book because you won’t want to put it down.
Read it and be inspired at what young people can do, laugh, weep and be uplifted by ‘Virgin on Insanity’.
Readers will not progress far into ‘Virgin on Insanity’ before they appreciate the title and realise the book is a unique contribution to the huge volume of literature spawned by climbing and mountaineering. Two main threads are interwoven as author Steve Bell enthrals and excites with exploits on rock and ice which he interweaves with his ‘coming of age’ journey.
Narrative is in an easy style, and after brief insights to childhood Steve presents a restricted autobiographical account mainly from age 16 to 22 years. As a largely self-taught climber Steve pushed up his own standards on rock in Britain at a time in the seventies when only basic equipment existed, and before climbing walls; and he had to discover for himself ice-climbing techniques in Scotland and in the Alps. Away from the mountains Steve’s cultivation of life skills was undermined by a macho father leaving him feeling inadequate. As a schoolboy he sought to impress the girls, and whilst still a relatively inexperienced teenager he pushed on recklessly to climb the most difficult of mountains with an obsession verging on insanity. He shielded himself behind the reputation of the toughest mountains to offset a fear of failure, and he records that he didn’t climb mountains because he was brave – but because he was afraid.
Steve made winter ascents of the Matterhorn and Eiger north faces, plus routes such as the Walker Spur on the Grandes Jorasses and the Bonatti Pillar on the Dru. He also climbed in Yosemite and Alaska and the Himalaya, and his accounts compare favourably with contributions by other climbing writers. In addition to the usual writing-up of difficulties and descriptions of climbing Steve presents an introspective analysis of why he climbs, and in doing so he injects a high degree of humour – particularly in relation to his missed chances to achieve manhood. From childhood Steve suffered some form of inferiority complex with little self-assurance and a lacking of confidence with the opposite sex. What makes ‘Virgin on Insanity’ special is Steve’s reliance on mountains to overcome his virginity.
A third strand to ‘Virgin on Insanity’ follows an experience after Alaska when Steve is taken in by the Unification Church and the Moonies in America, and he realizes how he is vulnerable to extremes, and he could put his ‘life on the line’ for religion in a similar way to his risk-taking in the mountains. However he finds a form peace, and after returning to Britain his desires at last reach fruition – or do they – Steve goes on an expedition to Annapurna with more self-doubts, and though marriage is mentioned his new relationship with a girlfriend appears doomed. Friendships with his climbing partners are also strained with the Annapurna trip becoming a watershed.
How much of his hectic life is success and how much is failure? Is there likely to be a sequel to ‘Virgin on Insanity’? Steve sets off for a season in the Antarctic away from his new love, and he serves as a Royal Marines officer. Though not part of ‘Virgin on Insanity’, the dust-wrapper refers to Steve’s founding of Himalayan Kingdoms and Jagged Globe companies, and to his expeditions to the Seven Summits as the highest point in all continents. Another story remains, but in the meantime readers can take advantage and be exhilarated by compelling and gripping tales from just a brief period of Steve Bell’s life when his exploits merged mountains and manhood.
Not just an impressive amount of quality climbing packed into his teens and early twenties , but also an honest revealing of some of the private torments that double as motivation , and the rollercoaster of emotions that come with learning to level things out.
Nice work Mr Bell.
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