'It's a preposterous plan. Still, if you do get up it, I think it'll be the hardest thing that's been done in the Himalayas.' So spoke Chris Bonington when Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker presented him with their plan to tackle the unclimbed West Wall of Changabang - the Shining Mountain - in 1976. Bonington's was one of the more positive responses; most felt the climb impossibly hard, especially for a two-man, lightweight expedition. This was, after all, perhaps the most fearsome and technically challenging granite wall in the Garhwal Himalaya and an ascent - particularly one in a lightweight style - would be more significant than anything done on Everest at the time. The idea had been Joe Tasker's. He had photographed the sheer, shining, white granite sweep of Changabang's West Wall on a previous expedition and asked Pete to return with him the following year. Tasker contributes a second voice throughout Boardman's story, which starts with acclimatisation, sleeping in a Salford frozen food store, and progresses through three nights of hell, marooned in hammocks during a storm, to moments of exultation at the variety and intricacy of the superb, if punishingly difficult, climbing. It is a story of how climbing a mountain can become an all-consuming goal, of the tensions inevitable in forty days of isolation on a two-man expedition; as well as a record of the moment of joy upon reaching the summit ridge against all odds. First published in 1978, The Shining Mountain is Peter Boardman's first book. It is a very personal and honest story that is also amusing, lucidly descriptive, very exciting, and never anything but immensely readable. It was awarded the John Llewelyn Rhys Prize for literature in 1979, winning wide acclaim. His second book, Sacred Summits, was published shortly after his death in 1982. Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died on Everest in 1982, whilst attempting a new and unclimbed line. Both men were superb mountaineers and talented writers. Their literary legacy lives on through the Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, established by family and friends in 1983 and 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: www.boardmantasker.com

Achievement of a personal goal to reach the Shining Mountains, in the days of Lewis and Clark, following many adventures with Indians, traders, and trappers.

1803 - Meriwether Lewis and William Clark begin the task of selecting a crew of men to accomplish what no one has ever done before: find the fabled Northwest Passage. Thomas Jefferson has other objectives - envisioning the destiny of the fledgling United States as a majestic nation stretching from sea to shining sea. As the Corps of Discovery embarks on May 14, 1804, the U.S. is 28 years old with 17 states in the Union; 2 out of 3 Americans live less than 50 miles from the Atlantic. West of the Mississippi lie nearly 1 million square miles of land without reliable maps, claimed by Spain, Britain, & Russia. This is the land coveted by Jefferson. Margaret Wyman tells the story of John Colter, 28, the oldest crewmember, assigned by Captain Lewis to mentor George Shannon, the youngest member of the crew. Sparks fly, but they tolerate each other to face raging rivers, hostile sergeants, unpredictable natives, starvation, thirst, foul weather, and injury. Eventually enmity turns to friendship as they discover a new country, new loves and themselves. "- an epic of the type penned in the 1970's, and so very well done it would hold its own against a John Jakes or a James Michener any day -" Midwest Book Review. Distribution: Baker & Taylor, Partners/West, Books/West, Sunbelt Publications or Idyllwild Publishing Co. P.O. Box 355, Idyllwild, CA 92549, 866-IDPUBCO; e-mail: [email protected]. Web: www.wildink.com.

Sacagawea, the Shoshoni woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark on their famed expedition, tells her life story When Sacagawea’s son asks her about her life, she isn’t sure where to begin. Does she start with her birth as a Shoshoni? Her kidnapping by an enemy tribe at age eleven? Or her role as the famous guide for the Lewis and Clark expedition? She’s seen and experienced more in her young life than most people ever will. Told from Sacagawea’s point of view, this historical novel shares the ordeals of her youth along with the memory of her long, arduous journey west with Lewis and Clark. She shares her love of nature and explains how her loyalties have changed over time. This story of Sacagawea goes beyond the legend to reveal the flesh-and-blood woman who she really was.

"Lulie Crawford is 13 years old. With her parents and brothers Logan and John Daniel, she left her home in Sedalia Missouri in 1873 to travel to the wilderness known as the northwest Colorado Territory. Along the way, they met wild animals, colorful characters and Northwest Colorado's first inhabitants, the Ute Indians. This is the story of their adventure through the Rockies and how they found a home in the "Shining Mountains.""

Describes the adventures of Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker on their expedition to climb a mountain in the Himalayas.

"The Shining Mountains is a sweeping historical novel that depicts the fictional narrative of one family caught in the crossfire of westward colonial expansion. Based on the true story of Angus McDonald, the brother of the author's great-great-grandfather Duncan McDonald, Alix Christie has drawn on McDonald family records, published accounts of the Nez Perce war, treaties between the United States and Native American tribes, as well as 19th century newspaper accounts. The result is a story of pinpoint detail spread across a large canvas. In 1838, Angus McDonald arrives at Hudson's Bay, eager to make a name for himself with the Company . But the life that awaits him in North America is beyond his wildest imagination. And it is here that he meets Catherine Baptiste, kin to Nez Perce chiefs. She and Angus recognize each other as kindred spirits, and they, with their growing family, move west through the Montana and Oregon territories, only to find the life they are building together threatened by the forces of colonialism unleashed by the Company. The Shining Mountains is the family story of individuals caught on the wrong side of manifest destiny"--