# Paul Preuss: Lord of the Abyss: Life and Death at the Birth of Free-Climbing - Hardcover

by **David Smart** (Author)

**Shortlisted for the 2019 Boardman Tasker Award**

**Shortlisted for the 2019 Banff Mountain Book Award for Mountain Literature**

**An intriguing biography of the renowned Austrian alpinist Paul Preuss, who achieved international recognition both for his remarkable solo ascents and for his advocacy of an ethically pure alpinism (meaning without any artificial aids).**

In the months before his death in 1913, from falling more than 300 metres during an attempt to make the first free solo ascent of the North Ridge of the Mandlkogel, Paul Preuss's public presentations on his climbing adventures filled concert halls in Austria, Italy, and Germany.

George Mallory, the famed English mountaineer who died on Mount Everest in 1924, said no one will ever equal Preuss.

Reinhold Messner, the first climber to ascend all fourteen 8000 metre peaks, was so impressed by the young Austrian's achievements that he built a mountaineering museum around Preuss's piton hammer, wrote two books (in German) about him and instituted a foundation in Preuss's name.

Alex Honnold, the first and only person to free solo El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, has thought about Preuss' untimely and surprising death and imagined it to have likely been the worst four seconds of Preuss' life.

Although he died at only 27 years old, modern climbing may never have developed the ethical, existential core that it has today if not for Preuss's bold style. Even the most trenchant traditionalists remain unsure about whether to add him to their pantheon or dismiss him as at worst a lunatic or at best an indelicate subject better left ignored.

Smart's biography is the first English language volume to be published and is certain to bring the remarkable story of Paul Preuss to a whole new generation of climbers.

### Author Biography

**David Smart** is the editorial director of Gripped Publishing and founding editor of four magazines, including _Gripped, Canada's Climbing Magazine_. He is the author of five climbing guidebooks and numerous articles in both the _Canadian Alpine Journal_ and _Climbing_ magazine, as well as two novels and the memoir _A Youth Wasted Climbing_. David lives in Toronto, Ontario.

**Number of Pages:** 248

**Dimensions:** 1 x 8.6 x 5.9 IN

**Publication Date:** July 30, 2019

## Details

- **Price:** 32.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 32.00 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Paul Preuss: Lord of the Abyss: Life and Death at the Birth of Free-Climbing - Hardcover

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