Description
Book SynopsisVoytek Kurtyka is one of the greatest alpinists of all time. Born in 1947, he was one of the leading lights of the Polish golden age of mountaineering that redefined Himalayan climbing in the 1970s and 1980s.
His visionary approach to climbing resulted in many renowned ascents, such as the complete Broad Peak traverse, the ‘night-naked’ speed climbs of Cho Oyu and Shishapangma and, above all, the alpine-style first ascent of the west face of Gasherbrum IV. Dubbed the ‘climb of the century’, his route on GIV with the Austrian Robert Schauer is – as of 2017 – unrepeated. His most frequent climbing partners were alpine legends of their time: Polish Himalayan giant Jerzy Kukuczka, Swiss mountain guide Erhard Loretan and British alpinist Alex MacIntyre.
After repeated requests to accept the Piolets d’Or lifetime achievement award (the Oscars of the climbing world), Kurtyka finally accepted the honour in the spring of 2016. A fiercely private individual, he has declined countless invitations for interviews, lectures and festival appearances, but he has agreed to collaborate with internationally renowned and award-winning author Bernadette McDonald on this long-awaited biography.
Art of Freedom is a profound and moving profile of one of the international climbing world’s most respected, complex and reclusive mountaineers.
Trade ReviewThis biography of the enigmatic Voytek Kurtyka is intimate and poised, revealing much that we did not know about Kurtyka, but never dispelling the mystery that surrounds him.
-- John Porter
Voytek Kurtyka is an artist and his art is alpinism.
-- Barry Blanchard
Table of ContentsIntroduction; One Rock Animal; Two Alpinist in Training; Three Hindu Kush - Unleashed; Four Troll Wall; Five Bandaka - The Mordor Beauty; Six Hungry for Hunger; Seven Dancing in the Moment; Eight Enfant Terrible; Nine Line against the Sky; Ten The Shining Wall; Eleven Fork in the Road; Twelve Trango Tower; Thirteen Night Naked; Fourteen Dance of the Underclings; Fifteen Chinese Maharaja; Sixteen Metaphysical Think Tank; Epilogue The Crux; Appendix Chronology of Selected Climbs; Acknowledgements; Notes; Sources; Index.
