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Beyond the Mountain cover art

Beyond the Mountain

Written by: Steve House,Reinhold Messner - foreword
Narrated by: Steve House
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Publisher's Summary

What does it take to be one of the world's best high-altitude mountain climbers? A lot of fundraising; traveling in some of the world's most dangerous countries; enduring cold bivouacs, searing lungs, and a cloudy mind when you can least afford one. It means learning the hard lessons the mountains teach.

Steve House built his reputation on ascents throughout the Alps, Canada, Alaska, the Karakoram, and the Himalaya that have expanded possibilities of style, speed, and difficulty. In 2005 Steve and alpinist Vince Anderson pioneered a direct new route on the Rupal Face of 26,600-foot Nanga Parbat, which had never before been climbed in alpine style. It was the third ascent of the face and the achievement earned Steve and Vince the first Piolet d'or (Golden Ice Axe) awarded to North Americans.

Steve is an accomplished and spellbinding storyteller in the tradition of Maurice Herzog and Lionel Terray. Beyond the Mountain is a gripping listen, destined to be a mountain classic. And it addresses many issues common to nonclimbing life - mentorship, trust, failure success, goal setting, heroes, partnership - as well as the mountaineer's heightened experience of risk and the deaths of friends. Beyond the Mountain is a window into the process of a man working to be the best he can be.

©2013 Steve House (P)2017 Random House Audio

What listeners say about Beyond the Mountain

Average Customer Ratings
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Excellent listen

Especially touching to hear Steve House narrate the highs, lows, and the midpoints of his life and the climbs that define it. I had read the book already and it was great to recall the details and be told them in a fresher light.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Inspiring

I was involved with the story and challenges in Steve’s life as an alpinist of greatest achievements. However, it’s a bit tragic to see how full dedication to alpinism was, and how narrow is author’s attitude towards other people and cultures. However, it's not a book about just a person but who he became and what he achieved for the world of alpinism.

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  • barbudo
  • 2018-05-02

A life-changing book

As a beginner mountianeer, this book was perfect. Steve House is a true alpinist. He doesn't climb popular peaks or self-promote; he climbs for himself and for no one else. He climbs for the sake of climbing and he does it the right way - no fixed ropes, bolts, or porters. His story and perspective of life, challenge, success, and failure is inspiring... it's no coincidence that the book's foreword is written by Reinhold Messner himself.

Along with soloing K7 and climbing Nanga Parbat, he does mortal human things: he drops a boot, loses a rope, forgets his stove, and pukes way too often, all while hanging on ledges thousands of feet in the air.

Read it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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7 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • irene
  • 2019-02-09

Awful reading good story

The narration is awful! But awesome book.
I wish they had a pro narrator instead.

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • helen
  • 2018-01-24

Not all authors are voice actors-

Such amazing accomplishments and adventures. Might have been more engaging if it were read by a professional, but the story itself is really incredible!

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  • Nick S
  • 2017-09-25

I'm at a loss, really

At first I thought Mr. House needed a professional narrator, but then I realized how much more I was getting his personality by hearing him instead of someone else.

All the tales are gripping. Many are tragic, and Steve doesn't seem to hold anything back pertaining to other details. This was some great writing by one of the best professionals of the mountains!

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5 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • Corey S.
  • 2019-12-20

Please no more Steve House narration

I can’t even get through the first chapter. I’ve tried twice. Mr House sounds like he’s juggling a marble with his tongue while he’s reading.... Can I get my credit refunded???

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • P. Gagne
  • 2017-07-04

A professional narrator please!

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No, not with the Audiobook format. The narrator's performance is a turn off. Couldn't get past the 20 minutes mark...

What did you like best about this story?

I wish I could have kept listening but couldn't.

What didn’t you like about Steve House’s performance?

Lack of energy, spelling clearly seems to be quite a challenge

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Darlene H. Moak
  • 2022-11-14

Astonishing Story

I really enjoyed listening to Steve tell his own story. I don’t think anything beats listening to a book read by the author. Steve really is at the cutting edge of today’s new albinism

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Dudeonarock
  • 2021-05-11

Alpinism by An Alpinist

Lived by author. Read by author. A book for people in love with climbing. Legit.

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  • Robert Kuenzle
  • 2021-01-03

Incredible book, well narrated

I almost didn’t purchase this book after reading all the reviews about the poor quality of House’s narration. I’m very happy I did. Not only is this probably my favorite climbing book but it’s also fantastically read. Yes House is not a professional narrator, but the emotions and inflection really come through with his narration and I think that would be missing with a normal, third party reader. The book reads more like a series of long journal entries than a normally crafted book and action is therefore fast paced and interesting. Highly recommended.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Rob Nicolo
  • 2018-09-01

I wanted to like this book

... because the guy sounded like he had a lot of passion (hence four stars for Performance) but the three reasons why I could not finish this audio book is as follows:

1. Overly flowery words made the the story sound amateurish
2. I could not get into the narrator's voice, which took many influences from valleyspeak or west coast accents
3. Just boring. To much time on people's breaths and the sky and not on the action.

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