Sch-Clouds/Both Side

Tullis started rock-climbing for weekend sport as a teenager, married a fellow climber and settled down to raise a family and run a climbing school in southern England. When an accident curtailed her husband's activities, she continued her climbing, with his enthusiastic support. At the age of 38, she began high-altitude climbing in the Peruvian Andes; five years later she was in the Himalayas, in partnership with Kurt Diemberger, filming international climbing expeditions. Tulliswas a black belt in the martial arts, a teacher and one of Britain's leading mountaineers. In this engaging memoir, the late author tells what it was like to be with an all-male expedition and then come home to housewifery (a rough adjustment). She recounts narrow escapes and the exhilaration of climbs in Yosemite, Nanga Parbat (the last unclimbed ridge of Everest) and three trips to K2. Last year she realized her ambition to reach the summit of K2 and became the second Briton to conquer the mountain, only to perish from exposure on the descent. This book will appeal to climbers and to the adventurous-minded everywhere. Photos. (October 22)