Win The Last Blue Mountain

This quiz is now closed and was won by Heather Thomson, who receives a copy of Ralph Barker's classic 'The Last Blue Mountain', courtesy of Vertebrate Publishing.

You can still try your knowledge out on the questions, and can find the correct answers at the foot of the page.

Welcome to week 2 of our quiz about mountaineering books and their authors, which we're running in partnership with Vertebrate Publishing. Last week Alistair Ballantine won a copy of Conquistadors of the Useless, by Lionel Terray, a classic tale of climbing in the Alps and Himalaya.

This week the prize on offer is The Last Blue Mountain, by Ralph Barker, and next week we'll be offering Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage by Hermann Buhl. All three books have been recently republished by Vertebrate.

This second set of questions relates to UK climbers and walkers.

Send your answers to info@mountaineering.scot to arrive by midnight on Tuesday 12^th May and we’ll publish the answers and the winner on Wednesday the 13^th. We’ll contact the winner for a postal address so that Vertebrate can mail out their prize.

UK climbers

1 Contributors included Tom Weir, Ken Crocket, Paul Nunn, Walt Unsworth, Jim Perrin, Dennis Gray and Lord Hunt. It became THE classic climbing coffee table book following publication in 1978 and provided a tick-list for climbers through the ‘70s and ‘80s. What was the book?

2 The late Joe Brown’s book about his early climbing years was titled ‘The Hard Years’, but what was the title of climbing partner Don Whillans’ autobiography published just a few years later?

3 What was the title of Joe Tasker’s posthumously published book about his climbing career?

4 Andy Kirkpatrick hit the ground running with his debut ‘Psychovertical’, but what was the name of its sequel?

5 Gwen Moffat’s ‘Space Beneath My Feet’ is a deserved classic, but what was the title of the book she wrote of the early days of mountain rescue?

6 Which noted climber of the 1930s, who lost his life as a Wellington bomber pilot in World War II, was the subject of Steve Dean’s biography ‘Hands of a Climber’?

7 Gordon Stainforth’s nerve-shredding tale of youthful climbing folly, ‘Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong’ was set on which mountain?

8 Whose numerous books from the post war years included ‘Blank on the Map’ ‘That Untravelled World’ and Upon That Mountain’?

9 Al Alvarez wrote an entertaining biographical memoir of which climber in ‘Feeding The Rat’? Clue: a contemporary of Chris Bonington and Doug Scott, he was with them on the epic retreat from The Ogre.

10 ‘The Last Blue Mountain’ is Ralph Barker’s story of the 1957 expedition to Mt Haramosh. In which mountain range is Haramosh?

Based in the Peak District, the Vertebrate team are driven by a passion for the outdoors, for exploration, and for the natural world. As well as publishing award-winning new books, they’re making available many out-of-print classics in both print and digital formats.

With Amazon no longer booking in deliveries and bookshops closed, the company has been relying on web sales to keep afloat.

The website is available at

There is no discount code required as the 25% off offer is applied automatically at checkout.