Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonald

Bernadette McDonald’s Freedom Climbers was winner of the 2011 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature, and the Grand Prize at the 2011 Banff Mountain Book Awards.

Freedom Climbers tells the story of the extraordinary Polish adventurers who emerged from under the blanket of oppression following the Second World War to become the world’s leading Himalayan climbers. Although they lived in a war-ravaged landscape, with seemingly no hope of creating a meaningful life, these curious, motivated and skilled mountaineers built their own free-market economy under the very noses of their Communist bosses and climbed their way to liberation.

If you are looking for a good book to read over the holidays, this is the one.