Climbing the highest mountains in the world is always a daunting challenge but climbing them in winter is a savage game played for the highest of stakes, life itself. In this podcast I talk to Bernadette McDonald about her new book which explores the lives of the men and women who have made climbing these peaks in the harshest season of all their passion.
Winter 8000 is the story of the Polish climbers who battled freezing temperatures, ferocious winds and weeks of psychological torment to battle their way up 8000-metre peaks in winter.
As Bernadette says- There is actually more to it than simply needing a greater challenge. While most of the first ascents of 8000ers were being made by climbers from other countries, Poland’s climbers were stuck at home, thanks to the strict Communist-era travel restrictions. At the same time, the climbing community in Poland was very active, particularly in winter. They honed their winter skills primarily in the Tatras, on the border between Poland and the former Czechoslovakia.
