In Some Lost Place

Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature. In the summer of 2012, a team of six climbers set out to attempt the first ascent of one of the great unclimbed lines of the Himalaya - the giant Mazeno Ridge on Nanga Parbat, the world's ninth highest mountain. At ten kilometres in length, the Mazeno is the longest route to the summit of an 8,000-metre peak. Ten expeditions had tried and failed to climb this enormous ridge. Eleven days later two of the team, Sandy Allan and Rick Allen, both in their late fifties, reached the summit. They had run out of food and water and began hallucinating wildly from the effects of altitude and exhaustion. Heavy snow conditions meant they would need another three days to descend the far side of the 'killer mountain'. 'I began to wonder whether what we were doing was humanly possible. We had climbed the Mazeno and reached the summit, but we both knew we had wasted too much energy. In among the conflicting emotions, the exhaustion and the elation, we knew our bodies could not sustain this amount of time at altitude indefinitely, especially now we had no water. The slow trickle of attrition had turned into a flood; it was simply a matter of time before our bodies stopped functioning. Which one of us would succumb first?' In Some Lost Place is Sandy Allan's epic account of an incredible feat of endurance and commitment at the very limits of survival – and the first ascent of one of the last challenges in the Himalaya.

Sandy Allan was born and raised in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands of Scotland, and has been climbing since his teens. During the 1980s and 1990s he established many hard new winter and mixed climbs in Scotland, and he continues to be an active climber and new route developer. He is an IFMGA/UIAGM mountain guide and has guided clients to the summits of many of the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, Cho Oyu and Nanga Parbat. As well as guiding in the Himalaya, Sandy has been involved in many expeditions, including the Muztagh Tower, Lhotse West and the Scottish Direct Route on the South Face of Pumori. In 2012, over the course of eighteen days and in alpine style, he and his partner Rick Allen completed the first ascent of one of the Himalaya’s most coveted unclimbed lines – the Mazeno Ridge of Nanga Parbat. In recognition of their ascent, Rick and Sandy were awarded the 2013 Piolet d’Or.

Discounts & P&P

From Friday 1 April 2022, we offer 25% off to all newsletter subscribers. Simply sign up to our newsletter here to receive your discount code. If you're already a subscriber, we'll remind you of the code every time we send out a newsletter.

In addition, we offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders, along with options to upgrade the delivery service at checkout.

Postage costs are dependent on order weight (book/s weight plus packing materials) and are calculated automatically upon checkout, before payment is taken. Full details of our delivery and returns information can be found here. 

UK Delivery

We offer FREE standard UK P&P for orders: orders are sent Royal Mail Second Class as standard and should arrive within two to three working days. The option to upgrade UK shipping to Royal Mail 24 Next Day Delivery is available at checkout.

International Delivery

International orders are sent by Royal Mail International Tracked. Deliveries can take between a few days and a couple of weeks to arrive, depending on the delivery location. Please contact us if your country is not listed.

Dispatch

Update: September 2022. Most orders received through the Vertebrate Publishing Adventure Books website are dispatched from Gardners in Eastbourne, UK; some orders (such as signed copies of pre-orders, or limited stock items) are sent from our office in Sheffield, UK. If your order is for multiple items, you may receive more than one package, though we try to avoid this (if applicable, you would only be charged once for shipping). Orders received before 11 a.m. are dispatched the same day; orders received after 11 a.m. are usually dispatched the following business day. You will be sent a notification email when your order has been dispatched. If we are temporarily out of stock of a title we will advise by email.

Gift Cards

Gift card purchases are delivered electronically – we do not dispatch physical gift cards. Full details are provided with gift card purchases.

Ebooks

Coming soon! Ebooks are fulfilled securely by our partner Glassboxx using their app. For more details about how to access your ebook, please refer to the information in your order confirmation. 

Payment

Payment is made safely and securely using Shopify, which incorporates the world's leading payment gateways, including Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay. You can also check out with PayPal. All payments are handled directly by these payment gateways and Vertebrate Publishing Adventure Books does not process or store any cardholder details on the Adventure Books website.

Returns

We will happily refund or exchange any item that is returned to us in an unused, as new condition. If you want to make a return, contact us with your details. Once we've received the item(s), we will credit your account. If the item is faulty or damaged or we have sent the incorrect item we will refund postage.

If you're returning something because it's not suitable, you'll need to pay the postage costs to return it to us. We process most returns the day they arrive with us, and certainly within seven working days. Goods must be returned to us within 21 days.