Echoes: One Climber’s Hard Road to Freedom

By Nick Bullock Vertebrate Publishing

It was a real pleasure

to read

by accomplished U.K. alpinist Nick Bullock. It was shortlisted at Banff and for the Boardman Tasker pr ize, and is a story not only of Bullock’s discovery, dr ive and development as a high-perfor ming climber, but also a more complex portrayal of a man who wrestled with life-changing decisions and came to find freedom in the mountains via a different route than most.

A key part of Bullock’s personal history involved years of working for Her Majesty’s Pr ison Service. In the toughest jails, something he came to after dabbling in var ious jobs; and “pr ison” it is, on both sides of the bars. Not only for the cr iminals who reside there, but as Bullock comes to show us, it’s also a type of jail for the many “lifers” who made a career of guarding them. When he becomes exposed to the mountains as a result of his work as a physical education instructor, we see how the seeds are sown for the dream of escape, just like a pr isoner who dreams of an elaborate plan of freedom.

While he’s known in climbing circles for his dr ive and accomplishments, at a broader level, Bullock’s escape from pr ison seems to have resulted in a quiet quest for a better relationship with all things; people, community, the mountains. This is a book of surpr ising substance and depth, showing us that the climber’s journey is often a complex one. It is an excellent story of the intersections between alpinism, questioning motives, finding a voice as a writer, and discover ing the world with fresh eyes.–