An unforgettable memoir about love loss and living free at the wild edge of the mountains
Kate Ballard is a child of the mountains.
Born to celebrated British mountaineer, Alison Hargreaves, Kate’s parents travelled the world in the pursuit of open skies and sharp peaks, vowing to raise Kate and her brother with that same spirit of adventure.
But when Kate was just four, her mother was tragically lost in a storm on K2. Growing up in the shadow of this great grief, Kate followed her father and brother to the raw, ice-capped beauty of the Swiss alps, carving out a life out of doors and a promise, to honour her mother’s legacy and the call of wild places. It was a promise that carried Kate through hard times – through depression, addiction and turmoil, and through the repetition of history as tragedy struck her family once more.
Stones and Feathers is a story of survival – of love, loss and a life less ordinary. Of how Kate pulled herself out of the darkness and back into the mountains she loves, and how nature’s fierce power at the world’s sharpest edges can save us, again and again.
Kate Ballard was born into a mountain world. A life of open skies, valleys and peaks. She is the daughter of world-famous mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, the first woman to solo Everest without support or oxygen. In 1995, when Kate was just four, Alison was caught in a storm on K2 in the Karakoram and died. Despite the tragedy, her father James had promised Alison that no matter what happened, they would continue to bring up their children with the spirit of adventure. Side by side with her brother, Tom, their childhood took them to the wilderness.
In adulthood, Kate travelled the world in the pursuit of wild places and extreme sport.
Tom was quickly becoming reputedly one of the best Alpinists of his generation taking the mountain world by hold.
Both, living free in a world of rock and snow. Until, Tom, was lost to the elements, in the same mountain range as his mother. History repeating itself. Kate, distraught in grief, fought to survive this terrible turn of fate. From within the darkness that consumed her, she would fight back and go back to the mountains alone.
Kate’s love of the mountains is undiminished, and she is an accomplished snowboarder, skier, climber, alpinist, rock collector, moi artisan, speedrider and paraglider. Stones And Feathers is her first book.
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