{"product_id":"9781910240823","title":"Wild Country: The man who made Friends","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eShortlisted: 2016 Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e‘[Wild Country] chronicles not just the mountains [Mark] has climbed, but the part he played in bringing to market a little piece of sporting equipment that revolutionised mountaineering and saved countless lives.’ – Sarah Freeman, Yorkshire Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early 1978, an extraordinary new invention for rock climbers was featured on the BBC television science show \u003cb\u003eTomorrow’s World\u003c\/b\u003e. It was called the \u003cb\u003e‘Friend’\u003c\/b\u003e, and it not only made the sport safer, it helped push the limits of the possible. The company that made them was called \u003cb\u003eWild Country\u003c\/b\u003e, the brainchild of \u003cb\u003eMark Vallance\u003c\/b\u003e. Within six months, Vallance was selling Friends in sixteen countries. Wild Country would go on to develop much of the gear that transformed climbing in the 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMark Vallance’s influence on the outdoor world extends far beyond the company he founded. He owned and opened the influential retailer \u003cb\u003eOutside\u003c\/b\u003e in the Peak District and was part of the team that built \u003cb\u003eThe Foundry\u003c\/b\u003e, Sheffield’s premier climbing wall – the first modern climbing gym in Britain. He worked for the \u003cb\u003ePeak District National Park\u003c\/b\u003e and served on its board. He even found time to climb 8,000-metre peaks and the Nose on El Capitan. Diagnosed with \u003cb\u003eParkinson’s disease\u003c\/b\u003e in his mid fifties and robbed of his plans for retirement, Vallance found a new sense of purpose as a reforming president of the \u003cb\u003eBritish Mountaineering Council\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cb\u003eWild Country\u003c\/b\u003e, Vallance traces his story, from childhood influences like Robin Hodgkin and Sir Jack Longland, to two years in Antarctica, where he was base commander of the UK’s largest and most southerly scientific station at Halley Bay, before his fateful meeting with \u003cb\u003eRay Jardine\u003c\/b\u003e, the man who invented Friends, in Yosemite.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrenchant, provocative and challenging, \u003cb\u003eWild Country\u003c\/b\u003e is a remarkable personal story and a fresh perspective on the role of the outdoors in British life and the development of climbing in its most revolutionary phase.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vertebrate Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47137423163632,"sku":"9781910240823","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781910240823_p0.jpg?v=1763626005","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781910240823","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}