Tides

A Climber's Voyage

By: Nick Bullock

Narrated by: Nick Bullock

Winner: Mountain Literature Award, Banff Mountain Book Festival 2018

Shortlisted for the 2018 Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature

Nick Bullock is a climber who lives in a small, green van, flitting between Llanberis, Wales, and Chamonix in the French Alps. Tides, Nick’s second work, is the much-anticipated follow-up to his critically acclaimed debut, Echoes.

Now retired from the strain of work as a prison officer, Nick is free to climb. A lot. Tides is a treasury of his antics and adventures with some of the world’s leading climbers, including Steve House, Kenton Cool, Nico Favresse, Andy Houseman, and James McHaffie. Follow Nick and his partners as they push the limits on some of the world’s most serious routes: The Bells! The Bells! on Gogarth’s North Stack Wall; the Slovak Direct on Denali; Guerdon Grooves on Buachaille Etive Mor; and the north faces of Chang Himal and Mount Alberta, among countless others.

Nick’s life can be equated to the rhythm of the sea. At high tide, he climbs, he loves it, he is good at it; he laughs and jokes, scares himself, falls, gets back up, and climbs some more. Then the tide goes out, and he finds himself alone, exposed, all questions and no answers. Self-doubt, grieving for friends or family, fearful, sometimes opinionated, occasionally angry - his writing more honest and exposed than in any account of a climb. Only when the tide turns is he able to forget once more.

Tides is a gripping memoir that captures the very essence of what it means to dedicate one’s life to climbing.

©2017 Nick Bullock (P)2019 Vertebrate Publishing

Gripping Tapestry of a Person's Life and Climbs

The author engagingly and vividly interweaves stories of his life and of his highly active and impressive climbing career to date. Listeners who have no knowledge of climbing may need to initially look up a few terms to fully understand the narrative but that effort is well worth it.
I always worry slightly when I see that an author has narrated their own book as they often disappoint me. In this case though I'm convinced that only the author himself could do justice to this intensely personal account.
I'm so glad that someone recommended this audiobook to me.

Insightful, humorous, a joy to listen to

A beautifully written compilation of stories detailing Bullock’s climbing partnerships, successes, failures, and misadventures in the worlds of alpinism and bold rock climbing. His wonderfully self-deprecating humor and more solemn, self-reflective nature accompany the reader from glacier and sea cliff to aging parents and heartbreak. This is not just another climbing book.

Clever Title and a Few Good Lines

Perhaps, this is a book that is not suitable for audio translation. I suppose the worst part was that the author read the book himself. It will put you to sleep because it seems like he is speaking a foreign language. There are a few wonderful descriptions of wildlife and scenery. Maybe he had no editor.The first 6 hours or so are too explanatory of his battle between relationships with women who turn out to be jealous of his greatest, all consuming love. He tried. The great bear story, about 7 hours into the audio, is one story not to be missed. The last couple of hours lapse into a mixed jumble of climbs interspersed with his Mom's death and moving the houseboat, where his father lives, to a new slip after being evicted from the old mooring. The description of his father ; a tea imbiber (replacing booze), a smoker of cigarettes and inveterate TV watcher....helps to explain Nick's need to be the opposite.