Gary Hemming

I first heard of this book 11 years ago when Mirella wrote to me: “I am compiling a biography of Gary Hemming and I’m looking for information all over the world,” were her opening words. She explained further:

“The biography I plan is in book form, for the general public (although it will have a lot of climbing accounts in it). I never knew Hemming. I’m the wife of an Italian rock climber and a writer on mountaineering and my interest in Hemming arose from the lack of documentation on his outstanding activity in the Alpine range. During my search I became less interested in the climber and more in the man.”

Could Mirella have but known how insidious was that shift in interest! Two years later she wrote:

“I am treasuring the manuscript you sent me a couple of years ago, waiting for my book on Gary Hemming to advance and ask you the permission to use the material you sent me. I have worked four years now interviewing people and gathering information, but cannot finish my work yet because there are too many gaps.”

Mirella was a featured speaker at the Ninth International Festival of Mountaineering Literature at Bretton Hall in England this past November. In the morning she reviewed for us her work on the history of Italian mountaineering, a remarkable performance which moved Andy Popp to say:

“Mirella showed us how we might begin the writing of something which climbing has long been in need of, a real history of the activity…

I doubt that I will often hear a neater or more intelligent exploration of the evolution of mountaineering. Powerful and evocative character sketches of leading climbers and writers, often one and the same person, were combined with telling reference to other wider currents of history; political, social and cultural history were all included in a way that went far beyond paying lip service.”

Andy might have added that of the two tasks, a biography of Hemming and the history of mountaineering, the latter is the easier task.