Mountaineers Books Fiva: An Adventure That Went Wrong Base Camp: Bring It Home

In 1969, teenage twin brothers Gordon and John Stainforth set out from their home in Hertfordshire, England, to climb the highest rock face in Europe — Norway’s Troll Wall. The route they targeted is called “Fiva” (pronounced “fever”). Poor judges of their own abilities, experience, and gear, they began the climb convinced they would return to their tent in time for afternoon tea.

Within hours of starting the route, things went terribly wrong. Fiva is the story that Gordon Stainforth lived to tell, 40 years later. While it’s a tale that climbers will embrace, the adventure is one that all readers of non-fiction adventure will enjoy and find absorbing. It’s a story of innocence, brotherly love, youthful folly, and of danger, danger, and more danger.