Books & Writing

Pete Takeda has authored three books. If you have any questions about these books, send them via the Contact Page. Also included on this page are a few favorite titles by other authors.

An Eye at the Top of the World (Hardcover, 2006)

The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring C.I.A. Operation

By Pete Takeda

Winner of the 2007 Kekoo Naoroji Memorial Himalayan Literature Award, An Eye at the Top of the World tell the tale of the Cold War CIA, who with cooperation of the Indian Government trained the world’s best mountaineers to spy on China using a transceiver powered by a plutonium battery. The battery held four pounds of alloyed plutonium-238 and plutonium-239. The device was lost in 1966 – avalanched into a glacier at the base of a legendary mountain called Nanda Devi.

The glacier is the source of the Ganges River. Pete first heard this legend as a campfire yarn while living in Yosemite Valley in the 1980’s. Over the years the fable turned out to be fact. He then quit his day job and spent three years researching and writing An Eye at the Top of the World. In 2005, Takeda and three others traveled to the mythic Indian Himalayas to retrace the steps of the CIA expeditions – nearly losing their lives in attempting to unravel the mystery.

Praise for An Eye at the Top of the World:
“Pete Takeda’s true-life thriller injects us into the heart of the Himalayas, where a forgotten CIA operation lost almost four pounds of plutonium at the source of the Ganges River. With millions of lives possibly at stake, high adventure doesn’t come anymore gripping than this.”
—Jeff Long, New York Times Best Selling Author of The Descent and The Wall

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Thunder’s Mouth Press; 1st edition (September 4, 2006), Available now.
Language: English
ISBN: 1560258454

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An Eye at the Top of the World (Paperback, Release: September, 2007)

The Terrifying Legacy of the Cold War’s Most Daring C.I.A. Operation

By Pete Takeda

Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Thunder’s Mouth Press (September 28, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1568583583
ISBN-13: 978-1568583587

Spies in the Himalayas (Hardcover, 2003)

Secret Missions and Perilous Climbs

By Kenneth Conboy and M.S. Kohli

Co-written by Kenneth Conboy and Captain M.S. Kohli (who led the field operations for the CIA’s Himalayan espionage operations). Spies in the Himalayas was first to chronicle the details of the expeditions sanctioned by U.S. CIA and the Indian Intelligence Bureau, telling the story of clandestine climbs and hair-raising exploits. Spies in the Himalayas provides an inside look from participants who weren’t Agency employees, drawing on diaries from several of the climbers to offer impressions not usually recorded in covert operations. It is a great companion read to An Eye At The Top Of The World.

Paperback: 226 pages
Publisher: University Press of Kansas (March 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0700612238
ISBN-13: 978-0700612239

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Extreme Sports: Climb! (2002)

By Pete Takeda

Pete wrote Climb! as part of a new sports series of books for National Geographic. Climb! is aimed at kids – though twenty-somethings might find it amusing. In the publisher’s words: “From the climbing wall in your local gym to the forbidding slopes of Mount Everest… Pete Takeda shows… how the sport is done, presenting an enticing, close-up look at bouldering, sport climbing, wall climbing, trad climbing, ice climbing, alpine climbing, and more.” Whatever anyone says, one thing is for sure – Climb! has 60+ pages of great color photos.

Hardcover: 64 pages
Publisher: National Geographic Children’s Books (September 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN: 0792267443

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Pete’s Wicked Book (2000)

Tales of Climbing Madness

By Pete Takeda

This collection of gritty trip reports is a compilation of feature stories written for Climbing magazine over the years. Pete’s Wicked Book, described as “rather dystopian” by one reader, presents “a dark rendition of the climbing dream.” We admit it’s also a bit disjointed – even amateurish. But, according to one fan, if you can see past the discordant rhythm – and the typos, “this is a book well worth picking up.” Judge for yourself.

Softcover: 98 pages
Publisher: Climbing Magazine (May 2000)
Language: English
ISBN: 1893682056

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The following is a book by Pete’s friend Katie Brown. Pete had the privilege of writing the Foreword.

Vertical World (2006)

Conversations with Today’s Masters of Rock

By Kathleen Brown with forward by Pete Takeda

Katie Brown is an influential and groundbreaking climber. As the first woman to onsight 5.13d and flash 5.14a, she was dubbed The Best Female Climber in the World in the Millenium Issue of Climbing Magazine – an article I myself wrote. Now in her young 20’s, Katie (besides being a total hottie) is a freelance writer and travels the world as a professional climber.

In Vertical World, her first book, Katie details the lives of the most influential climbers of the new Millennium. Her subjects – a balance of men and women – range from boulderers to elite sport climbers, cutting-edge mountaineers to big wall maniacs. Order this in time for Christmas…

Softcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Falcon; 1st edition (December 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0762740086

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The following is, “a global romp with climbing’s modern-day pioneers…

First Ascent (2006)

By Pete Mortimer/Sender Films

FIRST ASCENT The latest and greatest release from Sender Films and director/producer Peter Mortimer, creators of the multi-award winning Return2Sender and Front Range Freaks. First Ascent features todays top rock climbers as they lay siege to steep faces and soaring alpine walls in pursuit of climbing?s pinnacle achievement “the First Ascent.” Mortimer brings us on a globe-trotting journey to capture the laughs, the tears, and the truly radical feats of men and women on climbing?s cutting edge. The film takes us from high Himalayan peaks to deep water soloing on the coast of Thailand, and from the sobering heights of the Black Canyon to Timmy “Urban Ape” O’Neill’s monkey business on the buildings of Hollywood. A preview segment from First Ascent premiered in January, 2006 at the Barry Corbett Film Festival in Jackson, WY and won the festival’s Audience Award and its Grand Prize.

SenderFilms (2006)
ASIN: B000JLDAOS
Length: 90 minutes

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The following is the 2006 Banff Grand Prize winner, written by a friend Jeff Long.

The Wall (2006)

By Jeff Long

In this 2006 Banff Grand Prize winner, a widowed geologist makes one final, perilous attempt to scale Yosemite’s El Cap and winds up running for his life in Long’s atmospheric, aggressive thriller. Hugh Glass and his climbing buddy Lewis Cole revisit the monolith where 35 years earlier, they shared glory on the 3,600-foot-high wall. Their adventure is marred by the discovery of a body—one of three fallen climbers—and an encounter with Joshua, a malevolent old “caveman” who steals the corpse. Long casts the dramatic natural setting as a major player, imparting fascinating facts about climbing. The surprise ending is a true shocker in this hurtling, gripping read.

As one reader says, “I had a hard time of letting it go between reading sessions but looked forward to the next chance to pick it up.”

Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Atria (January 3, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0743266161

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